After 12 games of qualifying at the PBA Norm Duke Open in Pennsylvania, the field was cut to 64 players.
The event, named after PBA legend Norm Duke, is using a unique two-squad format. A-Squad and B-Squad will stay separate all the way until the championship match, meaning two different races are developing side by side.
For now, those races are led by Deo Benard and EJ Tackett.
Benard led A-Squad with 2,679, while 2026 PBA World Championship winner Tackett stayed well ahead of B-Squad with 2,765. Both players moved safely into the top 64, but they did it in very different ways.
Tackett created the biggest gap of the tournament so far. His 2,765 total left him 165 pins clear of Brett Lloyd, who finished second in B-Squad with 2,600. That kind of separation stood out even more on a pattern where scores have stayed lower than usual throughout the field.
Chase Nadeau finished third in B-Squad with 2,585, followed by Joshua McCandless with 2,583 and Eric Jones with 2,582.
While Tackett had room at the top, Benard had much less space in A-Squad. Zach Wilkins finished second with 2,659, only 20 pins behind him. Brandon Bonta, one of the strongest Rookie of the Year candidates this season, was third with 2,617. Jason Sterner followed with 2,616, while Alex Horton completed the top five with 2,607.
The bigger drama came near the cut line.
Cameron Crowe claimed the final advancing spot in A-Squad with 2,402. He finished just ahead of Tim Gruendler and Jason Belmonte, who nearly produced one of the biggest comebacks of the qualifying round.
Belmonte had opened the tournament far outside the cut after averaging just over 170 in his first six-game block. On Wednesday, he fought his way back with games of 233, 225, 255, 245 and 257, moving himself into position late in the round.
But the comeback stopped one game short.
Belmonte finished the block with 157, leaving the 15-time major champion five pins short of advancing.
In B-Squad, Andrew Hall claimed the final advancing spot with 2,415.
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The PBA Norm Duke Open now moves into elimination rounds, where both squads will continue on separate paths. The remaining 32 players in each squad will bowl six games Thursday at 11 a.m. ET, with the top 16 from each squad advancing.
Another six-game round follows at 6 p.m. ET, cutting each squad to eight players.
On Friday, the final elimination round will reduce each squad to four players. Those players will advance to the group stepladder finals.
The televised rounds are scheduled for Sunday, June 21, on CBS Sports Network.
The A-Squad stepladder will begin at 12 p.m. ET, followed by the B-Squad stepladder at 2 p.m. ET. The two squad winners will then meet in the championship match at 4 p.m. ET.
