The USBC Masters is a championship ten-pin bowling event conducted by the United States Bowling Congress . The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) began recognizing it as a title event in 1998, and it was designated one of the four majors in 2000. A PBA rule change in 2008 retroactively awarded a PBA title (and a major) to any Masters winners prior to 1998 who were PBA members at the time of the victory.
32-650: The tournament began in 1951 as the ABC Masters , conducted by the American Bowling Congress (ABC). The ABC merged with the WIBC and YABA to become the USBC in 2005, after which the tournament was renamed USBC Masters. The Masters began as an invitational event showcasing national and local bowling stars and has grown to become one of bowling's most prestigious events. While the event has evolved over
64-596: A $ 50,000 top prize. The field, which now includes women, also features representatives from all 50 states and a handful of foreign countries. The Masters is open to PBA members and any USBC member that meets average requirements. It is a part of the World Bowling Tour. After the Masters in January 2004, the tournament was moved to the fall, resulting in two Masters events during calendar year 2004. (The first
96-477: A Masters title was Billy Welu in 1964–65. The 1984 ABC Masters featured the 43rd and final PBA Tour title for Hall of Famer Earl Anthony . Ernie Schlegel is the oldest player to win the USBC Masters, capturing the 1996 event at age 53. In 2016, Anthony Simonsen , aged 19 years and 39 days, became the tournament's youngest winner, as well as the youngest to win a PBA major of any kind. The 2024 USBC Masters
128-436: A Masters title, however, Belmonte is the only player to win three times in a row. Mike Aulby is the first player to have won the USBC Masters three times, but was eventually passed by Jason Belmonte . Belmonte is the only player to win three Masters in a row (2013, 2014 and 2015), and he won again in 2017 to become the only player to win four Masters titles. Prior to Belmonte's threepeat, the last player to successfully defend
160-637: A national women's tournament on their lanes, and held one in 1916, providing the inspiration. The founding members of the WIBC were: The first official meeting of the WNBA was held on October 26, 1917, in St. Louis. Forty women from 11 cities attended the meeting and voted on the organization's constitution, bylaws, and first 16-member executive committee. The purpose of the organization was agreed to be: To provide, adopt and enforce uniform rules and regulations governing
192-466: A tournament, and are awarded as a cash prize in the form of a scholarship with no GPA or formal scholarly work necessary to claim the money once in college. This in turn has caused the MHSAA to rule high school athletes "ineligible" due to "accepting cash, checks, or any other form of award over $ 25 in value." This rule is highly debated and has questionable means of enforcement. To receive such scholarships,
224-542: The 2017 event for an unprecedented fourth Masters title. The most recent champion, crowned on April 2, 2023, is American Anthony Simonsen of Las Vegas, Nevada . The USBC Queens, one of four major tournaments on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour, is conducted by the USBC. The 2019 event was won by Ukrainian -born Dasha Kovalova, who bowled collegiately at Wichita State University . The USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships (ITC),
256-718: The American Bowling Congress (ABC). The WIBC was initially called the " Woman's National Bowling Association " (WNBA), before the Women's International Bowling Congress was formed. In 2005, the WIBC merged with three other bowling organizations to form the United States Bowling Congress (USBC): the American Bowling Congress, the Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA), and USA Bowling . Originally called
288-729: The Milwaukee suburb of Greendale, Wisconsin , in November 2008. The move enabled the USBC to combine its operations with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA). The USBC is the national governing body for ten-pin bowling in the United States. It has approximately 3,000 local associations across the US serving over 2 million members. Among its duties and responsibilities to these members are: Historically,
320-622: The United States . It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress —the original codifier of all tenpin bowling standards, rules, and regulations from 1895 onwards; the Women's International Bowling Congress —founded in 1916, as the female bowlers' counterpart to the then all-male ABC; the Young American Bowling Alliance ; and USA Bowling . The USBC's headquarters are located in Arlington, Texas , after having moved from
