The PBA World Championship is one of the four major PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) bowling events. Prior to 2002, the tournament was called the PBA National Championship. The PBA National Championship was first contested on November 28, 1960, then called the First Annual National Championship; the winner was PBA Hall of Famer Don Carter. Winners currently earn $60,000 (U.S.) and the Earl Anthony Trophy, named in honor of the late PBA legend who won this title a record six times (1973-75 and 1981-83).
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Background
The National Championship and World Championship have been contested over the years using a variety of formats. Currently, the PBA World Championship format is different from normal PBA Tour events. Since the 2009-10 season, the initial qualifying scores for the World Championship have come from other stand-alone tournaments at the PBA World Series of Bowling (in its eighth year as of 2016). Thus, the current tournament is open to any PBA member who also enters the World Series of Bowling.
For the 2009–10 season, the PBA World Championship was part of the World Series of Bowling held in Allen Park, Michigan, and was contested in a split format. The qualifying rounds of the tournament were contested August 31 – September 4, with the televised finals being broadcast live on ESPN December 13, 2009. The PBA again held the World Series of Bowling in 2010, moving it to Las Vegas, Nevada, and again used it as qualifying for the 2010–11 PBA World Championship. This time, the 60-game qualifying scores for the five "animal pattern" championships held at the World Series were used to determine the 8-bowler TV field for the PBA World Championship finals. The World Championship finals were televised live over three consecutive days (January 14–16, 2011), a PBA first.
Since the 2011 World Series of Bowling, the top 25% of scores from the qualifying rounds of four "animal" oil pattern events have determined the field for the "cashers round" of the PBA World Championship. Additional games are then bowled on the World Championship oil pattern to determine the match play field for the PBA World Championship. For the first time, ESPN aired the entire 16-player quarterfinal "eliminator" rounds in 2011 over four broadcasts (December 11, December 18, January 1 and January 8), with the final round airing on January 15, 2012.
2016 event
A five-player stepladder format was used in the 2016 PBA World Championship, contested December 11 in Reno, NV. E. J. Tackett won from the #1 seed position, defeating #4 seed Tom Smallwood in the final match for his fifth PBA title and first major.
Past winners
+ Due to the 2012–13 "Super Season" running from November 2012 to December 2013, there were two PBA World Championship events: one in November 2012 and one in November 2013.