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2017 PBA Year In Review

bowlingball.com 2/01/2018

Another PBA season is in the books. Another calendar year has come and gone. The world has changed. The bowling industry is growing. And once again the two-handed bowling phenomenon from Australia named Jason Belmonte is the PBA Player of the Year. Now, for the fourth time. He truly is rewriting the history books his own way, with his own style. Got to give the man credit where it’s due no matter your bowling views or your like/dislike for the individual.

When E.J. Tackett began winning the Japan Invitational in January of last year, right after winning the PBA Player of the Year for the first time, we all thought to ourselves here he goes again. Belmo returned during the consecutive three weeks of majors to win the PBA Players Championship with his own signature ball, the Timeless, but also the USBC Masters for a fourth time, this time with urethane. We can get into topics about urethane and all that at a later time, but let’s just note that every year he has won the USBC Masters, he has won the Player of the Year. He didn’t win the USBC Masters in 2016, he didn’t win the POY. He won in 2013, 2014 and 2015, won POY then. Won it 2017, was POY in 2017. That’s just one interesting stat.

As most of the bowling community knows now, a lot of PBA titles are up for grabs overseas. Many, many tournaments being held there, not only to win a national PBA title, but to also win points for the World Bowling Tour. EBT Tour is over there as well. Bowling is going worldwide once again before our very eyes. Our youth bowlers are being inspired to bowl and pursue a career in our sport because of bowlers like Belmo, Norm, Pete, Walter, etc.

When the World Series of Bowling rolled around in November, after the PBA Main Event Finals and the Fall Swing completed, there was Belmo, once again, headlining and being the front runner for the POY race, but E.J. Tackett was there once again to challenge the two-handed superstar. The story of the WSOB was urethane; everybody threw it. With the animal patterns modified for the 2017 World Series of Bowling, which you can read on our website here, urethane was the headliner. The outside part of the lane was where it’s at; most attention it’s got since Norm, Walter and Parker made a fortune living there. Yes, there were times and moments where reactive got it’s “15 minutes of fame” but urethane was key. Just to keep your ball on line was rough enough. Lanes played entirely different due to urethane. It’s like the late 80’s, early 90’s all over again. Old school.

Lots of history and storylines came from this WSOB. Liz Johnson became the second female to ever win on the PBA Tour. Richard Teece from England won for the first time. Jesper had an emotional win after the tragic death of a close friend, and E.J. Tackett had a win to keep close in the POY race. Jason Belmonte once again won a major, his first World Championship and first player in the tour’s history to win three majors in a season. He is a well deserved Player of the Year.

Now with the 2018 season officially underway and a Dom Barrett winning in the Japan Invitational, what all do you think 2018 has in store? Tell me, tell us, tell your bowling friends about us all right here at bowlingball.com. It’s where bowlers go.