Simonsen wins Saturday stepladder, advances to Sunday's 2025 U.S. Open finals
February 02, 2025
Anthony Simonsen of Las Vegas, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, posts up a shot during Saturday night's seeds No. 5-9 stepladder competition at Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis. Simonsen survived the stepladder and advanced to Sunday's final show by defeating Tom Daugherty by a score of 233-211.
SEEDS NO. 5-9 STEPLADDER RESULTS
FINAL MATCH-PLAY RESULTS
INDIANAPOLIS – The 2025 U.S. Open presented by Go Bowling began on Tuesday when a field of 108 of the world’s best bowlers took to the lanes for their first round of qualifying at Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis.
When those first balls were thrown, each and every one of those athletes hoped the week would end with the green jacket on their back, the U.S. Open trophy in their hands and the $100,000 first-place check in their bank account.
Nevertheless, after Saturday’s final eight-game block of head-to-head match play and the No. 5-9 seed stepladder competition on FS1, just five bowlers still have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.
Those five players will compete in Sunday’s stepladder finals live on FOX beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Anthony Simonsen of Las Vegas earned the No. 5 seed for that show by defeating Tom Daugherty of Riverview, Florida, by a score of 233-211 during the final match of Saturday night’s No. 5-9 stepladder battle.
Daugherty earned his shot at Simonsen by topping No. 8 seed Kristopher Prather of Romeoville, Illinois, 214-177, after Prather kicked the evening off with wins over No. 9 seed Graham Fach of Canada (244-190) and No. 7 seed Landin Jordan of Sycamore, Illinois (218-170).
Daugherty started off strong during Saturday’s final match, striking on his first three shots while Simonsen managed just two spares and a strike during that same stretch.
The momentum would shift shortly thereafter though as after sparing in the fourth frame, Daugherty left a 2-10 split and opened in the fifth.
Simonsen took full advantage of the opening, running off a five-bagger in frames three through seven to erase the early deficit and establish a 33-pin lead of his own.
Daugherty did his best to hang tough down the stretch, but the damage was done, which allowed Simonsen to cruise to the 22-pin victory and punch his ticket to Sunday’s finals.
There, he’ll square off with No. 4 seed Francois Lavoie of Wichita, Kansas, the 2016 and 2019 U.S. Open champion.
Lavoie secured the final automatic berth for Sunday’s show by firing a 254 during the position round of Saturday morning’s final block of head-to-head match play, which allowed him to go around Simonsen for the No. 4 seed.
The winner of the Simonsen-Lavoie opener will advance to Match 2 and face 2021 U.S. Open champion Chris Via of Blacklick, Ohio. Via was the overall leader after Round 1 of qualifying at this year’s U.S. Open.
In order for Via to once again reach the winner’s circle at bowling’s most prestigious major, he’ll have to defeat either Simonsen or Lavoie and then get past No. 2 seed EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Indiana, in the semifinals.
At the end of Wednesday’s second round of qualifying, Tackett appeared to be a longshot to even make the cut to match play let alone reach the stepladder finals as he sat in 78th place and was 185 pins behind the cut line.
But that’s when the 2023 U.S. Open champion dug in and began doing his best work.
He averaged just under 234 during his final eight-game qualifying block on Thursday to make the cut in 22nd place – 24 players advanced.
His torrid pace continued during the three rounds of match play that followed as he authored a field-best 18-6 record and averaged just under 233 over the course of those 24 games to climb all the way up to the No. 2 spot in the standings.
The only person Tackett was unable to chase down was tournament leader Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan.
Anderson, who led this year’s tournament at the end of each day after Round 1, earned the top seed for Sunday’s stepladder thanks to a field-best 223.98 average and a 17-7 match-play record of his own, which was second only to Tackett’s 18-6 mark.
Now, Anderson sits just one win away from capturing his first U.S. Open title and the second major of his PBA Tour career – he won the 2018 United States Bowling Congress Masters in Syracuse, New York.
Anderson has no way of knowing how Sunday’s title match will go; nevertheless, whatever happens, he plans to have a good time taking the ride.
“It’s been seven years since I’ve been in this position, so, nowadays, I want to enjoy the experience a little bit more,” Anderson said. “I honestly don’t even remember what it was like leading up to my Masters victory. I remember winning, but I don’t remember much else about it. This is possibly the best I’ve ever bowled in my life, so I just want to enjoy it.”
