WGL Sports Performer of the Day (2/12/17)
PBA Bowler Jason Belmonte (Defeated Anthony Simonsen 221-204 to win Barbasol PBA Players Championship)
It’s not often that bowling (my sport) gets a shout out in the Sports Performer of the Day segment, but today is one of those days. The final of the PBA’s first major of the year, the Players Championship, took place yesterday. The stepladder telecast was filled with new faces, but it was a familiar face who rose to the top to claim the title: the two-handed Australian Jason Belmonte. Belmo qualified as the #1 seed thanks to a 9,249 total pin fall after 40 games of qualifying (231.20 average). As a result, he only needed to win one match to end a two-year drought and claim his 13th PBA title. In the title match, Belmonte did not appear to have a good read on the way the oil pattern was breaking down (all of his shots were coming in light), but he was able to carry strikes and take advantage of Anthony Simonsen’s mistakes to win 221-204.
For Belmonte, this is his seventh major title and the second time he has claimed the Players Championship. The win nets him $40,000 in prize money. The win will also quiet claims by critics that Belmo was slowing down. Still just 33 years old, Belmonte had not won a PBA title since February 2015. In that timeframe, he finished in the top five 16 different times, including five runner-up finishes, but was unable to break through for the win. Belmonte was able to finally close the deal on Sunday, proving that he remains one of the best bowlers in the sport. The PBA Rookie of the Year in 2008-09, Belmonte took the sport by storm with his two-handed approach, generating power and rev rate that the bowling world had never seen. He turned in three consecutive PBA Player of the Year seasons from 2013 through 2015, and now, after two long years with no victories, Belmo is back on top.