352-419: The 2007–08 season. In the 2009–10 season, USBC changed the name of its presenting sponsorship to BOWL.com, the organization's website, which was re-launched on August 3, 2009. USBC did not renew its sponsorship for the 2010–11 season. In 2007, USBC acquired the rights to the U.S. Women's Open from the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA). The event, which had been on a three-year hiatus following
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#1732798735592384-462: The Champions". The taped telecast was broadcast May 10 and 11 on CBS , marking the first time bowling had been broadcast on regular network television since June 26, 1999. The event featured eight male and eight female bowlers representing youth, college, senior, amateur and professional bowlers who had won recent USBC titles. It was won by Lynda Barnes . The event returned to CBS in 2009, when it
416-458: The PBA announced it was revising its all-time records to include PBA-era ABC Masters championships prior to 1998 as PBA titles (and majors), if the champion was a PBA member at the time. Women%27s International Bowling Congress The Women's International Bowling Congress ( WIBC ) was an organization for women bowlers who played ten-pin bowling and was formed in 1916 as a counterpart to
448-470: The PBA holds each season, is conducted by the USBC as a part of the PBA Tour . The 2013, 2014 and 2015 events were all won by Australian Jason Belmonte , who became the only player in history to win this tournament in three consecutive years. Belmonte's streak was broken in 2016 by American 19-year-old Anthony Simonsen , who made history as the youngest-ever winner of a PBA major tournament. Belmonte won
480-543: The USBC Women's Championships, is the largest women's sporting event in the world. The 1997 tournament in Reno , Nevada, attracted 14,872 five-woman teams (for a total of 88,279 participants), the largest entry for any team tournament in history and a women's world record. Young American Bowling Alliance The United States Bowling Congress ( USBC ) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in
512-551: The Woman's National Bowling Association (WNBA), the Women's International Bowling Congress was formed in St. Louis , Missouri, in late November 1916. It was the first widely recognized women's association for the sport of ten-pin bowling . The founding women were aided by male bowling alley proprietor (Washington Bowling Alleys in St. Louis) Dennis J. Sweeney , who obtained permission from the American Bowling Congress (ABC) in 1907 to hold
544-432: The board nominating committee. USBC rule changes occur at the national convention, and take effect for leagues starting after August 1 of each year. Rule changes are published in a new printed guide every two years. Updated rulebooks are available online at bowl.com . The SMART program (Scholarship Management and Accounting Report for Tenpins) was established in 1994 in order to manage and store bowling scholarships until
576-583: The disbanding of the PWBA in 2003, was telecast for five weeks on ESPN in September–October 2007. ESPN again held multi-week broadcasts of the event in 2008, while ESPN2 did the same in 2009. In 2010, USBC reverted to a more traditional format and a one-day stepladder-style TV finals, airing live on ESPN2. That event was held in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, with Kelly Kulick winning. Kulick became
608-725: The first bowler ever to win the USBC Queens and US Women's Open in the same year. USBC announced in May 2010 that it would not conduct the US Women's Open in 2011, as the BPAA had agreed to resume its association with the tournament. The TV finals took place June 30, 2011, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where Leanne Hulsenberg was crowned champion. In May 2008, USBC conducted a special made-for-TV event called "Bowling's Clash of
640-545: The formation of the USBC, the national governing body for bowling was USA Bowling, which oversaw the participation of Team USA in international events. These four organizations merged to form USBC on January 1, 2005. The USBC Hall of Fame was formed in 2005 by the merger of the ABC Hall of Fame (established 1941) and WIBC Hall of Fame (established 1953). As of 2022, there are 446 Hall of Fame members in five categories: * Category introduced in 2011, with Jeff Richgels as
672-574: The founders and served as the first president of the Women's National Bowling Association (later renamed the Women's International Bowling Congress or WIBC) in 1916. 1974 - Georgia Veatch served for more than 25 years on the Women's International Bowling Congress's board of directors. She also served as president of the Windy City Women's Bowling Association and president and secretary of the Chicago Bowling Council. Veatch
