ARLINGTON, Texas – For the fifth consecutive year, Royal Pin Woodland will play host to the U.S. Open, a major championship on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, as 108 bowlers will be in Indianapolis all week competing for a $100,000 top prize, the coveted green jacket and the opportunity to add their name to the list of athletes who have won bowling’s most prestigious major title.

The 2026 Go Bowling U.S. Open will begin on Sunday at Royal Pin Woodland with an eight-game pre-tournament qualifier and wrap up with a live stepladder finals broadcast on March 8 at 4 p.m. Eastern on The CW.

The U.S. Open is the third event overall and second major championship on the 2026 PBA Tour schedule – the PBA Players Championship was contested from Feb. 16-22, and the Legendz PBA Pete Weber Missouri Classic kicked off on Tuesday and will conclude with Sunday’s stepladder finals, which will air live on The CW at 4 p.m. Eastern.

U.S. Open action gets underway Sunday morning when more than 100 bowlers bowl the PTQ, which is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

Thirty bowlers will advance from the PTQ into the tournament’s main field, which will feature 108 competitors.

Monday will be the official practice sessions, which will run from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern and give athletes the opportunity to familiarize themselves with all four oil patterns being utilized at the 2026 U.S. Open.

Tournament competition will officially begin Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. Eastern when the bowlers on A Squad hit the lanes for their first eight-game qualifying block. B Squad and C Squad will follow at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern, respectively. All qualifying squads will bowl on fresh oil.

All competitors will complete 24 games of qualifying over three days on three different lane conditions before the first cut is made from 108 bowlers down to 36. Those 36 will bowl a fourth eight-game block on the tournament’s fourth oil pattern.

Pinfall totals for 32 games will determine the 24 players who earn the right to compete in three rounds of round-robin match play, and 56-game totals, including 30 bonus pins for each win during match play, will decide the final five bowlers for the stepladder finals.

Last year, EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Indiana, defeated top seed Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan, 238-184, to capture his second U.S. Open title in three years. Tackett would reach the winner’s circle four times during the 2025 season, including twice at majors, en route to his third consecutive Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year award.

Now, Tackett will look to win for the second year in a row at Royal Pin Woodland and become the first bowler to successfully defend a U.S. Open title since Dave Husted accomplished the feat by winning the tournament in 1995 and 1996.

Tackett’s bid for a successful title defense will certainly not be easy, however, as the U.S. Open annually boasts one of the strongest fields in competitive bowling.

Success at this year’s tournament will likely depend upon each bowler’s ability to understand and successfully navigate each of this year’s four U.S. Open oil patterns, which are usually considered to be among the toughest in the sport of bowling.

The 2026 U.S. Open will be a collaborative effort between the United States Bowling Congress and Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America. The total prize fund for the event will exceed $275,000.

All qualifying and match-play rounds leading up to the stepladder finals will be broadcast live on BowlTV.

CLICK HERE for more information about the U.S. Open.