The 2025 Greater Iowa Bowling Association 11thFrame.com Open at Cherry Lanes inside the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, Iowa Aug. 15-17 will use the same lane pattern that was used for the tournament in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The lane 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. The type of oil could be different from what has been used in 2022, 2023 and 2024, depending on what Cherry Lanes is using — centers sometimes change oils and we don't request a special oil for the tournament. The pattern is attached to this story. 

Pretty much everything else about the 2025 tournament also will look familiar to anyone who has competed in recent years.

The weekend again will feature a Friday sweeper, and the tournament Saturday and Sunday will feature a maximum field of 156 entries that sold out within a few days of entries opening. However, there is a waiting list and many people typically get into the event off of the waiting list.

To get on the waiting list, contact GIBA administrator Joe Engelkes at 319-269-6909 or jengelkesgiba@gmail.com.

Update: Engelkes said on Wednesday morning that he had used the majority of his waiting list so if you're still interested in bowling you should contact him and get your name on the waiting list. GIBA posted the squad listings here. 

Engelkes also announced that Emil Williams' BowlstreamTV will be webcasting the tournament.

Mike Flanagan's InsideBowling.com originally was scheduled to handle the webcasting again, but Flanagan thought the tournament was a week later and committed to Mike Fagan and the New Mexico Open, so we pivoted to BowlstreamTV.

For years we used a modification of the 2015 U.S. Open pattern designed by Nick Hoagland for USBC, but for 2022 Hoagland helped Hochrein craft a shorter pattern.

The 11thFrame.com Open generally has been feast or famine for lefties and it just seemed like trying something different instead of tweaking what we had been using was a better choice.

I’ll say again something I’ve written and said numerous times: the margin between lefty dominance and shutout, and excessive softness and brutality is smaller now than it ever has been in bowling history. Equity between sides and styles and a middle ground in scoring has never been harder for a lane pattern designer to find.

We also aim for a challenging pattern with a relatively low scoring pace, which adds to the challenge of crafting the pattern.

I think we would gladly would accept a slightly higher scoring pace than preferred if it meant equity left-right and for styles. And if you're a high-level bowler and don't subscribe to this, I think you need to sit down and think long and hard about the topic.

The huge challenge is finding something that holds up on the right side for the 12 games on Sunday without having players ending up lofting the left guttercap as happened in 2014. That generally means a pattern that plays from the outside, but it’s very hard to use such a pattern without having lefties dominate. Compensating for that domination can easily shut them out.

Hoagland said before the 2022 tournament that “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.”

The one thing I promise is transparency in what we put out and the reasoning that goes into it — I would not allow my name and brand to be part of any tournament that didn’t offer transparency.

In 2022, no left-handers were close to making the stepladder finals. The cut for six games was at 1,252 and last cash was 1,242.

In 2023, Cam Crowe finished seventh and Nate Stubler ninth for the top left-handed finishes. The cut was 1,229 and the cash 1,215.

In 2024, Crowe won and five left-handers made the cut. The cut was 1,292 and the cash 1,284.

Why the differences in left-hander performance and cut and cash numbers with the same lane pattern being used? Different batches of oil or types of oil? Lane play choices?

I don’t think there is a way to definitively answer that. I just know we like that left-handers have not been shut out the last two years, but also have not dominated, while the scoring pace has been reasonable.

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. 

(As part of my semi-retirement from competitive bowling after 2022, I retired from the staffs of Storm Products, Turbo 2-N-1 Grips, and IAMBowling, although I will be a life staffer with all three in my heart. But this does enable GIBA to have its overall sponsor Ebonite pick up the 11thFrame.com Open as well. I appreciate Ebonite allowing Storm to sponsor the 11thFrame.com Open while I was a staffer.)

Every dollar of the $160 entry fee goes to the prize fund, thanks to Cherry Lanes donating the lineage again this year.

