The Silent Assassin
April 30, 2026
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If there were odds on Patrick Dombrowski winning the 2026 Go Bowling U.S. Open, he definitely defied them. At 47, he was the oldest player to make the cut and went on to become the oldest bowler to win a major as their first career PBA Tour title — blowing out of the water the record Tom Hess set when he won the 2011 USBC Masters at 41 years and 62 days of age. Dombrowski, for his part, proved age is just a number and he now embodies the call to never give up on your dreams.
“I am not an old guy. I feel like I am throwing the ball like I am in my 30s,” he said. “Don’t underestimate me. A silent assassin as some people call me. I make shots. Give me an opening and let’s go.”
For those familiar with Dombrowski, his performance and results at the U.S. Open were 25 years in the making. He has won 11 regional titles, including the Regional Players Invitational back-to-back, but the journeyman was still seeking his first national title. The talented right-hander was seeing green all week as he battled four different oil patterns over 56 games while eyeing the $100,000 top prize — along with the iconic green jacket.
The roller coaster enthusiast knows the best rides take you to extreme heights and throw in big drops, unexpected turns and surprises with heart-stopping moments that take your breath away. The U.S. Open is always a wild ride of emotions seen as the truest test of a player’s patience, mindset and will. Dombrowski’s ride included a stretch of 23 consecutive strikes during the third round of qualifying with games of 300 and 299.
He tied for the best match-play record at 17-7 and earned the No. 2 seed in the stepladder finals.
In his 58th game of the week, he was in control of how his tournament ride was going to end. His first national title was within his grasp — a major, no less. After his first shot in the 10th frame against top-seed Anthony Simonsen went high, he stared down the 3-10 split. He calmly got the spare with his right hand extended in the air, knowing he had it. Needing to knock down nine pins to shut out Simonsen, his final shot came in light, leaving the 2-8. Simonsen, who has been in the championship match at 13 majors, could strike out to force a roll-off.
The 2022 U.S. Open champion delivered a double as Dombrowski sat securely in his seat.
The stakes were not lost on “The Silent Assassin.”
“In my mind, I was thinking, ‘Great, now I’m going to be in a roll-off with one of the best players in the world.’ So I was trying to get my mind right and ready for that,” Dombrowski said.
The wildest twist in Dombrowski’s week-long ride came when Simonsen’s final shot resulted in a 7-10 split, giving him the 197-195 win. As Simonsen grimaced at the foul line, Dombrowski and the sold-out crowd at Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis sat in disbelief. That was the sixth 7-10 split left during the live broadcast on The CW Network. Andrew Anderson left the split back-to-back in his match against Chris Via, while Via got the costly split in his 10th frame during the semifinal match against Dombrowski.
Getting the chance to raise the iconic trophy and put on the champion’s jacket in his favorite color was the moment this Ohio native had been waiting for. He did it in front of his fiancée and close friends while fellow bowlers at his home center of Yorktown Lanes celebrated.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “It feels great just to win any tournament, but the U.S. Open is special because it is prestige.”
Grinding Away
Dombrowski is a former accountant who was laid off just weeks before his previous best finish on the PBA Tour. That was a second-place showing at the 2024 USBC Masters. With more free time on his hands, he took the opportunity to compete on the lanes, in an environment he has enjoyed since he started bowling at the age of 3.
“When I got laid off, I had to start bowling PTQs (pre-tournament qualifiers) just to get into the points. Luckily, I was bowling good enough so I could stay in the top 75, so I would not have to bowl the PTQs,” he said. “If you can make good shots, you are good out here. I have been doing this for years. It’s constantly repeat, repeat, repeat.”
In his career, he was always punching numbers, looking ahead and preparing for what’s to come. Those skills have been a benefit and at times a hindrance, while bowling competitively. Ironically, that’s where his passion for the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has come into play. You might have guessed that from his strike songs played during his two televised matches. After Dombrowski completed his ninth frame in the championship match with the lead, he walked over to Roto Grip Brand Manager Chris Schlemer. They had a short conversation, Dombrowski flashed a sly smile, and they did a fist pump.