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#1732798735592704-653: The inaugural member. Recognizes those who have had noteworthy performances in one of the USBC national tournaments. The USBC Hall of Fame has its home at the International Bowling Museum on the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas (along with the International Bowling Hall of Fame ). The induction ceremony is held annually in the spring. The USBC Masters, one of four major tournaments
736-401: The match play rounds are not eliminated, but are instead placed into an elimination bracket, where they must survive all subsequent three-game matches to have a chance at making the championship finals. Hundreds of competitors turn out for the Masters each year (a full field of 360 entered the 2018 event) with their sights set on a prize fund that has recently been as high as $ 350,000, including
768-696: The membership of the ABC was all male (white males only in 1916–1950), but beginning in 1993 women were permitted to join. In 1916 the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was formed by a group of 40 women, and up until 2004 served as a partner organization of the ABC. The Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) was established in 1982, after previously existing as the American Junior Bowling Congress founded in 1958, to serve youth bowlers from pre-school through collegiate level. Prior to
800-594: The national championship of collegiate bowling, is conducted by USBC and has been televised on a tape-delay basis since 2002. For the first time, in 2012, USBC also televised the Intercollegiate Singles Championships as part of a four-week series on CBS Sports Network. Both events were televised in high definition for the first time in 2012. USBC was the presenting sponsor of the PBA Women's Series for three seasons, beginning with
832-459: The play of American tenpins; to provide and enforce uniform qualifications for tournaments and their participants; to hold a national tournament, and to encourage good feeling and create interest in the bowling game. The WNBA held its first national tournament—today's USBC Queens event—in Cincinnati , Ohio, on March 11 – 12, 1918. 1916 - Catherine Menne was a bowling pioneer. She was among
864-475: The years, its trademark qualifying and double-elimination match play format has remained largely unchanged. All bowlers compete in 15 games of qualifying, with the top 63 qualifiers joining the previous year's champion in the double elimination match play bracket. (If the previous champion makes the top 63 or is unable to participate, the 64th-place qualifier is added.) All head-to-head matches consist of three games, highest total pinfall wins. First-time losers during
896-514: The youth bowler requests the use of the scholarships for college. The bowling scholarships can be from winning tournaments to filling out scholarship application forms. Recently the validity of the term "scholarship" for the SMART program has been questioned by the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association). The association questions where the education requirements are in earning the "scholarships". Most bowling scholarships earned are from winning
928-510: Was held at Suncoast Bowling Center in Las Vegas , Nevada from March 24–29, with the televised stepladder final round on March 31. The tournament had a starting field of 465 bowlers, and a $ 457,500 prize fund with a $ 100,000 top prize. Top seed DeeRonn Booker, who went undefeated in match play, won his lone finals match against #2 seed Patrick Dombrowski, 217–177, for his first PBA Tour title and first major. Prize Pool: Note: In May 2008,
960-400: Was inducted into the Women's International Bowling Congress's Hall of Fame in 1974 for "meritorious service to bowling". When it became a part of USBC in 2005, there were over 1.2 million WIBC members playing in 67,000 sanctioned leagues in over 2,700 local associations. Local associations exist in every state as well some foreign countries. The national tournament held by the WIBC, now called
992-401: Was part of the 2003–04 PBA season, and the second was part of the 2004–05 season.) Then in 2008, the tournament was moved back to the spring, which is why there was no Masters during 2008. In 2007, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard became the first woman to bowl a perfect game in the USBC Masters. Dick Hoover, Billy Welu, Jason Belmonte, and Anthony Simonsen are the only 4 players to successfully defend
USBC Masters - Misplaced Pages Continue
1024-512: Was won by Chris Barnes , Lynda's husband. In 2009, USBC began showing championship competition live free on its website, BOWL.com. In 2011, USBC moved this coverage to its YouTube channel, YouTube.com/BowlTV. BowlTV's coverage was primarily anchored by Lucas Wiseman before he left the organization in December 2015. In 2018 controversy emerged over Executive Director Chad Murphy for bullying employees and committee members and manipulating
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