Giant Killer
March 31, 2024
The moment that the 2024 U.S. Open’s grueling 56 games of qualifying and match play ended with five sure-fire hall-of-famers populating its stepladder finals, bowling historians scrambled to determine if it was the strongest televised stepladder in Professional Bowlers Association history. Think that’s a stretch? Consider the following facts about the 2024 U.S. Open TV finalists:
• They possessed a combined 89 PBA Tour titles
• They had amassed a combined 28 major championships
• They comprised 10 of the last 11 PBA Players of the Year
• Four of the five had previously won this tournament, including three of the last four.
Not convinced? Have a look at the credentials each player brought to the show, including the history they would make with a victory:
• No. 5 Qualifier Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pennsylvania — the 2010 U.S. Open winner — would be the first competitor since 2020 to win consecutive majors after capturing the PBA Players Championship three weeks earlier.
• No. 4 Qualifier E.J. Tackett, Ossian, Indiana — the 2023 PBA Player of the Year and defending U.S. Open champion — would be the first to take back-to-back titles since Dave Husted in 1995-96.
• No. 3 Qualifier Kyle Troup, Mount Washington, Kentucky — the 2021 PBA Player of the Year — would avenge a runner-up finish to Tackett last year and capture his first U.S. Open crown.
• No. 2 Qualifier Jason Belmonte, Orange, New South Wales, Australia — the 2020 U.S. Open titlist — would become the first bowler to secure the PBA Super Slam (U.S. Open, PBA Players Championship, PBA Tournament of Champions, PBA World Championships, and United States Bowling Congress Masters) twice. Mike Aulby is the only other player to do it once.
• No. 1 Qualifier Anthony Simonsen, Las Vegas — the 2022 U.S. Open victor — would be the youngest to win six majors.
With résumés like that, no matter how the four matches went, history was going to be made. And as the live, FOX-televised show turned out, it was Troup who made it. The hair was high and mighty as always for the afro-bearing son of one of the PBA Tour’s most colorful performers in Guppy, but the garb spoke of a different presence. Gone were the Kobe Bryant-inspired “Mamba Mentality” blue-and-gold jersey and pants of so many of Troup’s marquee TV moments. No, this time, he sported a kind of forest green intended to evoke one of the greenest goods known to professional athletes: That green jacket donned only by those who have joined the rarefied air of U.S. Open champions.
“The green was my plan from the beginning of the week,” Troup said. “I was wearing green to match that green jacket. I spoke it into existence, and it happened.”
And it could not have happened against sturdier competition. The only one of the five who had never won the event, Troup beat what he called “The Big 3” in today’s bowling in succession to capture the $100,000 top prize. His 223-181 decision over Simonsen also allowed Troup to hold onto the eagle trophy and slip into the traditional green winner’s jacket.
“Mission accomplished,” he said. “It makes me believe firmly in speaking things into the universe and sticking to my process. My goal was to get better mentally every day.
“I really wasn’t worried about bowling good, just trying to be the best version of myself I could. When I got on TV, all the emotions and roller coasters kind of just go away and I got locked in on the show.”
After Tackett slipped past O’Neill, 212-209, in the opening match, Troup made sure there would be no repeat winner with a 212-200 decision over the defending champ. Next came Belmonte, who had beaten Troup in all three of their previous matches.
Before that match, Belmonte told FOX’s Kimberly Pressler the way to beat Troup was to not give him an opening. But the Australian two-hander did just that from the start by missing a 10 pin in the first frame and going through the nose leaving the 4-6-7-10 in the third frame. Troup took full advantage with a 229-157 victory.
That left the title match with Simonsen, who started with two splits of his own — the 4-8-10 in the first frame and 4-6 in the second while Troup opened with three strikes. Simonsen left a 10-pin in the eighth, Troup struck in the sixth, seventh, and eighth to virtually lock up the match. Once he did, he shed tears of joy — as did Guppy in the stands behind the championship pair.
“I couldn’t figure out the score and I’m a big score guy,” Kyle said. “I saw when I split (in the ninth frame) I needed like 10 pins. I knew I was going to crash. I knew if I got that eagle and the green jacket, my emotions were going to fly. This is a long journey back, but it feels amazing. I’m a two-time major champ.”