To help calm Dombrowski down in moments where he is getting ahead of himself, he has a constant reminder to look at on the collar of his jerseys this season. It reads #throwitbetter.
“At the Masters last year, there was a match he was bowling in. He wasn’t bowling well against whoever and he came back and he goes, ‘Is it a ball or is it the part of the lane I’m playing?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Patrick, you just need to throw it better,’” said Storm Tour Manager Joey Krzywonos. “From then, it has been an ongoing joke. If he comes back and knows he throws one bad, he immediately points to the collar.”
Dombrowski doesn’t typically drill many balls, instead relying on different hand positions. But before the stepladder, his team added three fresh options just in case. That decision paid off with two Storm Bionics featuring slightly different layouts. Dombrowski switched to a fresh Bionic after the commercial break in his match against Via. At the time, he was losing before firing off seven straight strikes for the 248-211 win.
As it turns out, PBA rookie Brandon Bonta won his first PBA title — also a major — using a Bionic at the 2026 PBA Players Championship to start the season. That’s two first-time traditional-style one-handed righties winning using the same ball to begin the year.
“There have been multiple weeks where he (Dombrowski) has had the best look in the building and for one reason or another he doesn’t get there. He was very close in the Masters in 2024,” Krzywonos said. “This is 25 years in the making for him, and I see more in the future.”
Dombrowski plans to celebrate his major victory at the end of the season, hopefully at Universal Islands of Adventure. He wants to soar 155 feet over the park on the Jurassic World VelociCoaster before experiencing a 140-foot drop at 80 degrees. It’s rides like this, and roller coasters at Cedar Point that he finds exhilarating, but he can’t wait to get his heart pumping again like it did in the title match as he continues to add to his bowling résumé.
Urethane Ban
As if competing at the most physically and mentally challenging tournament of the year wasn’t enough for the players and tour reps, they also had to change their mindset when it came to building their bowling-ball arsenals. This was the first PBA Tour event with a ban on all urethane equipment. In attacking the oil patterns established by the United States Bowling Congress, they were only allowed to register 10 balls for qualifying.
With no urethane going down the lanes, players also had to adapt quickly to the lanes transitioning differently than most of them have experienced over the past decade. Some chose to play straighter with plastic balls or use steeper angles. Having good touch and being comfortable using various hand positions was key, which is one of Dombrowski’s strong suits. And as always, the emphasis was on shot-making and trying to stay out of trouble.
“I don’t think you can overstate how much it had an impact. I think it changed everything from the patterns that were chosen to types of balls you saw go down the lane,” said Nathan Bohr, Storm Tour Operations Specialist. “It was really instrumental that we had a team camp in January. Not only for the players, but guys like Joey, I and Schlemer to see the Concept go down the lane was really important for us to kind of get into that mode sooner. Ball motion is ball motion. If it was with a reactive ball, a plastic ball or a hybrid of the two, we are always looking for the ball to start up, do the right thing and go through the pins.”
Nick Hoagland is the USBC Lane Pattern Development Team Lead. He develops the oil patterns for any USBC event, such as the U.S. Open and the USBC Masters. Prior to the start of this year’s U.S. Open, the USBC put out a video on social media with Hoagland explaining the process they use to design, implement and choose the oil patterns selected.
Within the video, he mentioned the goal of the tournament is three angles to win, Hoagland said. “We want to make sure we have a left-right balance; that is critical. We want to make sure the patterns are balanced not to favor a particular rev-rate. The appropriate U.S. Open scoring pace, you just kind of know it when you see it. We want to make sure that is in play,” Hoagland said. “With the new bowling-ball restrictions that we have this year, not allowing urethane and reactive on the same lane, we want to make sure we are more conscious of having a more traditional approach to oil-pattern development. We think you will see that in some of the designs that we have. We want to challenge the best bowlers in the world.”
