Sep 01 2021
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The 2021 PBA Tour was certainly a season unlike any before, competing during a global pandemic. Players began the season wearing masks on television finals; fans weren’t really allowed until the last few tour stops.

Jason Belmonte, the winner of six of the last eight PBA Player of the Year awards, including the past two, failed to win a title this season for the first time since 2016, ceding control of the bowling realm.

Plenty of players had been knocking on Belmonte’s throne and were more than ready to take charge.

Who defined the 2021 PBA season? Who broke onto the scene? What were the best moments of the year?

Asked, and answered:

Player of the Year

TitlesMajorsRunner-UpsCRAMPA$
Kyle Troup213811$497k
Tom Daugherty212510$200k
Chris Via110511$124k
Francois Lavoie11046$371k
Anthony Simonsen101712$188k
EJ Tackett10029$81k
Shawn Maldonado20034$61k
Jakob Butturff002510$117k

The 2021 PBA Tour featured terrific seasons from a number of players, but the half-a-million-dollar man is my pick for Player of the Year. 

Kyle Troup followed up his stellar, three-title 2020 season with a record-setting earnings campaign in 2021. The 30-year-old North Carolinian captured his first career major at the Players Championship and later added a second title at the Tour Finals.

After making a pair of major telecasts in 2020, Chris Via added three more to his resume in 2021. With five major telecasts since 2020, Via is tied with Belmonte and Anthony Simonsen for the most among all PBA tour players.

Via’s sole title in 2021 was a big one: the US Open, his first career major. He also became the third player to throw two televised 300s and the first player to do so in the same season.

Simonsen made the most match play appearances (MPA) and the second-most championship round appearances (CRA) of any player, by my calculations. The 24-year-old finished with just one title — stepladder finals are a fickle beast — but raked in the fourth-most earnings.

Tom Daugherty is Troup’s fiercest competitor. The Floridian’s season eerily resembles Troup’s: two titles, one major, and multiple runner-up finishes.

He stole the show in his home center at the World Series of Bowling, capturing two titles, including his first career major, and a runner-up finish in the Roth/Holman Doubles.

Troup’s steady dominance defined the 2021 season. I felt that he stamped his name on the Player of the Year award with his PBA Playoffs title in May.

But Daugherty’s runner-up finish at the season finale in Chesapeake reignited the debate. For a moment, the Player of the Year race appeared to be a photo finish.

When the dust settled, the race wasn’t all that close. Troup crossed the line in a Ferrari, Daugherty in a Honda Civic.

The 2021 season will be remembered as the season Troup established himself as one of the sport’s premier players — when he made the leap from the dude with the Afro and outlandish outfits that fans wanted to watch, to the stone-cold killer no competitor wanted to see.

Five years ago, Troup worked as a Wendy’s manager. Today, he’s the best bowler on the planet.

There is something to be said about fast-food employment paying the bills more consistently than professional bowling, but not today.

Final Voting:

  1. Kyle Troup
  2. Tom Daugherty
  3. Chris Via
  4. Anthony Simonsen
  5. Francois Lavoie

Rookie of the Year

TitlesEarningsCRAMPA
Zach Weidman0$36k25
Matt Russo1$17k13
Wesley Low Jr.0$15k12

Do you prefer consistently solid play or inconsistency with a splash of greatness? 

Because Zach Weidman was the most consistent rookie this year, but Matt Russo was the only rookie to win a title.

This is a tough call — and one where my opinion may evolve over time — but I’m going with the more consistent player.

Russo’s title in Jonesboro is, of course, the signature achievement by any rookie this season. (Shameless self-plug alert: check out my story for PBA.com on Russo.)

But Weidman’s performance in the Players Championship Central Region Finals came rather close. 

On true live TV, he took down a gauntlet of PBA champions, including a pair of former-POYs. 

Weidman first defeated Wes Malott with a 258 before throwing the front-nine at Ronnie Russell, finishing with 277 and a win. Then he needed every bit of a 268 game to take down Andrew Anderson in the semifinals. 

That’s an 803 series for those doing the math at home.

He ultimately lost to Tom Smallwood, aka Tommy Bigwood, but shooting 800 on your TV debut is extremely impressive nonetheless.

At the end of the day, Weidman’s earnings and MPAs nearly doubled Russo’s. Weidman bowled better more often, and one non-major title wasn’t enough to outweigh that in this instance.

