Jason Belmonte Takes Lead After First Day of Kia PBA Tournament of Champions Match Play
Posts 8-4 record to move to the top of the leaderboard through 36 games
Jupiter, Fla.—Jason Belmonte seized the lead in the 2021 Kia PBA Tournament of Champions after the first two rounds of match play. Belmonte, who was in second place through 24 games of qualifying, won eight of his 12 matches today in taking over the lead. Belmonte, one of three players (along with Mike Durbin and Jason Couch) to have won the Tournament of Champions three times, is looking to become the first player ever to win the event a fourth time.
Anthony Simonsen worked his way into second place and Tom Smallwood, who had been the leader after all four rounds of qualifying and the first round of match play, dropped to third after match play round two.
Sean Rash and Tom Daugherty sit in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Bill O’Neill, who started the day in 17th place, used a field-best 10-2 record to help him move up to eighth.
Match play resumes tomorrow on FloBowling with round three at noon ET and round four at 6 p.m. ET. To subscribe, visit FloBowling.com.
At the conclusion of the final round of match play, the top five players will advance to the stepladder finals airing Sunday, Feb. 28 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Broadcast Channel.
Kia PBA Tournament of Champions Standings Through 36 Games
Bowlero Jupiter – Jupiter, Fla.
Jason Belmonte +1,635
Anthony Simonsen +1,598
Tom Smallwood +1,547
Sean Rash +1,418
Tom Daugherty +1,394
François Lavoie +1,346
Jesper Svensson +1,341
Bill O’Neill +1,263
Nick Pate +1,249
Michael Davidson +1,248
Kyle Troup +1,219
Wes Malott +1,205
Jake Peters +1,183
Kris Prather +1,155
BJ Moore +1,152
Cristian Azcona +1,130
Brandon Novak +1,118
Jakob Butturff +1,048
Tommy Jones +1,046
Dick Allen +1,009
Richie Teece +956
Trevor Roberts +818
Shawn Maldonado +762
Andrew Anderson +720
Full Kia PBA Tournament of Champions standings: https://www.pba.com/node/118506
About the PBA
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the world’s preeminent organization dedicated to the sport of bowling and its professional competition, with thousands of members and millions of fans throughout the world. The PBA plays host to bowling’s biggest tournaments from the PBA Tour, PBA Regional Tour, and PBA50 Tour. In 2020, the PBA launched PBA Jr., a club for elite youth bowlers under the age of 17 and the PBA Pinsiders, a membership for fans of the sport. For more information, please visit PBA.com.
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