Belmonte’s performances at majors striking
Jason Belmonte is in no hurry to match Pete Weber and the late Earl Anthony for the most major Professional Bowlers Association titles in history, it just seems like it because of the unprecedented sprint he made up the ranks last year.
Starting with victory in the Barbasol Players Championship at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl a year ago, Belmonte — the two-handed flinger from Australia — not only broke out of a yearlong winless drought, he went on to win the USBC Masters and the PBA World Championship. That upped his majors total to nine, one short of Weber and Anthony.
That means going into this week’s Players Championship, Belmonte, 33, is on the cusp. Of course, Weber, 55, is in the field, so he has the chance at No. 11, but Belmonte is the one who has time on his side.
“Honestly, I don’t think about it too much,” Belmonte said after Monday’s practice. “I feel like I have so many years left in my career to achieve this, I don’t have a time frame in which this must be achieved.
“Every time I lace the shoes up, all I’m thinking about is bowling the best that I can. If it so happens I bowl better than everyone else and I win that particular week and that happens to be a major, that’s awesome. But I’m certainly not coming in here thinking, ‘It has to be this week or else.’ “
He knows about having good weeks, though, considering nine of his 16 tour wins have come in majors, including a record four in the USBC Masters (2013, ’14, ’15 and ’17); two in the Players (2011 and ’17), two in the Tournament of Champions (2014 and ’15) and one in the World Championship (2017).
“I think you need three things to go for you in a tournament that gives you the eventual trophy,” Belmonte said. “One, you need to be really confident walking in. I’ve never won a tournament where I thought I was going to lose.
“I think you have to be patient and smart. Bowling is not a game of just repetition. It’s about repeating but then also moving and adjusting, changing balls, changing different paths on the lane you’re going to play, adjust your speed control, tilt control, extra rotation control. All those things over a period of a week you have to continually change.”
And he said there is no denying factor No. 3.
“I think you need a little lady luck on your side,” Belmonte said. “You need those hits where, when the pin flies past, it doesn’t go behind (another pin), it
goes into it. Or the one where you see the nine pin wobble a little bit, and instead of standing it actually falls down to keep the string alive.
“Yeah, I’ve never won a tournament where I didn’t feel I had a little help from the bowling gods.”
The trick, he revealed, is to stroll into the bowling facility exuding confidence.
“That is my philosophy, no matter how many games are left, how many pins the leaders are in front of me,” Belmonte said. “It’s just how I think. It’s just how I was born, to think no matter where I am, I’m gonna win. … Somehow I’m gonna do it.”