It depends on whether or not you are a PBA member.

If you are a member, you can bowl in all of the qualifiers, you can make matchplay as often as you are able, and if you win the tournament, you are exempt for the following year.

OTOH, if you are not a PBA member (you're now classified as an "amateur"), you can make it to the round of 64 only once each year, and if you were to win the tournament, you would get to keep the money, but you would not gain an exemption into next year's tour, nor, I believe, are you automatically a PBA member.

That's what I took away from reading the FAQ on pba.com.
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seadrive
Cogito ergo bowl

rolls06 is correct, but the difference between full and standard membership is just a matter of money.

If a PBA Standard Member wants to bowl one qualifier per year, he can simply pay $11 to upgrade his membership for one month, and then have it changed back the following month, for an additional "change of membership" fee of $50.  So it costs a Standard PBA Member $361 to bowl a qualifier.

Since I assume that you are not a PBA member, a more important thing I forgot to mention is that, although five players from the qualifier are seeded into the Round of 64, only one can be an amateur.  So if two amateurs were to finish in the top 5 of the qualifier, only one would get to bowl in the tournament.
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seadrive
Cogito ergo bowl

I think anyone who can beat 7 of the best bowlers in the world, including the #1 seed in the Round of 64, deserves to be on tour next year!
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seadrive
Cogito ergo bowl

Edited on 10/17/2004 1:50 PM