Simonsen, who is clearly a student of the game, admitted during a BowlTV interview he watched the video. He didn’t think many of his fellow competitors did based on how they chose to play the lanes. For fifth-place finisher Tim Foy Jr., he estimates he used his Hammer Axe plastic ball about 75% of the time throughout the tournament.
“Luckily, I had one ball that was a home run. That is what got me to the show, and I had to go with it,” Foy said. “It gave me a look that nobody else could create. Lanetalk said I led the first-ball average of those on the show. That ball kept me out of trouble and sometimes at the U.S. Open, you just have to stay out of trouble.”
All players faced the same challenge and tried to make the best decisions they could when selecting which 10 balls to register.
“If we can throw urethane we will throw it. If we can’t throw urethane, we will find something else that can work,” Foy said.
Unfortunately, Foy, who is seeking his first national title, couldn’t carry the 10 pin in his opening match against Andrew Anderson. He left three straight at one point, converting them all, but came up short, 240-226.
“I think when the breaks finally go my way, I will be able to break through. Coming into this year, I was afraid of last year being a fluke,” he said. “I started with a sixth-place finish at the Players, and I made the show at the U.S. Open. I think I am proving to myself I do belong.”
USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Chris Barnes, who has been a very active participant in social-media discussion around urethane restrictions, was intrigued by how the players adapted to the rule change.
“There was a shocking amount of plastic thrown. They just want control and they will take it wherever they can get it. To have success with plastic was fascinating to me,” he said. “The scores were higher than I ever expected, but a lot of it had to do with how much plastic got used from the right corner pointing at the headpin. It was a different mindset. Some guys adapted very easily and some guys struggled. There is more to come if this ban is to stay in place.”
By the Numbers
This year’s U.S. Open included nine perfect games, two by Chris Via, which is the most rolled at a U.S. Open since the current format was put in place in 2020. In the stepladder finals, there were six 7-10 splits, which was trouble for three out of the five players, but not Dombrowski. Maybe, after all, he did have luck on his side. Throughout qualifying and match play, Lanetalk tracked 251 total 7-10s with two conversions.
“I had my fair share of 7-10s this week, and I was surprised I didn’t leave one,” Dombrowski said. “It feels great just to get that monkey off my back.”
There were three players who bowled 64 games at the U.S. Open. Deo Benard, Terrance (TJ) Rock III and Dylan Jablonski each bowled eight games in the PTQ to earn their spot into the tournament. Rock went on to finish seventh, Jablonski 13th and Benard 17th.
Jablonski, from Canton, Michigan, posted a 14-8-2 match play record. It was an experience the 2025 member of Junior Team USA will never forget.
“It all kind of set in toward the end of the last game of match play. I was like, ‘Man, I am really here with all the pros.’ The whole week I didn’t feel that way,” Jablonski. “This was pretty cool. This was a once in a lifetime experience. If you get the chance to bowl a PTQ, you never know what will happen after that.”
One for the Ages
Dombrowski’s feat of making his first PBA Tour title a major at the U.S. Open was impressive enough, but doing so at age 47 lent an even greater depth to an already remarkable accomplishment.
Only two players in PBA Tour history have made their first PBA Tour title a major in their 40s — Dombrowski and Hess, who won the 2011 USBC Masters at age 41. With the momentum of a major title at his back and his observation that, here in his late 40s, he is throwing the ball as well as he did in his 30s, it would appear that Dombrowski’s win is no fluke — a fact underscored by his numerous other TV appearances and high finishes in majors — and he might well be heard from again before his 2026 PBA Tour campaign comes to a close.
Here is a rundown of the top 10 oldest players to win a major as their first career PBA Tour title…
*Non-member at time of win, not official PBA Tour title
“I am not an old guy. I feel like I am throwing the ball like I am in my 30s,” he said. “Don’t underestimate me. A silent assassin as some people call me. I make shots. Give me an opening and let’s go.”
