Adam "A. J." Johnson (born September 3, 1992) is an American professional bowler from

Oswego, Illinois Oswego ( ) is a village in Kendall and Will counties, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 34,485. Oswego is the largest municipality in Kendall County. Part of the Chicago metropolitan area, it is an exurb of Chica ...

. He has been a member of the

Professional Bowlers Association The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and currently owned by the Lucky Strike Entertainment Corpor ...

(PBA) since 2015. He won his first

PBA Tour The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for tenpin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Reg ...

title in 2023. He has also been a multi-year member of Team USA, and is on the 2025 team. Johnson is a member of the

MOTIV Bowling MOTIV Bowling is an American company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls. The company headquarters are in Spring Lake, Michigan, with the main manufacturing facility in nearby Muskegon Heights. History MOTIV had its beginnings in ...

pro staff. He is also sponsored by Turbo grips.

Amateur career

Johnson bowled collegiately for

McKendree University McKendree University (McK), formerly McKendree College, is a private university in Lebanon, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1828 as the "Lebanon Seminary", it is the oldest college or university in Illinois. The school was renamed McKendree ...

, where he earned first-team All-American and MVP honors in the 2013–14 season. In 2013, he was a member of Junior Team USA. He won the 2013 Junior Gold Championships as a youth bowler for the United States. He has been a five-time member of Team USA. At the 2019 PABCON Championships in

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, he won gold in team and all events, and silver in singles. He previously won gold in team and bronze in all events at the 2017 World Bowling Championships. In 2015, Johnson entered the

USBC Masters The USBC Masters is a championship ten-pin bowling event conducted by the United States Bowling Congress. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) began recognizing it as a title event in 1998, and it was designated one of the four majors in 2000 ...

as an amateur and earned the #1 seed in qualifying, but he would lose the final match to

Jason Belmonte Jason Belmonte (born 29 July 1983) is an Australian professional ten-pin bowling, ten-pin bowler. He plays on the PBA Tour in the United States and in world events. He is known for being one of the first bowlers to gain media attention for usi ...

. Johnson was part of the rotating four-person team (with

Jakob Butturff Jakob Butturff (born April 28, 1994) is a left-handed American bowler (ten-pin), ten-pin bowler from Chandler, Arizona and a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He competes in events on the PBA Tour and in global events as a ...

, Andrew Anderson and

Kristopher Prather Kristopher "Kris" Prather (born January 1, 1992) of Plainfield, Illinois is an American professional ten-pin bowler who competes on the PBA Tour. He is known for winning the inaugural PBA Tour Playoffs on June 2, 2019 and the PBA Tournament ...

) that won the trios gold medal for Team USA at the 2021 International Bowling Federation (IBF) Super World Championships in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

. With the final match between USA and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

ending in a tie, Johnson was chosen by coach Bryan O'Keefe to roll the tenth frame of a ninth/tenth frame roll-off, which USA won 57–49. On August 23, 2022, Johnson and partner Kris Prather won gold medals in Doubles at the PanAm Bowling Champion of Champions event held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. With an eight-game total of 1,921 pins (240.13 average), Johnson topped the men's field for the event. He and Prather were part of a USA sweep in Doubles, as

Shannon O'Keefe Shannon O'Keefe (née Rondeau, born January 27, 1979) is an American professional bowler and bowling coach now living in Jacksonville, Alabama. She has competed in the United States and internationally, and is currently the head coach at Jack ...

and Bryanna Coté won Doubles gold in the women's event. Johnson settled for bronze medals in the Singles and All Events categories, finishing third in both behind teammate Prather and Brazil's Bruno Costa.

Professional career

Johnson is a three-time PBA Midwest Region Player of the Year (2017, 2018 and 2020)., and he won the 2019 KPBA SamHo Cup, a Korean PBA event. He has won ten

PBA Regional Tour The PBA Regional Tour is a series of "mini tours", run by the Professional Bowlers Association, spanning across seven regions within the United States. The Tour allows PBA members and qualifying non-member amateurs to compete in weekend events. The ...

titles. Through his first seven years on the

, he had six runner-up finishes, including finishing second while bowling as an amateur at the 2015

major. In 2021, Johnson teamed with former NFL star

Terrell Owens Terrell Eldorado Owens (; born December 7, 1973), also known by his initials "T.O.", is an American former professional football wide receiver who played 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Regarded as one of the greatest wide rec ...

to win

Chris Paul Christopher Emmanuel Paul (born May 6, 1985), nicknamed "CP3" and "the Point God", is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Regarded by some as one of the greatest p ...

's annual CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational pro-am event. Johnson qualified as the #3 seed for the 2022 U.S. Open finals, but lost his only match to

. Based on points earned during the first 13 events of the 2022 PBA Tour season, Johnson qualified as the #10 seed for the PBA Tour Playoffs. After defeating #7 seed

in the Round of 16 and #15 seed

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 17 PBA Regional Tour titles. ...

in the quarterfinals, Johnson was eliminated in the semifinals by sixth-seeded Tommy Jones. Despite no titles, Johnson cashed a career-high $92,700 in 2022. On September 10, 2023, Johnson won his first PBA title at the

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

Lucky Larsen Masters in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. After knocking off American

Anthony Simonsen Anthony Walter Simonsen (born January 6, 1997) is an American professional Ten-pin bowling, ten-pin bowler. He has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2014. Simonsen became known in bowling fan circles early in the ...

in the semifinals, AJ topped Swedish standout Jesper Svensson in the finals. Johnson suffered his seventh career runner-up finish at the 2024 PBA Illinois Classic, losing to top seed Marshall Kent. He was a member of the Las Vegas High Rollers PBA Elite League team, which won the 2024 Elias Cup championship.

References

External links

AJ Johnson
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, A. J. 1992 births Living people American ten-pin bowling players Bowlers at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in bowling People from Oswego, Illinois Sportspeople from the Chicago metropolitan area