The 2023 PBA Tour season, the 64th season of play for the U.S. Professional Bowlers Association's ten-pin bowling tour, began on January 29 with the pre-tournament qualifier (PTQ) of the U.S. Open.[1]
On August 17, 2023, the PBA and Fox announced they have agreed to a two-year media rights extension for tournament coverage on Fox and FS1 channels, as well as Fox digital channels, through the 2025 season. Initial commitment is for eight two-hour program windows on Fox and 22 two-hour windows on FS1. Bill Wanger, EVP-Head of Programming and Scheduling at Fox Sports, stated during the announcement that viewership for the 2023 season was up almost 15% from 2022.[2]
On November 1, 2022, the PBA released the 2023 schedule, including Fox and FS1 broadcasts. For the first time in PBA history, the final rounds of all five major events were broadcast live on over-the-air network television (Fox network). The PBA also announced that match play or extended stepladder rounds for multiple tournaments would be broadcast on FS1, another PBA first. In addition, the 2023 season schedule includes nine standard singles title events and two doubles title events that will have final rounds broadcast on FS1 or live-streamed on BowlTV (the PBA's YouTube channel).[1] The one exception is the PBA Tour Finals, which continues to be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
Following the U.S. Open finals broadcast on February 5, other major finals broadcasts included the Tournament of Champions on March 19, the USBC Masters on April 2, the PBA World Championship on April 23 (part of the World Series of Bowling in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin that also includes three standard title events), and the PBA Players Championship on May 14. Fox also broadcast the PBA Super Slam finals on May 21, This special event featured all major tournament winners from the 2023 season.[1] The five majors and the Super Slam each paid out a $100,000 top prize.
In February-March, there were five "Classic Series" tour stops each awarding a standard PBA singles title. The top eight points earners from these five events were invited to compete in a special, non-title Skill Ball Challenge event on July 22–23. In that event, all eight players were required to use an identical low-technology Skill 3.02 bowling ball.[3]
The PBA League Elias Cup team competition, previously a summer event, was moved to the fall, with the finals broadcasts held on September 27 on FS1.
Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year: E. J. Tackett (82.5% of first-place votes)
Harry Smith PBA Points Leader Award: E. J. Tackett (41,200)
George Young High Average Award: E. J. Tackett (227.18)
Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year: Cortez Schenck
Steve Nagy PBA Sportsmanship Award: BJ Moore
Tony Reyes PBA Community Service Award: Johnny Petraglia
The events currently scheduled for the 2023 PBA season are shown below.[4][5] Major tournaments are in bold. Career PBA title numbers for winners are shown in parentheses (#). Winner's share prize money is shown in US dollars ($), except where indicated.
Tour points are awarded for most events. Besides the season-ending Harry Smith PBA Points Winner award, points are one consideration for Player of the Year voting and also affect eligibility and seeding for the PBA Tour Finals (with 2022 points).