Final Voting:

  1. Zach Weidman
  2. Matt Russo
  3. Wesley Low Jr.

Most Improved Player

Julius Randle won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award in 2021, and it’s easy to see why: He set career highs in points and assists per game while shooting a career-high from the three-point line and leading the Knicks to the 4-seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Uh, those types of stats don’t really exist in bowling at this point in time.

*Jim Halpert-style pan to camera* Give me a few years 😉

– We have a player’s average, but that is completely subjective to a thousand different variables. Sometimes averaging 210 is more impressive than averaging 240.

– We have earnings, but that metric only distinguishes players at the top.

– We have MPAs/CRAs, which I like a great deal because they are fairly informative, but aren’t consistent as I laid out in this Twitter thread.

So I have to rely on my instincts in my selection for this award.

There are generally two types of leaps a player can make. These apply to all sports and, really, all avenues of life.

The first is the jump into relevance. This is when a player, typically earlier in their careers, starts to consistently make cuts for the first time.

A really dumbed-down way to monitor their social media. When their comments shift from Snagged a check!! What a week! to Struggled all week, but still managed to snag a check, you can tell that player has crossed a certain threshold.

A couple of players who seem to have made this leap were Michael Davidson and Packy Hanrahan, who finished 24 and 31, respectively, on the Tour Points List.

The second type of growth is much more difficult: the ascension to stardom. This is when a player goes from making cuts consistently to making TV shows consistently.

In most sports, it’s very difficult to judge if these leaps are sustainable; in bowling, it’s impossible.

For example, Andrew Anderson exploded from an intriguing young player to the Player of the Year in 2018. He was utterly dominant — but we haven’t seen that Andrew Anderson since. That doesn’t mean his great season was a fluke or anything; it does highlight how success is not necessarily within a player’s control in bowling.

I believe Daugherty made this leap this season, as did Darren Tang and Shawn Maldonado to a lesser degree.

But are those improvements sustainable? (I’ll be asking Tang that exact question for a story soon.)

At 46 years old, Daugherty would have to be among the oldest MIP candidates ever for any sport. Furthermore, much of his dominance came at the World Series of Bowling — which was literally held in his home center.

But this award isn’t about whether Daugherty will continue to be a star in 2022 and beyond — it’s about 2021. And Daugherty was sensational.

There are no wrong answers here. Well, actually, there are — let’s say there are several right answers.

I tend to lean towards the players making the second type of leap because that level of development and maturation is much more difficult.

Final Voting:

  1. Tom Daugherty
  2. Darren Tang
  3. Michael Davidson

First Team All-PBA

  • Kyle Troup
  • Tom Daugherty
  • Chris Via
  • Anthony Simonsen
  • Francois Lavoie

Troup, Daugherty, and Via were locks as POY front-runners. Simonsen was not far behind, with easily the best season of any non-titleist.

Initially, I thought the fifth spot could have gone to any number of players.

Maldonado won two titles — only Troup and Daugherty could say the same — but he didn’t do anything else of note this season.

Jakob Butturff had the most CRAs, MPAs, and runner-up finishes of any remaining player. He also did finish fourth on the PBA Tour Points List, but that opens a can of worms and a conversation for another time.

Francois Lavoie is the Exception to the Rule
My story on Francois Lavoie from earlier this year.

But with nearly over $371,000 in earnings, Lavoie probably had a top-ten season ever in terms of winnings. His road to the Tournament of Champions title cannot be overstated.

Starting from the 5-seed, Lavoie took down Sean Rash, Jesper Svensson, Jason Belmonte, and Simonsen to capture his third career major title.

I don’t see how you can do that and not be recognized as a top-five player on tour.

Best Moments

The 2021 season didn’t produce any singular moment quite like anything from 2020, where Belmonte captured his first US Open title to complete the Super Slam and Tommy Jones shot 300 to win the Hall of Fame Classic on his own Hall of Fame induction weekend.

The lack of drama and excitement was, in part, due to a lack of fans for a significant portion of the season. Daugherty’s rolled two-pin to win the World Championship looks a hell of a lot different with a few hundred screaming fans in attendance, especially at his home center.

None of that is to say 2021 was without its share of great moments.

Chris Via shoots two televised 300 games in the same season for the first time in PBA history.

He shot the first perfect game at the PBA Players Championship East Region Finals and the second during the Group 1 stepladder at the Tour Finals.

300 have slowly lost a bit of their luster in recent years, but perfection is perfection.