When asked how he managed to put himself on the cusp of a U.S. Open title, Anderson wasn’t sure what to say.
“I have no clue how I did it,” Anderson said. “I guess it was just a lot of perseverance. I had a lot of games during match play when, through six frames, I could max out at 220, and I maxed at 220. I did that like eight or nine times, and a lot of those games turned into wins for me. Those wins were the difference between being the top seed and maybe being fifth or sixth.”
Simonsen will enter Sunday’s stepladder as the No. 5 seed, but he sees that as a good thing as it will mean having the opportunity to get his sore back warmed up right away as opposed to having to wait around to get out on the lanes like he had to on Saturday night.
“It’s definitely best that I get to start and continue to bowl tomorrow as opposed to having to sit around,” Simonsen said. “Tonight, it was hard to judge when I wanted to start getting loose because I didn’t want to bowl for two hours straight. At the same time, I knew I was going to need like 30-40 minutes to fully warm up."
While it may take Simonsen a little while to get his body loose on Sunday, his mind is likely to be at ease as Woodland is a center that he feels extremely comfortable in.
“I’ve had a lot of success in this building,” Simonsen said. “I won in here after my mom passed away, I won in here after my dad passed away and I met my girlfriend of five years here. So, Woodland will always hold a special place in my heart.”
Simonsen’s 2022 U.S. Open victory also came at Woodland.
Now, he is looking to add a second green jacket to his collection, and he may just try to channel the energy of one of the PBA Tour’s legends in order to claim it.
“I have to give a little shout out to Norm Duke,” Simonsen said. “When I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking ‘If Norm was bowling, what would he do?’ And I was thinking he’d stand as close to the dry as he could and just try to knuckle it, miss it or whatever. I tried to do my version of that for a couple games this morning, so I’ll probably do that tomorrow and see if I can get a couple games under my belt, really understand what the pair is doing and just go from there.”
If anyone has proven himself willing and able to win while using an outside-the-box approach, it’s Simonsen, so Sunday’s stepladder should be very entertaining for the capacity crowd expected at Woodland and the viewers taking in the action on FOX.
The 2025 U.S. Open is a collaborative effort between the United States Bowling Congress and Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America and is considered a major on the PBA Tour. The total prize fund for the event will exceed $275,000.
For more information about the U.S. Open, CLICK HERE.
SEEDS NO. 5-9 STEPLADDER RESULTS
FINAL MATCH-PLAY RESULTS
INDIANAPOLIS – The 2025 U.S. Open presented by Go Bowling began on Tuesday when a field of 108 of the world’s best bowlers took to the lanes for their first round of qualifying at Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis.
When those first balls were thrown, each and every one of those athletes hoped the week would end with the green jacket on their back, the U.S. Open trophy in their hands and the $100,000 first-place check in their bank account.
Nevertheless, after Saturday’s final eight-game block of head-to-head match play and the No. 5-9 seed stepladder competition on FS1, just five bowlers still have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.
Those five players will compete in Sunday’s stepladder finals live on FOX beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Anthony Simonsen of Las Vegas earned the No. 5 seed for that show by defeating Tom Daugherty of Riverview, Florida, by a score of 233-211 during the final match of Saturday night’s No. 5-9 stepladder battle.
Daugherty earned his shot at Simonsen by topping No. 8 seed Kristopher Prather of Romeoville, Illinois, 214-177, after Prather kicked the evening off with wins over No. 9 seed Graham Fach of Canada (244-190) and No. 7 seed Landin Jordan of Sycamore, Illinois (218-170).
Daugherty started off strong during Saturday’s final match, striking on his first three shots while Simonsen managed just two spares and a strike during that same stretch.
The momentum would shift shortly thereafter though as after sparing in the fourth frame, Daugherty left a 2-10 split and opened in the fifth.
Simonsen took full advantage of the opening, running off a five-bagger in frames three through seven to erase the early deficit and establish a 33-pin lead of his own.
Daugherty did his best to hang tough down the stretch, but the damage was done, which allowed Simonsen to cruise to the 22-pin victory and punch his ticket to Sunday’s finals.
There, he’ll square off with No. 4 seed Francois Lavoie of Wichita, Kansas, the 2016 and 2019 U.S. Open champion.