For those familiar with Dombrowski, his performance and results at the U.S. Open were 25 years in the making. He has won 11 regional titles, including the Regional Players Invitational back-to-back, but the journeyman was still seeking his first national title. The talented right-hander was seeing green all week as he battled four different oil patterns over 56 games while eyeing the $100,000 top prize — along with the iconic green jacket.
The roller coaster enthusiast knows the best rides take you to extreme heights and throw in big drops, unexpected turns and surprises with heart-stopping moments that take your breath away. The U.S. Open is always a wild ride of emotions seen as the truest test of a player’s patience, mindset and will. Dombrowski’s ride included a stretch of 23 consecutive strikes during the third round of qualifying with games of 300 and 299.
He tied for the best match-play record at 17-7 and earned the No. 2 seed in the stepladder finals.
In his 58th game of the week, he was in control of how his tournament ride was going to end. His first national title was within his grasp — a major, no less. After his first shot in the 10th frame against top-seed Anthony Simonsen went high, he stared down the 3-10 split. He calmly got the spare with his right hand extended in the air, knowing he had it. Needing to knock down nine pins to shut out Simonsen, his final shot came in light, leaving the 2-8. Simonsen, who has been in the championship match at 13 majors, could strike out to force a roll-off.
The 2022 U.S. Open champion delivered a double as Dombrowski sat securely in his seat.
The stakes were not lost on “The Silent Assassin.”
“In my mind, I was thinking, ‘Great, now I’m going to be in a roll-off with one of the best players in the world.’ So I was trying to get my mind right and ready for that,” Dombrowski said.
The wildest twist in Dombrowski’s week-long ride came when Simonsen’s final shot resulted in a 7-10 split, giving him the 197-195 win. As Simonsen grimaced at the foul line, Dombrowski and the sold-out crowd at Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis sat in disbelief. That was the sixth 7-10 split left during the live broadcast on The CW Network. Andrew Anderson left the split back-to-back in his match against Chris Via, while Via got the costly split in his 10th frame during the semifinal match against Dombrowski.
Getting the chance to raise the iconic trophy and put on the champion’s jacket in his favorite color was the moment this Ohio native had been waiting for. He did it in front of his fiancée and close friends while fellow bowlers at his home center of Yorktown Lanes celebrated.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “It feels great just to win any tournament, but the U.S. Open is special because it is prestige.”
Grinding Away
Dombrowski is a former accountant who was laid off just weeks before his previous best finish on the PBA Tour. That was a second-place showing at the 2024 USBC Masters. With more free time on his hands, he took the opportunity to compete on the lanes, in an environment he has enjoyed since he started bowling at the age of 3.
“When I got laid off, I had to start bowling PTQs (pre-tournament qualifiers) just to get into the points. Luckily, I was bowling good enough so I could stay in the top 75, so I would not have to bowl the PTQs,” he said. “If you can make good shots, you are good out here. I have been doing this for years. It’s constantly repeat, repeat, repeat.”
In his career, he was always punching numbers, looking ahead and preparing for what’s to come. Those skills have been a benefit and at times a hindrance, while bowling competitively. Ironically, that’s where his passion for the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has come into play. You might have guessed that from his strike songs played during his two televised matches. After Dombrowski completed his ninth frame in the championship match with the lead, he walked over to Roto Grip Brand Manager Chris Schlemer. They had a short conversation, Dombrowski flashed a sly smile, and they did a fist pump.
To help calm Dombrowski down in moments where he is getting ahead of himself, he has a constant reminder to look at on the collar of his jerseys this season. It reads #throwitbetter.
“At the Masters last year, there was a match he was bowling in. He wasn’t bowling well against whoever and he came back and he goes, ‘Is it a ball or is it the part of the lane I’m playing?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Patrick, you just need to throw it better,’” said Storm Tour Manager Joey Krzywonos. “From then, it has been an ongoing joke. If he comes back and knows he throws one bad, he immediately points to the collar.”
