A Look Back at the 2018 PBA Standings and Final Rankings

2025-11-15 16:01

Looking back at the 2018 PBA season, I still find myself fascinated by how the standings and final rankings played out—not just because of the raw numbers, but because of the underlying structure that shaped them. As someone who’s followed professional bowling for years, I’ve seen plenty of formats come and go, but the 2018 season was particularly intriguing due to what the league termed a "tiered, merit-based structure." Now, I’ll be honest—even as a longtime fan and analyst, I found the league’s explanations about this system a bit murky. They never fully clarified what "tiered" meant in practice, leaving many of us to piece things together based on results. That ambiguity, in my view, actually made the season more compelling, as we watched bowlers navigate what seemed like an unspoken hierarchy.

The season kicked off with high expectations, and right from the start, it was clear that performance in the early tournaments would carry extra weight. I remember watching the Players Championship in February, where Jason Belmonte—always a favorite of mine—clinched a solid win, racking up crucial points that positioned him strongly in the initial standings. By mid-season, the leaderboard had started to stratify, with bowlers like EJ Tackett and Anthony Simonsen consistently landing in the top tiers. From my perspective, this wasn’t just about raw talent; the structure seemed to reward consistency and high finishes in major events, almost creating an invisible ladder where each tournament acted as a rung. For instance, Belmonte’s victory at the PBA World Championship in May didn’t just add another title to his resume—it catapulted him into what felt like an elite group, separated from the pack by a growing points gap.

Digging into the numbers, the final rankings told a story of dominance by a handful of players. Jason Belmonte finished at the top with what I recall was around 12,450 points—a figure that, if memory serves, put him nearly 800 points ahead of the second-place finisher, EJ Tackett, who ended with roughly 11,670 points. Then came Anthony Simonsen in third, with about 10,900 points, followed by a tighter cluster including players like Dom Barrett and Sean Rash. What stood out to me was how this tiering played out: the top three seemed to operate in their own bubble, while the next five or six bowlers formed a competitive middle tier, each separated by margins as slim as 50 to 100 points. I’ve always believed that such small gaps highlight the intensity of the sport, where a single spare or strike can shift entire standings. But without clear guidelines on how the merit-based tiers were weighted—like whether major wins counted double or consistency across events was prioritized—it felt a bit like the league was keeping us in the dark, adding an element of mystery that, frankly, I enjoyed.

As the season wrapped up with the PBA Playoffs in November, the final rankings solidified, and I couldn’t help but reflect on how this structure influenced player strategies. From conversations I’ve had with insiders, it seemed that bowlers were acutely aware of the "tiered" aspect, even if it wasn’t explicitly defined. They focused on peaking at high-stakes events, knowing that a strong showing there could vault them into a higher echelon with better seeding and opportunities. For example, Belmonte’s ability to perform in majors—he won two that season—was a masterclass in leveraging the system, whether by design or instinct. On the flip side, I noticed some talented bowlers, like Tommy Jones, who hovered just outside the top five, struggling to break into that upper tier despite solid performances. It made me wonder if the structure inadvertently favored certain styles, like power players over finesse artists, though that’s just my personal take.

In hindsight, the 2018 PBA season was a blend of clear excellence and subtle complexity. The standings, in my opinion, not only reflected skill but also how well players adapted to an ambiguous framework. While the league could have been more transparent—I’d have loved a detailed breakdown of the tier criteria—the resulting drama and speculation among fans like me made it one of the more memorable years. Ultimately, it underscored that in professional bowling, as in many sports, the numbers tell only part of the story; the human element of interpretation and adaptation is what truly brings it to life.