Lavoie secured the final automatic berth for Sunday’s show by firing a 254 during the position round of Saturday morning’s final block of head-to-head match play, which allowed him to go around Simonsen for the No. 4 seed.
The winner of the Simonsen-Lavoie opener will advance to Match 2 and face 2021 U.S. Open champion Chris Via of Blacklick, Ohio. Via was the overall leader after Round 1 of qualifying at this year’s U.S. Open.
In order for Via to once again reach the winner’s circle at bowling’s most prestigious major, he’ll have to defeat either Simonsen or Lavoie and then get past No. 2 seed EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Indiana, in the semifinals.
At the end of Wednesday’s second round of qualifying, Tackett appeared to be a longshot to even make the cut to match play let alone reach the stepladder finals as he sat in 78th place and was 185 pins behind the cut line.
But that’s when the 2023 U.S. Open champion dug in and began doing his best work.
He averaged just under 234 during his final eight-game qualifying block on Thursday to make the cut in 22nd place – 24 players advanced.
His torrid pace continued during the three rounds of match play that followed as he authored a field-best 18-6 record and averaged just under 233 over the course of those 24 games to climb all the way up to the No. 2 spot in the standings.
The only person Tackett was unable to chase down was tournament leader Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan.
Anderson, who led this year’s tournament at the end of each day after Round 1, earned the top seed for Sunday’s stepladder thanks to a field-best 223.98 average and a 17-7 match-play record of his own, which was second only to Tackett’s 18-6 mark.
Now, Anderson sits just one win away from capturing his first U.S. Open title and the second major of his PBA Tour career – he won the 2018 United States Bowling Congress Masters in Syracuse, New York.
Anderson has no way of knowing how Sunday’s title match will go; nevertheless, whatever happens, he plans to have a good time taking the ride.
“It’s been seven years since I’ve been in this position, so, nowadays, I want to enjoy the experience a little bit more,” Anderson said. “I honestly don’t even remember what it was like leading up to my Masters victory. I remember winning, but I don’t remember much else about it. This is possibly the best I’ve ever bowled in my life, so I just want to enjoy it.”
When asked how he managed to put himself on the cusp of a U.S. Open title, Anderson wasn’t sure what to say.
“I have no clue how I did it,” Anderson said. “I guess it was just a lot of perseverance. I had a lot of games during match play when, through six frames, I could max out at 220, and I maxed at 220. I did that like eight or nine times, and a lot of those games turned into wins for me. Those wins were the difference between being the top seed and maybe being fifth or sixth.”
Simonsen will enter Sunday’s stepladder as the No. 5 seed, but he sees that as a good thing as it will mean having the opportunity to get his sore back warmed up right away as opposed to having to wait around to get out on the lanes like he had to on Saturday night.
“It’s definitely best that I get to start and continue to bowl tomorrow as opposed to having to sit around,” Simonsen said. “Tonight, it was hard to judge when I wanted to start getting loose because I didn’t want to bowl for two hours straight. At the same time, I knew I was going to need like 30-40 minutes to fully warm up."
While it may take Simonsen a little while to get his body loose on Sunday, his mind is likely to be at ease as Woodland is a center that he feels extremely comfortable in.
“I’ve had a lot of success in this building,” Simonsen said. “I won in here after my mom passed away, I won in here after my dad passed away and I met my girlfriend of five years here. So, Woodland will always hold a special place in my heart.”
Simonsen’s 2022 U.S. Open victory also came at Woodland.
Now, he is looking to add a second green jacket to his collection, and he may just try to channel the energy of one of the PBA Tour’s legends in order to claim it.
“I have to give a little shout out to Norm Duke,” Simonsen said. “When I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking ‘If Norm was bowling, what would he do?’ And I was thinking he’d stand as close to the dry as he could and just try to knuckle it, miss it or whatever. I tried to do my version of that for a couple games this morning, so I’ll probably do that tomorrow and see if I can get a couple games under my belt, really understand what the pair is doing and just go from there.”
If anyone has proven himself willing and able to win while using an outside-the-box approach, it’s Simonsen, so Sunday’s stepladder should be very entertaining for the capacity crowd expected at Woodland and the viewers taking in the action on FOX.
The 2025 U.S. Open is a collaborative effort between the United States Bowling Congress and Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America and is considered a major on the PBA Tour. The total prize fund for the event will exceed $275,000.
For more information about the U.S. Open, CLICK HERE.