RENO, Nev. – Left-hander Gary Faulkner Jr. earned top qualifier honors Thursday night as the first cut was made at the 2021 USBC Masters.

JOIN NOW to watch the 2021 USBC Masters live on FloBowling

Faulkner finished the 15 games of qualifying at the National Bowling Stadium with 3,220, a 214.67 average, to top the field of 222 players.

In Thursday’s final round of qualifying, Faulkner put up his lowest total of the week with 1,029 but it was still enough to give him the top seed. He shot 1,103 in the first round on Tuesday and 1,088 in the second round on Wednesday.

Faulkner, who won the 2015 PBA World Championship for his only career title at the National Bowling Stadium, will be joined by 63 other players in the double-elimination match-play bracket. All matches are three games, total pins.

The first half of the bracket will bowl at 1 p.m. Eastern, while the other half will be on the lanes at 3 p.m. Eastern. All rounds of the bracket will be broadcast live on FloBowling.

Norm Duke earned the No. 2 seed for the bracket with 3,216, while Kris Prather bowled a big final game to move into third with 3,202.

Anthony Simonsen was tied for the lead going into the final game but a 167 game dropped him to fourth with 3,187. EJ Tackett rounded out the top five with 3,183.

There were some close calls at the near the cut line as the cut number plummeted in the final squad and finished up at -51. Chris Martinez, who bowled on Squad C, was the number with 2,949.

Among those who narrowly made the cut where Kyle Troup in 60^th place and Jason Belmonte, who finished tied with defending champion Jakob Butturff for 58^th place.