Australian Jason Belmonte earned the 2008-09 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year honors after becoming the first two-handed player to win a PBA Tour title.

Rhino Page was named the 2007-08 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year after a record-breaking season that led to his landslide victory.

Page ran away with the PBA Rookie of the Year Award after putting together perhaps the greatest rookie season in PBA history. He set rookie records in earnings ($84,811) and championship round appearances (five) and became just the eighth Rookie of the Year to win a title in their first season and the first since C.K. Moore in 1996, when he captured the 2008 Go RVing Classic.

“I’m really excited to receive the award. It’s a great honor,” Page (Topeka, Kan.) said. “It’s nice for it to be official since I knew I had a good chance. It’s definitely the icing on the cake for a season I couldn’t have even dreamed about.”

The Team USA member joined the PBA in October and made an immediate impact, finishing second in the first Denny’s PBA Tour Qualifying Round (TQR) of the season in the Motor City Classic and first in the following week’s Etonic Championship TQR. It was a sign of things to come as Page broke nearly every record for qualifiers, advancing through the qualifier 12 times, leading the TQR on three occasions and making match play nine times as a qualifier.

“I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I knew how tough it was to get through the TQR and it was definitely a learning process” Page said. “My first three times in match play I had to face Pete Weber, Chris Barnes and Chris Loschetter and lost in seven games each time. It was like, “holy cow, I’m getting thrown into the lion’s den.’ But the next time I knew what to expect and how to handle myself and the learning curve was quicker because of that.”

In the TQR for the Lumber Liquidators Championship, Page broke the PBA’s seven-game scoring record with a 1,883 seven-game pinfall for a 269.00 average. He finished the season fourth on Tour in average (223.42), ninth in the PBA World Point Rankings, and was 10th in the PBA Player of the Year rankings, posting two runner-up finishes in addition to his victory.

Page’s win made him just the third bowler to capture a title after qualifying through the TQR.

Finishing a distant second was Todd Book, who made one championship round – placing fourth in the Lake County Indiana Classic – and finished 29th in the PBA World Point Rankings to regain his exemption for 2008-09. Steve Harman, who was 34th in points and also will be back as an exempt bowler next season, finished third.

*The 2002 awards where based on the 2001-02 season, marking a transition from caledar-year to seasonal.