He employed a simple mantra of “quiet mind, quiet body, slow feet” to help him win.
“That was something on the second day of qualifying that one of my reps told me. ‘Keep your emotions calm and your body in control.’ Then I started doing it to a metronome of ‘quiet mind, quiet body, slow feet.’ I’ve done a lot of mental training, and the metronome can get you in rhythm. I did that in the last 30 games of the tournament.”
By executing that plan, he did something his legendary father — an eight-time PBA champion — just missed doing 40 years ago when the older Troup placed second in the same event to Mark Roth. Guppy was there to watch in person just like he does several times a year.
“We’ve got an Eagle coming home now,” Kyle told Pressler and the partisan crowd. “To win the U.S. Open — something Guppy didn’t do — is another notch in my belt compared to his. But we have some family fun with that.
“He’s going to remember this day forever. It’s a U.S. Open win for the Troup family. I love them. Their support really pushes me. Even though he lost then, this is a win for the Troup family. It’s very important to get this done and Pops was here. It was great.”
The next time the now 74-year-old Guppy Troup will see his son in person is a familiar setting for the elder Troup — the PBA Tournament of Champions in Akron, Ohio, in March.
“I finished second in ’84 but I’ll take it in the regionals. I’ve won 41 regionals,” said Guppy, whose last PBA50 event was about five years ago. Despite hobbling on a bum knee, he still bowls in a Thursday night league at Pin Station in Hickory, North Carolina.
There was no doubt that Kyle was the favorite of others in the overflow crowd, even though Tackett is from Indiana. Chants of “Troup, There It is” and signs like “Go with the Fro” proved that. Soon after he won, he acknowledged that support by taking the eagle trophy with him for a lap around the lanes that percolated with high-five hand slaps.
“It just gives me confidence. I’ve won a major,” he said. “I’d won 10 titles, but I can be pretty tough on myself and bowled pretty bad the first week out on tour. To get a win and a major was pretty special, as seven years straight I would not even come close to the cashers’ round here.
“Last year, I made match play and then finished second. It just shows the journey. I’ve been on Tour for more than 10 years. It’s crazy.”
Though he lost to Tackett in the 2023 title match, Troup said that was not a motivational factor in winning in 2024.
“It’s a different tournament,” he said. “The fact that I finished second last year didn’t matter. But now that I have this green jacket on it feels great. And to beat three guys like I did was special.”
Troup won his only 2023 title at the PBA Tour Finals and started 2024 with a 46th-place finish in the Player Championship in Wichita, Kansas. In between them, his life has been hectic.
He moved from Taylorsville, North Carolina, to Mount Washington outside Louisville, where he and fiancé Breanna Stewart built a house for them and her two kids. Soon after his arrival, he joined a Sunday night league and serves as a substitute on Wednesday nights at Kingpin Lanes, which also puts down oil patterns for him. So, in just a brief period, he’s grown comfortable in his new home area.
“It reminds me of North Carolina a little bit,” he said. “It’s rural, 30 minutes outside of Louisville, but there are seven to eight bowling centers in the area. I’ve had a lot of support from the league bowlers sending me messages. It’s nice to have another support community behind me as well. It’s been a nice transition.”
During breaks in the PBA schedule, Troup keeps himself busy through a variety of events. Some involve helping Sean Rash conduct clinics. Others relate to charitable work.
In 2022, he helped a friend conduct a fundraiser in Louisville that netted $8,000 to take several families Christmas shopping. Then, in the first week of December 2023, $12,000 was raised by the Troup No-Tap Tournament in North Carolina helping 14 kids. He plans to take the traveling event to Indianapolis later this year.
“We’re looking to do this every year and make it one of the biggest events, especially once I’m older and not bowling so much,” he said.
Later in December, he competed in Mookie Betts’ charity event outside of Nashville. Then, shortly before the start of the 2024 season, he joined PBA/USBC Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli and two-time Professional Women’s Bowling Association titlist Verity Crawley in the Jackpot Classic at Sea Tournament on three lanes of a Norwegian Cruise Line ship — an unusual event covered in our February issue.
