Recent St. Ambrose graduate student Nate Stubler enjoyed the most successful event of his young career at this past week's PBA Players Championship.

Held in Wichita, Kan., Stubler qualified for the main event through the PTQ (pre-tournament qualifying). After advancing, Stubler then rolled three rounds of six games, qualifying in 17th place for the top-24 match play round-robin finals. Stubler put on a tremendous charge, zooming up the leaderboard, eventually qualifying in third place for the nationally televised stepladder finals. He faced non-member Ryan Barnes, where Stubler's ringing 7-pin in the 11th frame resulted in a 224-220 defeat.

Stubler, a left-hander from LaSalle, Ill., was one of the five finalists for last season's Rookie of the Year Award; he took home $30,000 for his fourth-place finish.   

The PBA Players Championship is one of the Professional Bowlers Association's five major events during the 2024 season. This was easily the highest finish of his career.