Shawn Maldonado

Shawn Maldonado (born 1986) is an American right-handed professional ten-pin bowler from Houston, Texas, who joined the Professional Bowlers Association in 2013. He owns two national PBA Tour titles, and has also won 20 PBA Regional Tour titles.

Maldonado uses a two-handed shovel-style delivery. Unusual for this style, he originally put his thumb in the ball. However, he converted to a no-thumb delivery in October 2020.

Maldonado is a national pro staff member for Hammer Bowling, after previously being sponsored by Storm.

Maldonado is married and has four children, Dominic, Mia, Shawn Jr (SJ), and Ace. Outside of bowling, he enjoys watching his son play baseball, while Shawn himself likes exercising and playing Chess, Billiards, Dominoes, Backgammon, Basketball and Tennis.

Professional career Maldonado joined the PBA in 2013, but did not participate full-time on the PBA Tour until the 2015 season, during which he made his first two televised finals appearances. He made it to the semifinal match of the 2016 U.S. Open, but was the victim of a televised 300 game by François Lavoie.

He broke through with his first national PBA title in the 2021 PBA Chameleon Championship, part of that season's PBA World Series of Bowling. He later won the 2021 PBA Lubbock Sports Open.

Maldonado had a third-place finish in the 2022 PBA Tournament of Champions. He qualified as the #15 seed for the 2022 PBA Playoffs. After an upset win over #2 seed Anthony Simonsen in the opening round, he was defeated by tenth-seeded A. J. Johnson in the quarterfinals.

At the 2023 PBA Dave Small's Jackson Classic, Maldonado made the stepladder finals (broadcast on BowlTV) and rolled the first 11 strikes in his opening match before leaving two pins with a light hit on his final shot for a 298 game. He would lose the semifinal match to eventual winner E. J. Tackett to finish in third place.

Maldonado and partner D.J. Archer have made the televised finals of the PBA Roth-Holman Doubles Championship five times, but hadn't earned a final round match win until defeating Sean Rash and Matt Ogle in the 2025 semifinals. However, they would lose the title match to Jason Belmonte and Bill O'Neill.

Maldonado has earned over $500,000 in PBA events through the first two months of the 2025 season.

Accomplishments and honors 2x Texas Masters champion 16 PBA Regional titles 2014 and 2015 PBA Southwest Region Player of the Year 2016 PBA Elias Cup Champion with the Dallas Strikers (PBA League team) 2021 PBA Chameleon Championship winner 2021 PBA Lubbock Sports Open winner