Sailing out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, the cruise stopped in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic. There were 30 doubles teams that took part.
Going forward, he plans to launch a foundation to make his philanthropy more official and improved and secure some sponsors.
To prepare for this year, Troup continued an exercise regimen focused on all muscle groups. This included work to improve mobility and flexibility and a lot of core work.
“I try to get my body in shape to be the best I can be,” he said. “I don’t really need to be the strongest guy. I was maybe a little too heavy in 2020 and 2021. So, I do a little more cardio. I’m 32 and don’t want to say I’m old but bowling on Tour as long as I have will add a few years to you.”
Which makes his U.S. Open win even more special.
“It’s very challenging,” he said. “There’s a more limited arsenal than we see all year. Plus, we go from pattern to pattern each day. The 56 games of bowling and all that. Winning the U.S. Open is something I never would have thought I could win in my career, but wow!”
Entering the event, his only previous major was the historically lucrative 2021 Players Championship that netted him $250,000 and, ultimately, record season earnings of $469,200. After watching Tackett slip past O’Neill in the first match, Troup began a string of 28 straight frames without an open on his way to winning another.
“It feels great to beat the Big 3, so maybe they’ll reconsider me when they start posting articles,” Troup said. “I mean, to beat all of those guys, it means I bowled pretty damn good. I made a lot of shots. I left a couple of 10 pins here and there, but that was some of the best clutch bowling I’ve done on TV.
“I never worried about anybody else’s ball reactions. I knew mine was great and that’s all that matters. To hell with the Big 3.”
The Week that Was: The 2024 U.S. Open Notebook
From noteworthy stats to historical highlights and beyond, here is a more granular look at key moments that defined the 2024 edition of bowling’s most grueling challenge…
Key Stats
• The stepladder featured five righthanded bowlers — two traditional (O’Neill and Tackett) and three two-handers (Troup, Simonsen, and Belmonte).
• After placing 15th through the first eight qualifying games, Simonsen moved to No. 3 after 16 games, then led the field after each subsequent block finishing with a 219.79 average for 56 games. The five stepladder contestants all placed in the top five throughout match play.
• The main field consisted of 108 players, including 25 advancing from the Pre-Tournament Qualifier, which also featured 108 competitors. It was cut to the top 36 after 24 games and to 24 after 32 games.
• It took a 200.54 average to advance past the first cut and 202.59 to make it to match play.
• The U.S. Open Finals were viewed by 762,000 people on FOX. s
Historical Anecdotes
• This marked the seventh time Royal Pin Woodland has hosted the U.S. Open, tied for the most with Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick, New Jersey. The only center to host all five PBA majors, Woodland will break that tie next year.
• Woodland has been the site for several other major milestones, including Tackett completing the Triple Crown with his 2023 U.S. Open win and Simonsen becoming the youngest major champion in 2016 when he captured the USBC Masters. Others were Pete Weber, then tying for the most major titles with 10 at the 2013 Tournament of Champions, Walter Ray Williams Jr. matching Earl Anthony’s record with his 41st career PBA title in 2006, and Norm Duke winning the first of a PBA-record three consecutive majors there in 2008.
Twin Terrors
• Among the competitors were 17-year-old twins Landin and Griffin Jordan from Sycamore, Illinois. Landin was no stranger to PBA competition, having won the 2022 PBA Junior title. He continued that success by placing 15th overall with a 206.89 average. He ranked third after the 24 qualifying games with a 210.75 average and 10th after 32 games at 207.63. Griffin finished 42nd, 66 pins out of the top 32 with 197.79.
PBA Elite League Forging Ahead in New Format
Indianapolis fans did their best to mimic the excitement of those at Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, where the PBA League has been contested for the past 10 years. Woodland marked the second of nine sites where the League — rebranded as the PBA Elite League — has been taking the talents of its players on the road. But it was the first broadcast live on FS1.
“We wanted to elevate the competition in the PBA Elite League by creating a full regular season and making it a consistent part of each of our Tour stops,” said PBA Commissioner Tom Clark after the third and fourth rounds at the Illinois Classic in suburban Chicago.
