Tom Hess Wins 2024 PBA50 Tournament of Champions
Fairlawn, Ohio – Tom Hess has always believed in his abilities. When he committed to bowling on the PBA50 Tour full-time in 2021, he knew he would end up having a successful career. But he never imagined that his level of success in just four seasons would lead him so quickly to an induction into the PBA Hall of Fame earlier this year, and now his 10th career title at the 2024 PBA50 Tournament of Champions.
“Did I believe that I was going to ever get to 10 titles? No,” Hess said. “I would have never thought I could win 10 times with the talent that is out here. My God, it is just full of Hall of Famers. Just simply incredible.”
At the start of this week, he walked into AMF Riviera Lanes seeing the sign: "Through these doors pass the world’s finest bowlers." He walked out Thursday night after rolling a perfect game in match play with a major title, the trophy and a check for $15,000. What a way to end the 2024 PBA50 season for Hess after dominating his competition over the last two days. He is the winner of the first PBA50 Tournament of Champions ever held at AMF Riviera Lanes, so there is no doubt this place will always have a special place in his heart.
In Game 39 for the week, Hess rolled a 300 against Chris Warren to officially secure the No. 1 seed in the stepladder finals, allowing him to relax a little bit. He was 322-pins ahead of Mika Koivuniemi, who was in second place.
It was only fitting that the final championship match of the season would feature the top two seeds. For Koivuniemi, this was his eighth straight stepladder finals appearance, while this was Hess’s seventh stepladder show this year.
It was game time. After Koivuniemi started the match with a strike, Hess was surprised to see his first shot pick up quickly on the right lane going through the nose leaving the 3-6-10. He calmly picked it up and delivered a strike on his next shot. Koivuniemi went spare, double, spare through five frames, as Hess got lined up rolling six straight strikes for a 32-pin lead. Koivuniemi picked up another 10-pin in the sixth followed by three strikes in a row.
Hess converted a 7-pin followed by a wrap 10-pin in the ninth. In the 10th, he needed a double to shut out Koivuniemi. Hess posted his first shot. His right leg came up slightly and he slapped it out when he struck.
“I can’t even tell you all of the thoughts going through my head. You are trying to stay present, but you are thinking this shot wins,” Hess said.
He took a re-rack, took a couple very deep breaths, wiped off his ball, and stepped on the approach. After another deep breath, he watched as his ball went through the nose leaving the 3-6-9-10. He took his time and converted the difficult spare, finishing with 248.
“I did not make my best effort. Thank goodness it did not get four through the middle or something crazy. That was huge. After I made the spare, I didn’t even watch Mika’s first shot,” Hess said. “I took a little walk. Tried to get my head right because in my mind there was no doubt, we were going to another roll-off, like we did a couple of weeks ago.”
Koivuniemi, needing to strike out for a tie, delivered the first strike. On his next shot, Koivuniemi liked the shot, yet he left a wrap 10-pin. He picked it up to finish with a 237. Hess said his heart hurt for his friend, especially after the incredible stepladder run Koivuniemi had been on.
“What a season. Eight shows in a row for Mika. JJ (John Janawicz) had five wins. I got five wins,” he added. “What a great PBA50 Tour season.”
The title of PBA50 Player of the Year is based on points. Janawicz earned the honor just one year after being named 2023 PBA50 Rookie of the Year. He won $76,250 this season. Janawicz defeated Hess at the PBA Senior U.S. Open and Janawicz won the Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship for major titles this season. Hess was the Player of the Year runner-up winning $63,850.
In the opening match, No. 5 seed Dan Knowlton struggled to get comfortable on the lanes. He got his first strike in the fifth frame and finished with five straight strikes for 199. His opponent, Brad Angelo, had four strikes in the first five frames. He stayed clean on his way to a 225 game and the win.
In the second match, Angelo started off with back-to-back spares followed by three strikes. Chris Warren went spare, strike, spare followed by a double. Angelo was able to put doubles together twice between frames seven and 10 to earn the 236-209 victory.
And in the semifinal match, Angelo started off with a spare and a double before back-to-back splits for open frames. Koivuniemi stayed in the 1-3 pocket taking an early lead and went on to earn the 215-187 win.
When Hess was asked about his takeaways from the 2024 PBA50 season, he held back tears:
“I belong. I wish I could have done it 20 years ago, but 20 years ago, I was a different person and who knows, it might not have worked out. I am just enjoying the moment right now. It has been a lot of fun.”
CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND SCORES:
Match 1: Angelo def. Knowlton 225-199
Match 2: Angelo def. Warren 236-209
Match 3: Koivuniemi def. Angelo 215-187
Championship match: Hess def. Koivuniemi 248-237
PBA50 TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS FINAL STANDINGS:
- Tom Hess, $15,000
- Mika Koivuniemi, $8,000
- Brad Angelo, $6,000
- Chris Warren, $5,000
- Dan Knowlton, $4,000