Jason Belmonte has notched up his second 2018 PBA Tour and 18th career title with a down-to-the-wire victory in the prestigious PBA TOUR FINALS over defending champion E.J. Tackett.
Televised by the CBS Sports Network from Thunderbowl Lanes in Detroit, USA, the match was a re-run of last year’s final but a reversal of the outcome, earning the Aussie star a handy US$30,000 bonus.
The PBA TOUR FINALS features an elite field of the top eight players divided into two seeded groups, based on combined PBA earnings over the past 28 months. The tournament format comprises four games of total pinfall positioning round competition on four different lane conditions, followed by a semifinal stepladder round for each four-man group in a best of two-game match. Each group’s eventual winners then meet in the final best of two-game match.
After winning the final’s first game and suffering a shock loss in the second, Belmonte recovered to clinch the title with a 40-26 score in the ninth and tenth frame roll-off against Tackett. It was another significant victory for the reigning PBA Player of the Year after Belmonte concluded his 2017 season by winning the PBA World Championship to become the first player in PBA history to win three major championships in a single season.
The 2018 PBA Tour Finals title coincides with another accolade that Belmonte has just received when honoured with the International Bowling Media Association’s ‘Bowler of the Year’ award during this year’s International Bowl Expo, currently underway in Las Vegas.
For full scores of the stepladder matches and further details of the PBA TOUR FINALS tournament go to the News page of the official PBA website – www.pba.com.
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Televised by the CBS Sports Network from Thunderbowl Lanes in Detroit, USA, the match was a re-run of last year’s final but a reversal of the outcome, earning the Aussie star a handy US$30,000 bonus.
The PBA TOUR FINALS features an elite field of the top eight players divided into two seeded groups, based on combined PBA earnings over the past 28 months. The tournament format comprises four games of total pinfall positioning round competition on four different lane conditions, followed by a semifinal stepladder round for each four-man group in a best of two-game match. Each group’s eventual winners then meet in the final best of two-game match.
After winning the final’s first game and suffering a shock loss in the second, Belmonte recovered to clinch the title with a 40-26 score in the ninth and tenth frame roll-off against Tackett. It was another significant victory for the reigning PBA Player of the Year after Belmonte concluded his 2017 season by winning the PBA World Championship to become the first player in PBA history to win three major championships in a single season.
The 2018 PBA Tour Finals title coincides with another accolade that Belmonte has just received when honoured with the International Bowling Media Association’s ‘Bowler of the Year’ award during this year’s International Bowl Expo, currently underway in Las Vegas.
For full scores of the stepladder matches and further details of the PBA TOUR FINALS tournament go to the News page of the official PBA website – www.pba.com.
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