“It has been great for our fans for four reasons: 1) Fans in multiple locations get to watch the best bowlers in the world compete in exciting, fast-paced team competition; 2) It is great for subscribers to our streaming partner BowlTV, which is bringing all that action to subscribers; 3) It is great across our social media and YouTube Channel, where fans get more content each week than simply the singles event taking place; and of course, 4) It makes for great television, as the ratings numbers for the first show attest.”
Clark said that Saturday night’s PBA Elite League telecast delivered 306,000 viewers on FS1, up 31% over last February’s PBA average on FS1 (233,000).
“That’s a very good sign and the audience climbed throughout,” Clark said. “The last 15 minutes of the last match actually reached nearly 800,000 viewers as it went to an exciting roll-off and we were on the air as NASCAR fans were coming into FS1 for the race.”
The new format has each of the eight teams meeting head-to-head twice, with the top six advancing to the quarterfinals in Portland in September. Each franchise added an additional player for the 2024 season after two franchises — Milwaukee and Chicago — didn’t carry over from 2023.
“Adding a sixth player per team has also made the strategy of lineups and substitutions an interesting part of the competition,” Clark said. “And the new roll-off shootout has made for great moments, with Chris Barnes coming off the bench twice now to win roll-offs for the KingPins.”
In Indianapolis, that roll-off ended when Barnes of the New Jersey KingPins rolled a strike vs. a 9-count by Arturo Quintero of the Portland Lumberjacks after the teams tied at 25 following the initial three-person shootout.
“It has also been great for the competition on the lanes as the League isn’t only contested in one bowling center on one oil pattern anymore,” Clark said. “The expansion to multiple stops means the teams match up on diverse conditions, different playing fields with a lot at stake with only six of the eight teams guaranteed a spot in the PBA Elite League Elias Cup Playoffs in Maine.
“And also, when you consider fans being able to follow along on PBA.com as the season progresses, it will all build towards an intensified 2024 Elias Cup competition.”
Rounds 5-10 were scheduled for later in February in Springfield, Missouri; Anderson, Indiana; and Middletown, Delaware. Remaining rounds will take place in Las Vegas in March and Allen Park, Michigan; and Fairlawn, Ohio, in April. FS1 will carry the March 30, April 6-7, and April 27 matches live with all others available on BowlTV.
• They possessed a combined 89 PBA Tour titles
• They had amassed a combined 28 major championships
• They comprised 10 of the last 11 PBA Players of the Year
• Four of the five had previously won this tournament, including three of the last four.
Not convinced? Have a look at the credentials each player brought to the show, including the history they would make with a victory:
• No. 5 Qualifier Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pennsylvania — the 2010 U.S. Open winner — would be the first competitor since 2020 to win consecutive majors after capturing the PBA Players Championship three weeks earlier.
• No. 4 Qualifier E.J. Tackett, Ossian, Indiana — the 2023 PBA Player of the Year and defending U.S. Open champion — would be the first to take back-to-back titles since Dave Husted in 1995-96.
• No. 3 Qualifier Kyle Troup, Mount Washington, Kentucky — the 2021 PBA Player of the Year — would avenge a runner-up finish to Tackett last year and capture his first U.S. Open crown.
• No. 2 Qualifier Jason Belmonte, Orange, New South Wales, Australia — the 2020 U.S. Open titlist — would become the first bowler to secure the PBA Super Slam (U.S. Open, PBA Players Championship, PBA Tournament of Champions, PBA World Championships, and United States Bowling Congress Masters) twice. Mike Aulby is the only other player to do it once.
• No. 1 Qualifier Anthony Simonsen, Las Vegas — the 2022 U.S. Open victor — would be the youngest to win six majors.
With résumés like that, no matter how the four matches went, history was going to be made. And as the live, FOX-televised show turned out, it was Troup who made it. The hair was high and mighty as always for the afro-bearing son of one of the PBA Tour’s most colorful performers in Guppy, but the garb spoke of a different presence. Gone were the Kobe Bryant-inspired “Mamba Mentality” blue-and-gold jersey and pants of so many of Troup’s marquee TV moments. No, this time, he sported a kind of forest green intended to evoke one of the greenest goods known to professional athletes: That green jacket donned only by those who have joined the rarefied air of U.S. Open champions.