Dombrowski doesn’t typically drill many balls, instead relying on different hand positions. But before the stepladder, his team added three fresh options just in case. That decision paid off with two Storm Bionics featuring slightly different layouts. Dombrowski switched to a fresh Bionic after the commercial break in his match against Via. At the time, he was losing before firing off seven straight strikes for the 248-211 win.
As it turns out, PBA rookie Brandon Bonta won his first PBA title — also a major — using a Bionic at the 2026 PBA Players Championship to start the season. That’s two first-time traditional-style one-handed righties winning using the same ball to begin the year.
“There have been multiple weeks where he (Dombrowski) has had the best look in the building and for one reason or another he doesn’t get there. He was very close in the Masters in 2024,” Krzywonos said. “This is 25 years in the making for him, and I see more in the future.”
Dombrowski plans to celebrate his major victory at the end of the season, hopefully at Universal Islands of Adventure. He wants to soar 155 feet over the park on the Jurassic World VelociCoaster before experiencing a 140-foot drop at 80 degrees. It’s rides like this, and roller coasters at Cedar Point that he finds exhilarating, but he can’t wait to get his heart pumping again like it did in the title match as he continues to add to his bowling résumé.
Urethane Ban
As if competing at the most physically and mentally challenging tournament of the year wasn’t enough for the players and tour reps, they also had to change their mindset when it came to building their bowling-ball arsenals. This was the first PBA Tour event with a ban on all urethane equipment. In attacking the oil patterns established by the United States Bowling Congress, they were only allowed to register 10 balls for qualifying.
With no urethane going down the lanes, players also had to adapt quickly to the lanes transitioning differently than most of them have experienced over the past decade. Some chose to play straighter with plastic balls or use steeper angles. Having good touch and being comfortable using various hand positions was key, which is one of Dombrowski’s strong suits. And as always, the emphasis was on shot-making and trying to stay out of trouble.
“I don’t think you can overstate how much it had an impact. I think it changed everything from the patterns that were chosen to types of balls you saw go down the lane,” said Nathan Bohr, Storm Tour Operations Specialist. “It was really instrumental that we had a team camp in January. Not only for the players, but guys like Joey, I and Schlemer to see the Concept go down the lane was really important for us to kind of get into that mode sooner. Ball motion is ball motion. If it was with a reactive ball, a plastic ball or a hybrid of the two, we are always looking for the ball to start up, do the right thing and go through the pins.”
Nick Hoagland is the USBC Lane Pattern Development Team Lead. He develops the oil patterns for any USBC event, such as the U.S. Open and the USBC Masters. Prior to the start of this year’s U.S. Open, the USBC put out a video on social media with Hoagland explaining the process they use to design, implement and choose the oil patterns selected.
Within the video, he mentioned the goal of the tournament is three angles to win, Hoagland said. “We want to make sure we have a left-right balance; that is critical. We want to make sure the patterns are balanced not to favor a particular rev-rate. The appropriate U.S. Open scoring pace, you just kind of know it when you see it. We want to make sure that is in play,” Hoagland said. “With the new bowling-ball restrictions that we have this year, not allowing urethane and reactive on the same lane, we want to make sure we are more conscious of having a more traditional approach to oil-pattern development. We think you will see that in some of the designs that we have. We want to challenge the best bowlers in the world.”
Simonsen, who is clearly a student of the game, admitted during a BowlTV interview he watched the video. He didn’t think many of his fellow competitors did based on how they chose to play the lanes. For fifth-place finisher Tim Foy Jr., he estimates he used his Hammer Axe plastic ball about 75% of the time throughout the tournament.
“Luckily, I had one ball that was a home run. That is what got me to the show, and I had to go with it,” Foy said. “It gave me a look that nobody else could create. Lanetalk said I led the first-ball average of those on the show. That ball kept me out of trouble and sometimes at the U.S. Open, you just have to stay out of trouble.”
