The Greater Iowa Bowling Association Open 11thFrame.com Open at Cherry Lanes in Dubuque, Iowa always draws a strong field that usually includes a PBA Tour champion or two.

With the COVID-19 pandemic limiting bowling opportunities, the 2020 11thFrame.com Open has drawn more than usual, with Jakob Butturff, Andrew Anderson, Tom Hess, and PWBA Tour champion Erin McCarthy among the 156 players entered. Update: Kris Prather also got into the tournament field Saturday off of the waiting list. 

All four competed in Friday night’s sweeper and Anderson finished first, Butturff second, Hess 25^th for the last cash spot in the record field of 78 players, and McCarthy was 39^th. (There were 59 entries in the sweeper last year.)

Anderson, the 2018 PBA Player of the Year, won in a rout, firing 1,288 for his five games, with Butturff second at 1,187.

Hunter Loveridge was third with 1,162, Brad Ciesliwicz fourth at 1,153, and Chris Wiley fifth with 1,142.

Hess’ last cash spot was 1,037.

The top five spots were $400, $340, $280, $240 and $220, with the last three cashing spots earning $50 each. In all, $3,500 was paid out off of $3,120 in entry fees. The entry fee was $40, with $30 to the prize fund and $10 to lineage.

Returning sponsors for the weekend include the Dubuque Regional Sports Commission, Diamond Jo, Storm Bowling Products, Logo Infusion, and 11thFrame.com.

The sweeper featured a simple format of five games with total pins determining finishing position. Full results and prize money are attached to the bottom of this story as a PDF.

The field averaged 195.3 and left-right equity was reasonable, with scores fairly high to start with nine games above 250 in the first game, but then slowing down, GIBA administrator Joe Engelkes reported.

The lane pattern for the weekend is similar to what we've used in the past few years at 43.5 feet with high volume of 37.38 mL of oil, which we need to hold up through 12 games on Sunday. The pattern is asymmetrical with a left side ratio of 1.43-1 and a right side ratio of 1.7-1 for the zones of 18-18 and 3-7 boards

The pattern, which is done by Cherry Lanes general manager Bob Hochrein, is closest to the 2018 11thFrame.com Open pattern, which was 43.5 feet, 37.58, 1.43-1 on the left and 1.66-1 on the right. In other words, the right should play a little softer.  

Right-hander Andy Mills won in 2018, but lefties went 2-3-4 in qualifying and finished 3-5-6.

Saturday’s qualifying again will feature 6-game squads at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., with pins carrying over and one-third of the bowlers advancing to Sunday and cashing. With three squads full, there will be a 156-bowler field, 48 players advancing and four more cashing.

Re-entries will be allowed on B and C squads, with priority given to first entries in this way: New entries will have priority if they are paid before Saturday. Re-entries will come next if they are paid before Saturday. For those paid on Saturday, new entries will get priority over re-entries up to half an hour before the final two squads’ scheduled start time, then it will be first come, first served until the squads start.

Sunday’s innovative format that comes from the fertile mind of Mike Flanagan features 12 games of bowling starting at 9 a.m. with bonus pins based on score from highest to lowest. For example, if 48 advance to Sunday in each game the highest scorer will get 48 bonus pins, the second-highest scorer 47 pins, so on down to 1 bonus pin for the lowest score each game. Whatever number of finalists there are, that number of bonus pins will go to the high scorer down to 1 pin for the lowest score each game.

Yes, it’s not head-to-head; instead, it’s all-against-one. The idea is to reward the consistently solid bowler and not the one who may bowl the right people at the right time. And everyone who makes the cut gets to bowl all of Sunday's games.

After those 12 games, the top five will compete in a stepladder finals on fresh oil.

I am not bowling in the tournament — or anything — for quite a while, as I explained in this story.

My girlfriend Susie “Fever” Dyhr and I have issues that have us pondering when we again will be doing anything outside of working, hanging out at home, and doing essential things. (We both are able to work at home indefinitely.)

Susie’s dad is 80 with some serious underlying health conditions and he relies on her for many things for which he has no other good options. My mom is 87 and her husband is 91 and we help them out some as well, though they do have other options.

Basically, getting COVID-19 probably would be a death sentence for them. And that means Susie and I must do everything we can to avoid getting COVID-19.

We did get some N95 masks at Menards, so that makes me feel somewhat protected and I plan to come down for the stepladder finals to do a Facebook Live broadcast.

If I had known Dubuque would enact a mask mandate and Diamond Jo would be providing enforcement, I probably would have entered and started practicing, as I still have not touched a ball since March 15.

But by the time the mandate was passed, the tournament was full and I didn’t have enough time to get ready.