“The green was my plan from the beginning of the week,” Troup said. “I was wearing green to match that green jacket. I spoke it into existence, and it happened.”
And it could not have happened against sturdier competition. The only one of the five who had never won the event, Troup beat what he called “The Big 3” in today’s bowling in succession to capture the $100,000 top prize. His 223-181 decision over Simonsen also allowed Troup to hold onto the eagle trophy and slip into the traditional green winner’s jacket.
“Mission accomplished,” he said. “It makes me believe firmly in speaking things into the universe and sticking to my process. My goal was to get better mentally every day.
“I really wasn’t worried about bowling good, just trying to be the best version of myself I could. When I got on TV, all the emotions and roller coasters kind of just go away and I got locked in on the show.”
After Tackett slipped past O’Neill, 212-209, in the opening match, Troup made sure there would be no repeat winner with a 212-200 decision over the defending champ. Next came Belmonte, who had beaten Troup in all three of their previous matches.
Before that match, Belmonte told FOX’s Kimberly Pressler the way to beat Troup was to not give him an opening. But the Australian two-hander did just that from the start by missing a 10 pin in the first frame and going through the nose leaving the 4-6-7-10 in the third frame. Troup took full advantage with a 229-157 victory.
That left the title match with Simonsen, who started with two splits of his own — the 4-8-10 in the first frame and 4-6 in the second while Troup opened with three strikes. Simonsen left a 10-pin in the eighth, Troup struck in the sixth, seventh, and eighth to virtually lock up the match. Once he did, he shed tears of joy — as did Guppy in the stands behind the championship pair.
“I couldn’t figure out the score and I’m a big score guy,” Kyle said. “I saw when I split (in the ninth frame) I needed like 10 pins. I knew I was going to crash. I knew if I got that eagle and the green jacket, my emotions were going to fly. This is a long journey back, but it feels amazing. I’m a two-time major champ.”
He employed a simple mantra of “quiet mind, quiet body, slow feet” to help him win.
“That was something on the second day of qualifying that one of my reps told me. ‘Keep your emotions calm and your body in control.’ Then I started doing it to a metronome of ‘quiet mind, quiet body, slow feet.’ I’ve done a lot of mental training, and the metronome can get you in rhythm. I did that in the last 30 games of the tournament.”
By executing that plan, he did something his legendary father — an eight-time PBA champion — just missed doing 40 years ago when the older Troup placed second in the same event to Mark Roth. Guppy was there to watch in person just like he does several times a year.
“We’ve got an Eagle coming home now,” Kyle told Pressler and the partisan crowd. “To win the U.S. Open — something Guppy didn’t do — is another notch in my belt compared to his. But we have some family fun with that.
“He’s going to remember this day forever. It’s a U.S. Open win for the Troup family. I love them. Their support really pushes me. Even though he lost then, this is a win for the Troup family. It’s very important to get this done and Pops was here. It was great.”
The next time the now 74-year-old Guppy Troup will see his son in person is a familiar setting for the elder Troup — the PBA Tournament of Champions in Akron, Ohio, in March.
“I finished second in ’84 but I’ll take it in the regionals. I’ve won 41 regionals,” said Guppy, whose last PBA50 event was about five years ago. Despite hobbling on a bum knee, he still bowls in a Thursday night league at Pin Station in Hickory, North Carolina.
There was no doubt that Kyle was the favorite of others in the overflow crowd, even though Tackett is from Indiana. Chants of “Troup, There It is” and signs like “Go with the Fro” proved that. Soon after he won, he acknowledged that support by taking the eagle trophy with him for a lap around the lanes that percolated with high-five hand slaps.
“It just gives me confidence. I’ve won a major,” he said. “I’d won 10 titles, but I can be pretty tough on myself and bowled pretty bad the first week out on tour. To get a win and a major was pretty special, as seven years straight I would not even come close to the cashers’ round here.
“Last year, I made match play and then finished second. It just shows the journey. I’ve been on Tour for more than 10 years. It’s crazy.”
Though he lost to Tackett in the 2023 title match, Troup said that was not a motivational factor in winning in 2024.
