Blanchard Announces Retirement From PBA Tour

Blanchard Announces Retirement From PBA Tour

Josh Blanchard, a three-time PBA Tour champion and 2011-12 PBA Rookie of the Year, announced he will retire from the PBA Tour after this season.

Sep 23, 2020 by Lucas Wiseman
Blanchard Announces Retirement From PBA Tour

Josh Blanchard, a three-time PBA Tour champion and 2011-12 PBA Rookie of the Year, announced Wednesday he will retire from the PBA Tour after this season.

A full-time player on the tour since joining the PBA in 2011, Blanchard’s most recent title came at the PBA Xtra Frame Reality Check Classic in March 2017.

Blanchard, 33, also won two titles in 2015, including the PBA Xtra Frame Maine Shootout and the Brunswick Euro Challenge.

“I’m announcing my retirement from professional bowling,” Blanchard wrote in a Facebook post. “After next week, I will be moving on from being a full-time PBA player and starting a new venture.”

Blanchard will compete for the Motown Muscle in the PBA League, which begins Saturday with the seeding round live on FloBowling.

So far this season, Blanchard has one top-10 finish, which came at the 2020 PBA Jonesboro Open where he finished ninth. Last season, he made the show at the 2019 PBA Tournament of Champions, finishing in fourth place.

“To all the fans who have followed me over the past decade, thank you,” Blanchard wrote. “I never got more joy in career than hearing those claps and cheers in the background after a strike. I may have not acknowledged you one on one, but I heard every one of those claps and cheers.”

Blanchard becomes the second player in recent months to retire from full-time participation on the PBA Tour. Lefty Ryan Ciminelli made a similar announcement in July.