The result is that with the usual full field of 156 players, first through fifth this year will be $2,800, $2,300, $1,800, $1,400 and $1,100. The rest of the prize fund will be essentially the same and is detailed in the PDF of the flyer attached to the bottom of this story.

The only extra fee entrants must pay is the GIBA $10 season membership fee, and that gets you the right to compete in other GIBA events in 2025-26.

The sweeper starts at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 16, and features a simple format of five games with total pins determining finishing position. The tournament lane pattern will be used. 

The entry fee will be $50, with $40 to the prize fund and $10 to lineage. The cashing ratio will be 1-in-4 with a first prize of $500 based on 60 entries, and $500 added by the Dubuque Regional Sports Commission and GIBA.

If you can't make the tournament Saturday and Sunday, you still can enter the sweeper on Friday night. 

I retired from competing in the tournament a few years ago, as it is more than my wrist can handle and I no longer am close to competitive enough. But although I have not touched a ball since May 3 when we completed USBC Open Championships minors in Baton Rouge, I am considering bowling the sweeper solely as a chance to experience the lane pattern to make me a better commentator during the time I sit in during the livestream. 

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.

As is GIBA policy, bowlers can request to bowl with specific bowlers but lane assignments for pairs will be by random draw.

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.

There will be optional prize funds for seniors and women similar to the GIBA Ebonite Classics, along with brackets, pot games and a Bet You Win pot. And there will be a SMART option for youth bowlers, as GIBA offers with the Classics.

Seniors and women each are guaranteed a 1-in-3 cashing ratio paying at least $160 per check. For example, if 15 seniors enter and two cash in the regular prize list there would be three separate senior checks so five cash.

And a separate $20 entry fee for a separate additional prize fund likely will be offered for both seniors and women — this is not noted on the flyer.

If additional sponsorship is obtained, it will be used to pay extra spots, senior and/or female checks, or improve the overall prize list.

My 11thFrame.com sponsorship of $400 again will lead to 10 $40 free slot play cards for non-cashers only.

As soon as the final standings are determined, we will draw 10 numbers representing all the non-cashing positions. If there are ties in the standings, the higher position goes to the player with the higher game. The bowlers who finished in those positions will get the free slot play — if they have a Diamond Jo player’s card and are present when their names are called. If a winner is under 21, I will take the free slot play and pay the youth $40 out of my pocket.

This encourages people to get Diamond Jo player’s cards, stick around or return if they bowl early, and gives something back to non-cashers that they might be able to turn into some significant money as if they made the cut. That happened in 2017 when one of the non-cashers who won the free slot play won a jackpot of several hundred dollars.

All we ask of competitors and fans is to patronize the sponsors who help make this such a great tournament: including eating and gambling at Cherry Lanes and the Diamond Jo, and staying overnight in Dubuque.

If you do gamble, please get a player’s card and use it! This is VERY important to continue the tournament and sponsorship! (The Diamond Jo is part of Boyd Gaming, so whenever you are in a city with a choice in gambling facilities and one is a Boyd property, you could patronize the Boyd property and let them know why.)

And please thank Hochrein and everyone else at the center and the Diamond Jo. Hochrein is a USBC Open Championships Eagle winner and PBA regional title holder who cares about the sport and manages a top notch staff.

As usual, Engelkes and his family are taking no expense fee for running the tournament, which again will be a points tournament in GIBA’s schedule for 2025-26. All the Engelkes ever do is take a portion of the bracket proceeds while donating the rest back to the prize funds. 

Joe is one of the top tournament operators I know and I couldn’t think of a better guy and group to run the 11thframe.com Open.

Matt McNiel won in 2012, Matt Gasn in 2014, McNiel again in 2015, Jay Watts in 2016, Adam Morse in 2017, Andy Mills in 2018, Nate Stubler in 2019, Jerry Marrs in 2020, Stubler again in 2021, Nick Pate in 2022, Dakota Solonka in 2023, and Crowe in 2024. (No tournament was held in 2013.)