Wes Malott has been hotter than hot on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour.

PBA.com reports that Malott, 29, is the top-ranked bowler in the world for the first time in his career. He has 64,046 points on the tour — almost 30,000 more than second-place Norm Duke.

Malott did not win a title in his first 46 career events and recently became the first bowler since Walter Ray Williams Jr. in 2001 to make four consecutive televised shows.

This year, he became the first bowler in PBA Tour history to make the first four telecasts of the season.

In career match play, Malott is 6-1 against PBA Hall of Famers, going 4-0 against Williams, 1-0 against Pete Weber and 1-0 against David Ozio.

His lone defeat is to Amleto Monacelli.

While Malott had to wait until his 47th try to win a Tour title, others are waiting longer. Michael Haugen Jr. has yet to win after 161 events while Rudy Kasimakis is still waiting after 137, Tony Reyes after 130 and Paul Fleming after 120 events.

Once a bowler tastes victory, he may have to wait a while for another one. Mike Edwards has bowled in 228 PBA events since winning and has not won since. Rick Steelsmith has a drought of 167 events while David Traber hasn't won in his last 140 tries.