All players faced the same challenge and tried to make the best decisions they could when selecting which 10 balls to register.
“If we can throw urethane we will throw it. If we can’t throw urethane, we will find something else that can work,” Foy said.
Unfortunately, Foy, who is seeking his first national title, couldn’t carry the 10 pin in his opening match against Andrew Anderson. He left three straight at one point, converting them all, but came up short, 240-226.
“I think when the breaks finally go my way, I will be able to break through. Coming into this year, I was afraid of last year being a fluke,” he said. “I started with a sixth-place finish at the Players, and I made the show at the U.S. Open. I think I am proving to myself I do belong.”
USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Chris Barnes, who has been a very active participant in social-media discussion around urethane restrictions, was intrigued by how the players adapted to the rule change.
“There was a shocking amount of plastic thrown. They just want control and they will take it wherever they can get it. To have success with plastic was fascinating to me,” he said. “The scores were higher than I ever expected, but a lot of it had to do with how much plastic got used from the right corner pointing at the headpin. It was a different mindset. Some guys adapted very easily and some guys struggled. There is more to come if this ban is to stay in place.”
By the Numbers
This year’s U.S. Open included nine perfect games, two by Chris Via, which is the most rolled at a U.S. Open since the current format was put in place in 2020. In the stepladder finals, there were six 7-10 splits, which was trouble for three out of the five players, but not Dombrowski. Maybe, after all, he did have luck on his side. Throughout qualifying and match play, Lanetalk tracked 251 total 7-10s with two conversions.
“I had my fair share of 7-10s this week, and I was surprised I didn’t leave one,” Dombrowski said. “It feels great just to get that monkey off my back.”
There were three players who bowled 64 games at the U.S. Open. Deo Benard, Terrance (TJ) Rock III and Dylan Jablonski each bowled eight games in the PTQ to earn their spot into the tournament. Rock went on to finish seventh, Jablonski 13th and Benard 17th.
Jablonski, from Canton, Michigan, posted a 14-8-2 match play record. It was an experience the 2025 member of Junior Team USA will never forget.
“It all kind of set in toward the end of the last game of match play. I was like, ‘Man, I am really here with all the pros.’ The whole week I didn’t feel that way,” Jablonski. “This was pretty cool. This was a once in a lifetime experience. If you get the chance to bowl a PTQ, you never know what will happen after that.”
One for the Ages
Dombrowski’s feat of making his first PBA Tour title a major at the U.S. Open was impressive enough, but doing so at age 47 lent an even greater depth to an already remarkable accomplishment.
Only two players in PBA Tour history have made their first PBA Tour title a major in their 40s — Dombrowski and Hess, who won the 2011 USBC Masters at age 41. With the momentum of a major title at his back and his observation that, here in his late 40s, he is throwing the ball as well as he did in his 30s, it would appear that Dombrowski’s win is no fluke — a fact underscored by his numerous other TV appearances and high finishes in majors — and he might well be heard from again before his 2026 PBA Tour campaign comes to a close.
Here is a rundown of the top 10 oldest players to win a major as their first career PBA Tour title…
| Player | Event | Birthdate | |
| Patrick Dombrowski | 2026 U.S. Open | 7/14/1978 47 Years, 237 Days | |
| Tom Hess | 2011 USBC Masters | 12/13/1969 41 Years, 62 Days | |
| Mike Lastowski | 1983 USBC Masters | 9/16/1944 38 Years, 240 Days | |
| Gary Haines | 2025 USBC Masters | 5/1/1988 36 Years, 333 Days | |
| Bob Chamberlain | 1984 PBA National | 12/2/1948 35 Years, 92 Days | |
| *Brian Boghosian | 1999 USBC Masters | 10/26/1964 34 Years, 194 Days | |
| Bill Tucker | 1961 BPAA All-Star | 10/10/1926 34 Years, 103 Days | |
| Neil Burton | 1980 USBC Masters | 8/24/1946 33 Years, 275 Days | |