“It’s a different tournament,” he said. “The fact that I finished second last year didn’t matter. But now that I have this green jacket on it feels great. And to beat three guys like I did was special.”
Troup won his only 2023 title at the PBA Tour Finals and started 2024 with a 46th-place finish in the Player Championship in Wichita, Kansas. In between them, his life has been hectic.
He moved from Taylorsville, North Carolina, to Mount Washington outside Louisville, where he and fiancé Breanna Stewart built a house for them and her two kids. Soon after his arrival, he joined a Sunday night league and serves as a substitute on Wednesday nights at Kingpin Lanes, which also puts down oil patterns for him. So, in just a brief period, he’s grown comfortable in his new home area.
“It reminds me of North Carolina a little bit,” he said. “It’s rural, 30 minutes outside of Louisville, but there are seven to eight bowling centers in the area. I’ve had a lot of support from the league bowlers sending me messages. It’s nice to have another support community behind me as well. It’s been a nice transition.”
During breaks in the PBA schedule, Troup keeps himself busy through a variety of events. Some involve helping Sean Rash conduct clinics. Others relate to charitable work.
In 2022, he helped a friend conduct a fundraiser in Louisville that netted $8,000 to take several families Christmas shopping. Then, in the first week of December 2023, $12,000 was raised by the Troup No-Tap Tournament in North Carolina helping 14 kids. He plans to take the traveling event to Indianapolis later this year.
“We’re looking to do this every year and make it one of the biggest events, especially once I’m older and not bowling so much,” he said.
Later in December, he competed in Mookie Betts’ charity event outside of Nashville. Then, shortly before the start of the 2024 season, he joined PBA/USBC Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli and two-time Professional Women’s Bowling Association titlist Verity Crawley in the Jackpot Classic at Sea Tournament on three lanes of a Norwegian Cruise Line ship — an unusual event covered in our February issue.
Sailing out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, the cruise stopped in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic. There were 30 doubles teams that took part.
Going forward, he plans to launch a foundation to make his philanthropy more official and improved and secure some sponsors.
To prepare for this year, Troup continued an exercise regimen focused on all muscle groups. This included work to improve mobility and flexibility and a lot of core work.
“I try to get my body in shape to be the best I can be,” he said. “I don’t really need to be the strongest guy. I was maybe a little too heavy in 2020 and 2021. So, I do a little more cardio. I’m 32 and don’t want to say I’m old but bowling on Tour as long as I have will add a few years to you.”
Which makes his U.S. Open win even more special.
“It’s very challenging,” he said. “There’s a more limited arsenal than we see all year. Plus, we go from pattern to pattern each day. The 56 games of bowling and all that. Winning the U.S. Open is something I never would have thought I could win in my career, but wow!”
Entering the event, his only previous major was the historically lucrative 2021 Players Championship that netted him $250,000 and, ultimately, record season earnings of $469,200. After watching Tackett slip past O’Neill in the first match, Troup began a string of 28 straight frames without an open on his way to winning another.
“It feels great to beat the Big 3, so maybe they’ll reconsider me when they start posting articles,” Troup said. “I mean, to beat all of those guys, it means I bowled pretty damn good. I made a lot of shots. I left a couple of 10 pins here and there, but that was some of the best clutch bowling I’ve done on TV.
“I never worried about anybody else’s ball reactions. I knew mine was great and that’s all that matters. To hell with the Big 3.”
The Week that Was: The 2024 U.S. Open Notebook
From noteworthy stats to historical highlights and beyond, here is a more granular look at key moments that defined the 2024 edition of bowling’s most grueling challenge…
Key Stats
• The stepladder featured five righthanded bowlers — two traditional (O’Neill and Tackett) and three two-handers (Troup, Simonsen, and Belmonte).
• After placing 15th through the first eight qualifying games, Simonsen moved to No. 3 after 16 games, then led the field after each subsequent block finishing with a 219.79 average for 56 games. The five stepladder contestants all placed in the top five throughout match play.
• The main field consisted of 108 players, including 25 advancing from the Pre-Tournament Qualifier, which also featured 108 competitors. It was cut to the top 36 after 24 games and to 24 after 32 games.
