Amleto Monacelli is a Venezuelan professional bowler and a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He has amassed 20 titles on the PBA Tour, making him one of only 15 players in history to accumulate at least 20 victories. He is the first international player to earn PBA Player of the Year honors, and the first to be inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the USBCHall of Fame. In addition to his PBA Tour titles, he has won nine titles on the PBA50 Tour, including five majors.
PBA career
Monacelli joined the PBA in 1982, and he won his first PBA Tour event in the 1987 Japan Cup. Amleto's style typified that of the modernizing game of bowling, as he was one of the first bowlers to successfully use the powerful cranker-style release. In the 1989 season he won four titles, including the Touring Players Championship, on his way to winning the Harry Smith Points Leader and PBA Player of the Year awards. This marked the first time an international player had won PBA Player of the Year honors. Monacelli repeated as Player of the Year in 1990, a year in which he also won the George Young High Average award. Monacelli failed to qualify for a PBA exemption in the 2007–08 and 2008-09 seasons, but regained his exemption for 2009-10. He appeared in the TV finals at the 2009-10 PBA Chameleon Championship. A forearm injury led to a disappointing 142 score and a loss in his opening match. Monacelli won his 20th PBA title in January 2016, at the site of his first, in Japan's Tokyo Port Bowl for the DHC PBA . Qualifying as the #2 seed, Monacelli defeated Chris Barnes in the semifinal, then went on to defeat England's Dominic Barrett in the final. Ending an 11-year title drought on the standard PBA Tour, the 54-year old Monacelli became the third-oldest player to win a PBA Tour title, behind John Handegard and Buzz Fazio. With Norm Duke winning a 2019 standard PBA Tour title a month shy of his 55th birthday, Monacelli is now fourth on this list. Monacelli's 20 total titles place him tied for 13th on the all-time list with Dick Ritger, Tommy Jones, and Wayne Webb. He has won over $2.5 million on the PBA Tour, making him one of only seven PBA bowlers in history to surpass $2 million in career earnings. He was ranked #21 on the PBA's 2008 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years," and has rolled 58 perfect 300 games in PBA Tour events. The PBA recognized Monacelli in 1997 by inducting him into the PBA Hall of Fame, making him the first international player so honored. In a 1999 edition of El Nacional, a Venezuelan newspaper, Monacelli was ranked as the fourth best Venezuelan athlete of the 20th Century. He was inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame in 2012.
PBA50 Tour
While continuing to bowl in selected events on the PBA Tour, Monacelli also joined the PBA Senior Tour in 2012 and became the first international player to win the Senior U.S. Open by defeating all-time PBA titles leader Walter Ray Williams, Jr. in the final match. Monacelli was selected as the 2012 PBA Senior Rookie of the Year, becoming the first international player to earn the award. He has gone on to win a total of nine PBA50 Tour titles through the 2019 season, including a repeat win in the 2013 Senior U.S. Open and another major win at the 2015 USBC Senior Masters. Monacelli won his fourth PBA50 major title at the PBA50 National Championship on August 17, 2016. On June 9, 2019, Monacelli won the USBC Senior Masters for a second time, earning his fifth PBA50 Tour major overall.
The son of Italian and Hispanic parents, Monacelli speaks fluent Italian, Spanish, and English. He was an accomplished soccer player in his teen years, but increased his participation in bowling when his parents took ownership of a bowling center in Venezuela. By age 17, he decided to pursue bowling full-time and make it his career.