18-year-old Anthony Neuer converts the 7-10 on the US Open telecast.

There are two historic accomplishments to note here.

#1: An 18-year-old made a major telecast.

Neuer has been a known commodity in the bowling world for quite some time. “The Ginger Assassin” is a two-time Junior Gold champion and has represented Junior Team USA since 2018. Making the US Open telecast at 18 years old is undeniably impressive, but I don’t think those familiar with Neuer’s talent were that surprised.

#2: The last 7-10 conversion on television before Neuer’s took place in 1991.

Neuer’s 7-10 conversion was only the fourth in PBA history and even made SportsCenter Top Ten Plays. While it was cool to see bowling covered, albeit briefly, by the worldwide leader, ESPN infamously, at least in the bowling nerd community, failed to mention Via actually won the tournament.

High schooler Spencer Robarge makes the USBC Masters telecast.

One week after the US Open, another 18-year-old made a major telecast at the USBC Masters.

With multiple national youth titles and 41 certified 300 games, the all-time record for youth bowlers, Robarge is another celebrity in youth bowling.

The high schooler took down Via just a week after his US Open title in his first match, then defeated Jason Sterner in the next. He fell to eventual champion Thomas Larsen in the semifinals, but a third-place finish at the damn Masters is quite a story for his next class’s show-and-tell.

Zach Weidman and Kris Koeltzow dominate on TV debuts.

I already outlined Weidman’s run in the Players Championship Central Region stepladder, but Koeltzow’s run in the West region stepladder was similarly impressive.

Fifth-seeded Koeltzow fired 269 to defeat Darren Tang in the opening match. In the next match, he shot 268 in a win over Butturff. Koeltzow came back down to earth with a 254 to defeat Low Jr. in the semifinals.

His 791 series meant nothing to top-seeded Simonsen, who fired a 279 to halt Koeltzow’s climb.

Weidman and Koeltzow may not have PBA titles to their name, yet, but they stole the show on those afternoons.

Daugherty wins his first career major title in his home center.

Sometimes I wonder if Butturff is cursed on TV. And then he whiffs another 7-pin and I throw my hands up.

Sam Cooley shoots 300 in the PBA Playoffs title match.

Troup defeated Cooley in the match, so his perfection is sort of lost to history. In fact, I had completely forgotten it ever happened. I will, however, never forget Cooley’s signature smirk.

16-year-old Erik Jones made Jonesboro Open Show.

The Summer Tour was not broadcasted on live television and the Jonesboro Open is no USBC Masters or US Open, so Jones’ achievement didn’t quite make the waves that Neuer and Robarge were able to.

However, a top-four finish at a national tour stop by a high schooler has only happened a handful of times in PBA history. It is nothing but historic.

In 2020, Jones became the youngest to win a PBA regional at just 15 years and 263 days old, non-membership be damned.

The Best Moment: The Final Frame of the US Open.

Ten years earlier, the US Open ended in an unforgettable fashion. Mika Koivuniemi needed just a spare and count to defeat Norm Duke for the title, but he whiffed a ten-pin in the tenth frame.

The 2021 US Open final did not quite live up to Schmidt and Nick’s Tinfinity, but it came close.

Top-seeded Via faced off against Butturff, who returned to the championship match in 2021 seeking revenge.

The left-hander led the 2017 event by 647 pins and the 2018 event by 552 pins — but lost in both title matches.

Via failed to shut out Butturff in his tenth frame, leaving the door slightly ajar.

Butturff needed all three strikes in the tenth frame to tie the match.

When a nasty messenger took out the 7-pin on his second ball in the tenth, destiny seemed to be on Butturff’s side.

Alas, it was not.

Butturff missed badly and the lefty took home his third runner-up US Open finish in five years.

Ordinarily, I’d prefer a moment of triumph. EJ Tackett hugging his dad after winning his first major title in 2016 and, obviously, Pete Weber’s “Who you think you are? I am!” reaction to winning the 2013 US Open come to mind.

But no other moment in 2021 quite grabbed my attention like the conclusion to the US Open.

You can’t ask for much more than a win-or-go-home shot, between two of the greatest talents in the world, each fighting their own mental demons, in a major championship final.

Posted inBowling
Tagsanthony neuer anthony simonsen bowling chris via ej tackett erik jones francois lavoie jakob butturff matt russo pba sam cooley shawn maldonado spencer robarge tom daugherty wesley low zach weidman