• It took a 200.54 average to advance past the first cut and 202.59 to make it to match play.
• The U.S. Open Finals were viewed by 762,000 people on FOX. s
Historical Anecdotes
• This marked the seventh time Royal Pin Woodland has hosted the U.S. Open, tied for the most with Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick, New Jersey. The only center to host all five PBA majors, Woodland will break that tie next year.
• Woodland has been the site for several other major milestones, including Tackett completing the Triple Crown with his 2023 U.S. Open win and Simonsen becoming the youngest major champion in 2016 when he captured the USBC Masters. Others were Pete Weber, then tying for the most major titles with 10 at the 2013 Tournament of Champions, Walter Ray Williams Jr. matching Earl Anthony’s record with his 41st career PBA title in 2006, and Norm Duke winning the first of a PBA-record three consecutive majors there in 2008.
Twin Terrors
• Among the competitors were 17-year-old twins Landin and Griffin Jordan from Sycamore, Illinois. Landin was no stranger to PBA competition, having won the 2022 PBA Junior title. He continued that success by placing 15th overall with a 206.89 average. He ranked third after the 24 qualifying games with a 210.75 average and 10th after 32 games at 207.63. Griffin finished 42nd, 66 pins out of the top 32 with 197.79.
PBA Elite League Forging Ahead in New Format
Indianapolis fans did their best to mimic the excitement of those at Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, where the PBA League has been contested for the past 10 years. Woodland marked the second of nine sites where the League — rebranded as the PBA Elite League — has been taking the talents of its players on the road. But it was the first broadcast live on FS1.
“We wanted to elevate the competition in the PBA Elite League by creating a full regular season and making it a consistent part of each of our Tour stops,” said PBA Commissioner Tom Clark after the third and fourth rounds at the Illinois Classic in suburban Chicago.
“It has been great for our fans for four reasons: 1) Fans in multiple locations get to watch the best bowlers in the world compete in exciting, fast-paced team competition; 2) It is great for subscribers to our streaming partner BowlTV, which is bringing all that action to subscribers; 3) It is great across our social media and YouTube Channel, where fans get more content each week than simply the singles event taking place; and of course, 4) It makes for great television, as the ratings numbers for the first show attest.”
Clark said that Saturday night’s PBA Elite League telecast delivered 306,000 viewers on FS1, up 31% over last February’s PBA average on FS1 (233,000).
“That’s a very good sign and the audience climbed throughout,” Clark said. “The last 15 minutes of the last match actually reached nearly 800,000 viewers as it went to an exciting roll-off and we were on the air as NASCAR fans were coming into FS1 for the race.”
The new format has each of the eight teams meeting head-to-head twice, with the top six advancing to the quarterfinals in Portland in September. Each franchise added an additional player for the 2024 season after two franchises — Milwaukee and Chicago — didn’t carry over from 2023.
“Adding a sixth player per team has also made the strategy of lineups and substitutions an interesting part of the competition,” Clark said. “And the new roll-off shootout has made for great moments, with Chris Barnes coming off the bench twice now to win roll-offs for the KingPins.”
In Indianapolis, that roll-off ended when Barnes of the New Jersey KingPins rolled a strike vs. a 9-count by Arturo Quintero of the Portland Lumberjacks after the teams tied at 25 following the initial three-person shootout.
“It has also been great for the competition on the lanes as the League isn’t only contested in one bowling center on one oil pattern anymore,” Clark said. “The expansion to multiple stops means the teams match up on diverse conditions, different playing fields with a lot at stake with only six of the eight teams guaranteed a spot in the PBA Elite League Elias Cup Playoffs in Maine.
“And also, when you consider fans being able to follow along on PBA.com as the season progresses, it will all build towards an intensified 2024 Elias Cup competition.”
Rounds 5-10 were scheduled for later in February in Springfield, Missouri; Anderson, Indiana; and Middletown, Delaware. Remaining rounds will take place in Las Vegas in March and Allen Park, Michigan; and Fairlawn, Ohio, in April. FS1 will carry the March 30, April 6-7, and April 27 matches live with all others available on BowlTV.