Bringing star power to town
Australian one of best on PBA Tour
Growing up in a small town called Orange in New South Wales, Australia, Jason Belmonte enjoyed riding motor bikes around his family’s apple orchards.
They were fun. They excited him. They provided freedom. They weren’t everything. “I always loved bowling,’’ Belmonte said. “Just that living in the middle of nowhere, sometimes the dream and the goal is a little bit out of your sight until you have that little light bulb go off that, ‘Hey, maybe I can do this.’’’
Belmonte’s dream changed when he was 16 years old and bowled a perfect game in Malaysia, earning $16,000 and a new spin on life. Now the fastest bowler in PBA Tour history to eclipse $1 million in career earn-
ings is in Orlando for the inaugural Main Event PBA Tour Finals.
The two-day invitational event will conclude today at the Main Event Entertainment center (9101 International Drive, #1032).
“[Jason] knows whenever he has the ball reaction and gets a little confidence behind him, he’s really hard to beat,’’ said Anthony Simonsen, one of the eight pros in the invitational event at Pointe Orlando.
Belmonte has won 14 tournaments, eight of them majors, since joining the PBA Tour in 2008. The bowler nicknamed “Belmo’’ is a former rookie of the year and three-time bowler of the year, not bad for someone who started in the sport at a very early age.
Belmonte was a baby when his parents, Aldo and Marisa, opened a bowling center. He recalled the earliest picture of him bowling came when he was 18 months old, but other activities interested him as a child.
And not just motor bikes.
“If it had a ball for me to kick, throw or hit, I played it,’’ Belmonte said. “Golf, tennis, squash, cricket, soccer, rugby, basketball. Literally every sport I played at school, and I loved it. I never really disliked any of them.’’
Australian rules football?
“That was actually the only sport that I never played at a competitive level at school,’’ Belmonte said. “I don’t know how I would have gone. Those guys are a lot taller than I am. I don’t know if I could have caught the ball over their heads or not.’’
With his two-handed bowling style, Belmonte ranks third in scoring average (232.34 per game) on the PBA Tour in 2017. Only EJ Tackett ($111,633) has earned more than Belmonte’s $88,680.
“He’s the guy I want to bowl, but I don’t want to bowl,’’ said Tackett, who is entered in this week’s event. “I think it goes vice versa with him, just because he has bowled really well for the last four or five years. The last two years, I’ve had a pretty good run. There’s a few other guys. It’s a friendly rivalry.’’
Pro bowler Bill O’Neill said Belmonte, a close friend, rarely concedes anything.
“I’ve seen him multiple times start off events where it just wasn’t going well, and then next thing I know, I look up and a couple of hours later, he’s closing on the lead,’’ O’Neill said. “That happens a lot.’’
Belmonte enjoys the give-and-take of competition.
“You have to believe you’re the best,’’ Belmonte said. “If you tie your shoes and if you think there’s somebody better than you out here, you’re already giving that guy and the rest of the field a head start.’’
After all, Belmonte is not sacrificing time with his family by traveling halfway around the world for nothing. He said spending six months a year away from his wife, Kimberly, and their children — Aria, 7; Hugo, 5; and Sylvie, 16 months — is the toughest challenge he faces.
It’s much harder than getting a round ball to cooperate on a slick lane.
“Once you taste [success], it’s like blood in the water to a shark,’’ Belmonte said. “If I leave my bar the same height, they’re just going to run past you and jump over you. I’m always pushing that.’’