For Third Straight Week, Belmonte Earns Top Seed For Finals
For Third Straight Week, Belmonte Earns Top Seed For Finals
For the third consecutive week, Jason Belmonte has earned the top seed and will bowl for his 20th title in the finals of the 2019 PBA Indianapolis Open.
For the third consecutive week, Jason Belmonte has earned the top seed and will bowl for his 20th PBA Tour title in the finals of the 2019 PBA Indianapolis Open.
Belmonte posted a 16-8 record in match play and once again blew the field away with a total of 10,127, leading by 386 pins and averaging 229.69 at Woodland Bowl.
By earning the top seed for a third consecutive week, Belmonte is just the fifth player to accomplish that feat and ties the record shared with Earl Anthony, Johnny Petraglia, Walter Ray Williams Jr., and, most recently, Jakob Butturff.
Results: PBA Indianapolis Open Match Play Round 3
Two weeks after winning the PBA Tournament of Champions and just a week removed from finishing second at the PBA Players Championship, Belmonte will have yet another shot at a title in the stepladder finals. The show will air live on FS1 at 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday for audiences in the United States. International viewers can watch live on FloBowling.
In the final round of match play Friday night, Belmonte put up a 7-1 record to surge to a massive lead on the field. He started the round 5-0 before finally losing to Tom Smallwood, 246-225, and closed it with a 249-192 win over PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke in the position round.
Duke earned the second seed for the show with a 14-9-1 record and total of 9,741. The 54-year-old legend will look to win his first PBA Tour title since 2015 when he won the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship with Wes Malott. Qualifying and match play for that event took place in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, but the finals took place at Woodland Bowl, the host for this week’s event.
Earning the third seed was Tom Daugherty, who totaled 9,695 while posting a 14-10 record. Fourth seed Malott, who went 15-9 with a total of 9,672, will face fifth seed Rhino Page, who totaled 9,649 with a 13-11 record, in the opening match of the stepladder.
There was little drama in the final position round game of match play as all five players who were inside the cut heading into the game all made it. The only change was Daugherty leaping over Malott to earn the No. 3 seed.
The players are facing dual patterns this week throughout the event with the left lane conditioned with the 45-foot Dick Weber pattern and the right lane conditioned with the 38-foot Mike Aulby pattern.