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.[1]
The tournament began in 1951 as the ABC Masters, conducted by the American Bowling Congress (ABC).[2] 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 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 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.[3]
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 a $50,000 top prize.[4] 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 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.[5]
Dick Hoover, Billy Welu, Jason Belmonte, and Anthony Simonsen are the only 4 players to successfully defend a Masters title, however Belmonte is the only one 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 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.[6]
The 2023 USBC Masters was held at the Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Michigan from March 26 to April 2. The tournament had a starting field of 390 bowlers, and used a four-player stepladder finals format with a double-elimination final match.
On April 2, top seed Anthony Simonsen successfully defended his title, defeating #2 seed Michael Martell in the final match, 243–222. This was Simonsen's twelfth PBA Tour title, third USBC Masters title, and fifth major championship overall.[7] As the winner of the match-play competition, Simonsen needed to be defeated twice by Martell for Martell to win the title, but Simonsen won the first match to earn the championship.[8]
| Match #1 | Match #2 | Title match | |||||||||||
| 1 | Anthony Simonsen | 243 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Michael Martell | 208 | 2 | Michael Martell | 222 | ||||||||
| 3 | Kyle Sherman | 258 | 3 | Kyle Sherman | 187 | ||||||||
| 4 | Sean Rash | 199 | |||||||||||
Note: In May 2008, 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.[9]