"Being on Tour is no joke."

Darin Bloomquist posted that on Facebook in April after going through a season of the ultimate school of hard knocks in bowling: the PBA Tour.

I went through it in 1987-88 before my wrist drove me from the Tour. Surgical repair didn’t make me quite able to return to the grind of the Tour, but what I learned in those two years was a giant factor in my crafting a career that landed me in the USBC Hall of Fame.

And the gulf between the Tour and the rest of bowling has only grown from my era to today, with the gigantic collective rev rate of the Tour and the things it does to the lanes you will find nowhere else in bowling.

I always enjoy seeing the growth in young players who go out on Tour like Bloomquist, who a trained eye can see is a better player than he was a year ago.

The traditional 1-handed right-hander, who also won the sweeper in 2023, showed it Friday night in totaling 1,251 to dominate the 2025 Greater Iowa Bowling Association 11thFrame.com Open sweeper at Cherry Lanes inside the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, Iowa.

Raiden Nakagawa was a distance second with 1,189 on the challenging pattern designed by famed lane pattern designer Nick Hoagland.

Gavin Finley was third with 1,160, Evan Flath fourth at 1,148, and Mike Kicmal fifth with 1,144.

The top five prizes were $500, $400, $300, $250 and $200.

Thirteen of the 50 players cashed, and Tyler Tornow and Zach Andresen tied for and split the $90 13^th place prize money at 1,086, which was 19 pins ahead of the last cash of 1,067 in last year’s sweeper.

Also ahead of last year’s pace were the 31 of 50 players averaging 200 or better. This is the fourth straight year we have used the pattern we are using, last year 23 of 52 averaged 200 or better, in 2023 it was 20 of 52, and in 2022 it was 23 of 60.

In my opinion, the field quality continues to grow stronger in young talent with it almost being like a college preseason tournament. And players know what to expect seeing the pattern year after year.

Cherry Lanes manager Bob Hochrein said the center also has switched from the Brunswick Connect 2 oil it used last year to Brunswick Control 2.

So I would expect the cut to be close to 100 over in Saturday’s qualifying.

In 2022, the cut for six games was at 1,252 and last cash was 1,242.

In 2023, the cut was 1,229 and the cash 1,215.

In 2024, the cut was 1,292 and the cash 1,284.

In total, the sweeper paid out $2,680, while the 52 entries at $50 totaled $2,600. The entry fees were $40 for prize money and $10 for lineage, with the rest coming from the Dubuque Regional Sports Commission and the Greater Iowa Bowling Association. Cherry Lanes takes no lineage fee in the tournament.

Full results and the full prize list are attached to this story as PDFs.

In 2024, Lucas Hersrud won the sweeper with 1,194 and the last cash was 1,067.

In 2023, Bloomquist won the sweeper with 1,179 and the last cash was 1,026.

In 2022, Shea Bittenbender won the sweeper with 1,315 and the last cash spot was 1,010.

In 2021, Clayton Mohr won the sweeper with 1,153 and the last cash spot was 978.

In 2020, Andrew Anderson won the sweeper with 1,288 and the last cash spot was 1,037.

Hoagland, who designs the patterns for USBC, offered Cherry Lanes director Bob Hochrein his expertise in crafting a shorter pattern than the pattern we used for several years prior to 2022 that was a modification of the 2015 U.S. Open pattern designed by Hoagland for USBC.

I earned Hoagland’s services by making a donation to the Make-A-Wish charity tied to the huge Hoosier Classic college tourney H2M Management runs in Indianapolis. (That was an offer he made to anyone.)

The pattern is 37 feet with 24.63 mL of oil and pattern ratios by volume of 1.11-1 on the left and 1.66-1 on the right

Here is what Hoagland said about the pattern before last year's tournament: "I was glad to help the tournament out as Jeff was kind enough to make a donation to Make-A-Wish to help the Columbia 300 Hoosier Classic Bowling Tournament to grant wishes! Jeff, Bob and Joe wanted something different, and shorter, and it is a challenge! The pattern should play out for everyone and I do expect urethane to be in play. I think that the pattern will hold up for 12 games due to the fact that everyone’s ball will be outside of the first arrow at the breakpoint; thus saving the track and middle parts of the lane for later in the block.”

Qualifying for the 11thFrame.com Open is Saturday, the “Flanagan format” semifinals are on Sunday, and the stepladder finals follow about 4 p.m.

Emil Williams’ BowlstreamTV is webcasting the tournament.

GIBA administrator Joe Engelkes said there will be more than $4,000 in added money from GIBA sponsor Ebonite and returning tournament sponsors the Dubuque Regional Sports Commission, Diamond Jo Casino, Cherry Lanes, Brandon Steen/The Steen Team, IAMBowling, Kwik Star/Kwik Trip, and 11thFrame.com. 

My preview of the weekend is here.

Here is Bloomquist’s full Facebook post from April after his season ended:
"Yesterday I finished my last tour stop for the season as I will not be attending the ToC. All I can say about my first season out here on tour is that the guys that do this every week are really, really good. But in my first season, I can say that I learned a lot about the game of bowling and what it takes to compete at the highest of levels!
While I'm disappointed that I didn't have better results in terms of placement. I was able to grab 1 check and make a cut against the best in the world. These were both goals that I set for myself before I started this year, and I'm glad to have achieved them. With that in mind, I can say that I believe I belong out there, being able to compete against the best in the world. I know that I'm so close to a breakthrough and many more cuts. Many people don't take the chance to try things above their heads, but I believe  if you don't challenge yourself, you will never get better.
With all of these things in mind, I know the parts of my game in which I need to work on and get better to try again next season. But until then, the regional tour starts in just over a month and I'm excited to use what I learned this season to my advantage.
Although I wasn't able to thank everyone personally for their support throughout the season. Just know that I appreciate all the messages, phone calls, and great vibes that helped get me through the tough times during the season. To all the friends that I've made along the way this year and all the help I've received, I'm truly grateful for the experiences and lessons.
Being on Tour is no joke, and for anyone who says that it's easy, I would challenge you to try to establish yourself out there. These guys are so so so good, and you don't realize it until you experience it for yourself.
Until the next one, Nationals in Baton Rouge in 2 weeks!"