Robert Smith (born January 16, 1974), is an American professional bowler known for his years on the

Professional Bowlers Association The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and currently owned by the Lucky Strike Entertainment Corpor ...

(PBA) Tour. A native of

Simi Valley, California Simi Valley (; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in Simi Valley (valley), the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater ...

, Smith has also held residence in

Captain Cook, Hawaii Captain Cook is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, in the United States, located in the District of South Kona. The community, within the land division of Kealakekua, is so named because the post of ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Currently, he resides and works near his home town in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the ...

. Smith's career on the PBA tour was marred by numerous injuries, resulting in many withdrawals from high-profile tournaments. Despite this, he amassed seven tour titles during his career, with his first being his lone major victory at the 2000 U.S. Open. He won a second title later in the 2000 season. His only other season with multiple Tour wins was 2003–04. In his prime, Smith was considered the world's most powerful one-handed bowler. Smith's ball roll has been tracked as high as 27 revolutions per shot and traveling at up to - the average professional achieves about 16 revolutions per shot, traveling at . This high rev-rate (from about 550-600 RPM on average and up to 720

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

tops) is more than most bowlers have been able to produce. Based on this characteristic, he was known on tour as "Maximum Bob." Smith joined the PBA50 Tour (for players 50 and over) in 2024. He is currently sponsored by Hammer Bowling.

Career titles

Major titles are in bold text.

Other achievements and recognition

* Smith won the USBC 1992 Chuck Hall Star of Tomorrow Award * Became the youngest person to win the U.S. Amateur Championship - aged 19 - in 1993. * Member of Team USA in 1994 and 1995. * Named the first team Collegiate All-American at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

in 1993 * Owns ten PBA Regional Tour titles

Trivia

* In the 2000 U.S. Open, Robert Smith became the first player in the history of the sport to have won both U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open titles. * Smith made at least one TV finals appearance in each of his first 12 full seasons on tour. * He has 31 career 300 games in PBA competition. * Smith bowls league at Buena Lanes in Ventura, California where he shot back to back 300 games in 2019 with a plastic bowling ball.

References

External links

Robert Smith
at the

archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Robert American ten-pin bowling players Sportspeople from Simi Valley, California 1974 births Living people