The Tommy Jones who won his third Dydo Japan Cup title on April 25, 2010 was two different men. One was the prodigy who blasted through his first 10 PBA titles more quickly than any player in the history of the Professional Bowlers Association; the other was the slumping star who had just gone more than two years since his last win. One was the future Hall of Famer whom the PBA named its 30th greatest player before his 30th birthday; the other was an also-ran who averaged 161 in his last two PBA telecast appearances.

One thing Jones knows by now is that fortune is a fickle mistress on a tour where you can average 220 for an entire season and still go winless in the first 18 events, as Jones did in 2009-2010. But if he also knows that his victory at that 19th and final tournament tied him with Patrick Allen as the winningest PBA player to represent Team USA at the 2010 World Men’s Championships, he’s not letting on.

 “It’s something I have never really thought about. Those guys have helped me a lot in my years on tour,” Jones says of his Team USA teammates, “so I wouldn’t be ahead of them if it wasn’t for their willingness to help me out and make me better.”

Sure, that 13th PBA title Jones racked up in Japan this year put him neck-and-neck with Patrick Allen, one ahead of Chris Barnes, and miles ahead of his other Munich-bound teammates, Wes Malott, Bill O’Neill and Rhino Page. But pride is not an option for a player whose memory of the darker days he overcame in the meantime is still fresh enough to lend some perspective. Days when he opened his first telecast appearance in nearly a year with a five count and two consecutive open frames at the 2008 Earl Anthony Memorial Classic. Days when he was remembered as much for lambasting himself as “pathetic” on the 2009 USBC Masters telecast as he was for any shot he threw that afternoon.

Maybe that’s how it is when you bank $300,000 in a single season and rocket past your 10th title faster than guys with names like Dick Weber and Earl Anthony. Sooner or later, that name on your back grows a bull’s eye and every bowler you face takes aim with their A-games. But for three-time Team USA member Tommy Jones, no experience could better prepare him for the environment he expects to find in Munich.

“We know we have targets on our backs going in since we have won,” Jones says. “People want to prove that they belong there, and we know that it will take our best team effort to bring home a third straight gold medal.”



But Jones has something to prove too — that he belongs on the same team as the PBA champions he will call teammates next week.

“Instead of beating these guys, I have the best group of teammates I could ask for,” Jones says. “I have so much respect for them and I feel very honored to be on the same team with them. Not wanting to let them down gives me that extra drive.”

Professional bowling can be a lonely sport. No matter how many fans or accolades you garner out on the PBA tour, the only way to win is to stand on the approach alone and go. But the thing that keeps Tommy Jones coming back to Team USA is knowing that each time he steps up to the approach with the letters “USA” on his shirt, he does not just do it for himself. He does it for the five guys on the bench behind him. He does it for the country whose anthem he hopes to hear when the bowling is done.

“It is so rewarding to be on that medal stand and hear your national anthem,” Jones says. “There is no amount of money that could replace that.”