As bowling pushes closer to cultural
relevance, 27-year-old Anthony Simonsen’s dynamic personality and
record-shattering talent are tailor-made for him to take the PBA to the next
level and become its new face — whether he likes it or not.
BY ZACH HARRIS
Photograph by Mikayla
Whitmore
JAN 19, 2024
9:01 AM
“Simo’s in this?”
“Pfft. Fuck.”
It’s 3 p.m. on a Friday in late July, and it’s 114 degrees outside. I’m 15 minutes off the Las Vegas Strip at South Point Casino, eavesdropping as I follow two twentysomethings up an escalator — I’m here to meet the guy they’re scared of.
South Point is what you would call old Vegas. There are no celebrity chefs or pop-star residencies here, the blackjack odds are better than they are on the Strip, the buffet line is long, and the ornate red and gold carpet will make you dizzy if you look at it for longer than a second.
Up the escalator, past the seniors choking down cigarettes in the hallway outside of the cavernous bingo hall is the South Point Bowling Plaza, a 60-lane center with stadium seating and a wall of massive scoreboards. The Plaza routinely hosts Professional Bowlers Association and Professional Women’s Bowlers Association title events.
The PBA schedule winds down over the summer though, so today is not one of those days. Today’s tournament is the Vegas Valley Open Team Challenge hosted by the Amateur Bowling Tour, and tucked away at the far end of the center on lane 54, Anthony Simonson is Steph Curry in a slide sole pulling up to a pickup run at the park, asking who’s got next. “This is like the fourth time I’ve bowled in two months,” he says with a smirk. “You like Korean barbeque? I’ve got a great spot.”
Simonsen, a.k.a. Simo, is a 27-year-old high school dropout and, depending on who you ask, currently the best bowler alive. Raised in Mesquite, Texas, and now living here in Vegas, Simonsen is coming off one of the most successful years in PBA Tour history, the first bowler ever to finish in the top 10 in every tournament and crack the top four in every major. Simonsen took home three tournament wins in 2023, including a back-to-back victory at the Masters, one of bowling’s five annual major tournaments, outside Detroit, culminating in a viral celebration that saw Simonsen flex a pair of Buffs — Cartier Buffalo Horn sunglasses, the holy grail of Motor City fashion — on live TV. The $100,000 Masters title added to Simonsen’s seven-figure PBA winnings…
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