Peter David Weber (born August 21, 1962) is an American bowler in the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), currently competing on the exclusive to their age-group PBA50+ tours (PBA50 and PBA60), and a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.
Weber was one of the sport's most active players and became known for his maverick, chirpy and rebellious personality. He is also known for being versatile, with his high backswing and the side rotation he puts on the bowling ball helping him control numerous oil conditions.
Weber is featured in the ten-pin bowling sports documentary A League of Ordinary Gentlemen. He has won 37 titles on the PBA Tour (fourth all-time), including ten major championships (tied for second all-time), and another 14 titles (six majors) on the PBA50 Tour, and another title on the PBA60 Tour. He is one of only three bowlers in history (with Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Earl Anthony) to have amassed at least 50 combined titles between the PBA Tour and PBA50+ Tours. Weber and Williams Jr. are the only two bowlers to have amassed at least 100 total PBA titles, with PBA Regional events added. (Weber currently has 110 total titles with his 48 PBA Regional Tour and nine PBA50 Regional Tour wins included.) He is tied with Chris Warren for the most wins on the regular PBA Regional Tour.
Weber has won bowling's U.S. Open a record five times, breaking the previous record of his dad, Dick Weber, who won the event four times in his career. Among the nine players in history to win the PBA's triple crown (U.S. Open, PBA World Championship and PBA Tournament of Champions), Weber is the only bowler to win each of these events at least twice in a career. He has also won the PBA Senior U.S. Open twice, and is a two-time PBA50 Player of the Year, in addition to winning PBA60 Player of the Year in his first full season.
Weber grew up in Florissant, Missouri, and as the son of bowling superstar Dick Weber, was introduced to the sport at the age of two. At the age of 15, Weber was already winning local bowling tournaments against adult players, and won his first PBA Regional Tour event (as a non-member) at age 16. With the help of his father, Pete was able to become a PBA member at the age of 17 (the former policy required a minimum age of 18). In 1979, Weber bowled in his first event on the professional circuit and participated in 20 tour events during the 1980 season, making one televised finals appearance. Weber won Rookie of the Year honors in 1980. By 1982, he had won his first PBA title, winning two that season. By the time he was 24 years old, he had already reached the 10-title plateau (becoming the youngest player in PBA history to attain that mark). At age 26, he narrowly won the PBA National Championship over Dave Ferraro, giving him all three jewels of the PBA's "triple crown" (achieved by winning the U.S. Open, Tournament of Champions and PBA National Championship).
Weber and his father, Dick, were the first father-and-son combination to ever both earn a title on the PBA Tour. The feat has since been matched four times, by Don/Jimmy Johnson (1990), Don/Eugene McCune (2002), Guppy/Kyle Troup (2015) and Eugene/Kevin McCune (2023).
Weber is the youngest player to reach 10 PBA titles, accomplishing the feat in 1987 at age 24 years, 247 days. His 16th PBA Tour title on March 2, 1991, at the Fair Lanes Open was earned "on the bench" in one of the PBA's most infamous incidents. Weber struck three times in the tenth frame of the title match, forcing his opponent, Del Ballard Jr., to get two strikes and seven pins in his final frame to win. Ballard rolled the two strikes, but then sent his fill shot into the right gutter, handing Weber the championship.
On April 17, 1993, Weber won his 20th Tour title at the IOF Foresters Bowling for Miracles Open, giving him the record of youngest to win 20 career Tour titles at the age of 30 years, 239 days. Six months later, Weber would win his 21st Tour title at the Oronamin C Japan Cup, giving him titles in 11 of the last 12 seasons, and multiple titles in 8 of those seasons. Weber would not win his 22nd Tour title until the 1997 PBA Tour season, the longest winless streak in his professional career. In the 2003–04 season, he won two titles, including his 30th title and his third U.S. Open, and earned a career-high $206,217. On December 4, 2005, Weber overcame a year of trying times both personally and professionally by clinching what was, perhaps, the most emotional title of his career at the 2005 Bowlersparadise.com Classic at Stardust Bowl in Hammond, Indiana. This marked the first television appearance for Weber in 666 days, and it was his first title after the death of his father on February 13, 2005. Weber honored his father after the victory by looking into the ESPN cameras and pointing at the "DW" patch on his sleeve.
Overall, Weber has won 37 PBA Tour events, including ten major titles (tied with Earl Anthony for the second most majors all-time). Three of his last four PBA Tour victories were in major championships. His 37th tour win on March 31, 2013, came at age 50 in the Tournament of Champions. His 37 wins place him fourth on the all-time PBA tour titles list, behind only Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (47), Earl Anthony (43) and Norm Duke (40). Weber's 35th Tour win at the end of the 2009-10 season against Mike Scroggins at the 2010 Marathon Open in the title match ensured Walter Ray Williams Jr. his record 7th Player of the Year award, as well as making Williams (then age 50) the oldest ever to win that award. Had Weber lost the title match, Scroggins would have been named Player of the Year for that season.
Weber has rolled 85 perfect 300 games in PBA competition through 2018. His five U.S. Open titles are the most of any bowler in PBA history. He also had a runner-up finish in the 1987 U.S. Open. Weber is one of eight PBA players to have earned the career PBA Triple Crown. Upon winning the 2013 Tournament of Champions title, he became the first bowler to win all three jewels of the Triple Crown at least twice in a career (five U.S. Open titles, two PBA World Championship titles, and two wins in the Tournament of Champions). He is also the oldest winner of the U.S. Open (49) and Tournament of Champions (50). The Tournament of Champions win at age 50 years, 222 days made him the oldest player to win a PBA Tour major title that was considered a major at the time of victory. (Ernie Schlegel won the 1996 USBC Masters at age 53 before it was considered a PBA major; he was retroactively credited with a major due to a 2008 rule change.) Weber's other major win was in the Touring Players Championship. The only major that has eluded him is the USBC Masters among the regular majors. Weber would finish runner-up at the Masters in 1983 to Mike Lastowski, 189–202, and again in 2000, losing to Mika Koivuniemi in the final. Despite throwing the last 6 consecutive strikes, Weber finished with a 235 game, which was 1 pin shy of Koivuniemi's final 236 score. Among senior majors, he has yet to win the Tournament of Champions or the USBC Super Senior Classic (part of the USBC Senior Masters, was first eligible in 2023).
Along with Mike Aulby, Parker Bohn III, Norm Duke, and Walter Ray Williams Jr., Weber is one of only five bowlers to have won at least one standard PBA Tour title in four different decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s). However, a feat that sets him apart from his contemporaries is that he has won a U.S. Open title in the same four consecutive decades, specifically in 1988, 1991, 2004, 2007, and 2012.
Weber joined his father in the PBA Hall of Fame in 1998, and he became a member of the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in 2002. His career PBA Tour earnings of over $4 million (through the 2019 season) place him second all-time, behind only all-time titles leader Walter Ray Williams, Jr. Weber and Williams are the only two PBA bowlers to have topped the $4 million mark in career earnings. Weber owns 48 PBA Regional titles, the most all-time, in addition to four PBA50 Regional titles.