Jakob Butturff (born April 28, 1994) is a left-handed American

ten-pin bowler Tenpin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The goal is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ...

from

Chandler, Arizona Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and a suburb in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the List of municipalities in Arizona, fourth-most populous city in Arizona ...

and 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 ...

. He competes in events on the

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 ...

and in global events as a member of Team USA. He has won eight national PBA Tour titles (including one major) and 27

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. Jakob also rolled the 28th of the PBA Tour's 35 televised 300 games. Butturff is a pro staff member for the Columbia 300 division of Brunswick. He is also sponsored by Vise Grips.

Amateur career

Butturff finished first at the 2017 Team USA Trials, and has been a Team USA member from 2017 through 2019. He won a team gold medal at the 2017 World Bowling Championships. Butturff and his Team USA teammates won the 2019

Weber Cup The Weber Cup, named after professional ten-pin bowler Dick Weber, is a men's ten-pin bowling competition between Team Europe and Team USA. It is often referred to as "bowling's equivalent of golf's Ryder Cup". Each year, a team of five from t ...

over Team Europe. At the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru, Butturff and Team USA teammate Nick Pate earned a gold medal in doubles. During qualifying for this event, Jakob broke the Pan American Games record for a six-game block with a score of 1,516. In the next six-game block, he broke his own record with a 1,538 score. He also earned a bronze medal in the singles event. Butturff was part of the rotating four-person team (with A. J. Johnson, 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 ...

Professional bowling career

Butturff became a PBA member in 2015, bowling primarily on the PBA Regional circuit that season. In his seven national events during 2015, he cashed four times and made three match play rounds.

2016

Butturff won his first PBA Tour title in the 2016 PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Southwest Open. In October that same year, he won the PBA Xtra Frame Las Vegas Open for his second title.

2017

While he had no PBA Tour victories in the 2017 season, Butturff did win the title at the QubicaAMF World Cup on November 11 in

Hermosillo, Mexico Hermosillo (), formerly called Pitic (as in ''Santísima Trinidad del Pitic'' and ''Presidio del Pitic''), is a city in the center of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the municipal seat of the Hermosillo municipality, the state's ...

. Butturff had a chance to win his first major championship at the 2017 U.S. Open. He qualified as the #1 seed, leading his next-closest competitor by an astounding 617 pins, but he lost the televised championship match to

Rhino Page Ryan Jacob "Rhino" Page (born July 10, 1983) is a left-handed bowler on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour, and was the 2008 PBA Rookie of the Year. (See PBA Bowling Tour: 2007-08 season.) He is also a former U.S. Amateur champion, ...

, 256–222.

2018

Butturff won the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary classic in

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for his third PBA Tour title, and first on national television. He then won the PBA Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic in August for his fourth title. In October 2018, Butturff qualified as the #1 seed at the U.S. Open for a second straight season, but again lost the final match, this time by a single pin to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Dominic Barrett Dominic “Dom” Simon Barrett (born 30 July 1985 in Cambridge, England) is one of England's leading ten-pin bowlers. He competes in world events and on the PBA Tour, where he has won ten titles. This total includes three PBA major titles: the P ...

on October 31. Butturff joined PBA Hall of Famer

Earl Anthony Earl Roderick Anthony (April 27, 1938 – August 14, 2001) was an American professional ten-pin bowling, bowler who amassed records of 43 titles and six Player of the Year awards on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. For over two d ...

as the only two bowlers to be the top qualifier in back-to-back U.S. Opens during the modern era (since 1971). Coincidentally, Anthony also lost the final match in both years (1979 and 1980).

2019: first major title

Butturff qualified as the #1 seed for the first two tournaments of the 2019 PBA Tour season, joining

Johnny Petraglia John Petraglia Sr. () (born March 3, 1947) is an American professional bowler. He is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), where he won 14 PBA Tour titles. He has also won eight PBA Senior Tour titles. He is a member of both th ...

, Earl Anthony and

Walter Ray Williams Jr. Walter Ray Williams Jr. (born 6 October 1959) is an American professional bowler and competitive horseshoes pitcher. He has won 47 standard PBA Tour career titles, the most in the tour’s history, and has earned over $5 million in total PBA ea ...

as the only players to be the top qualifier in three consecutive PBA Tour events (going back to the final event of the 2018 season). Butturff lost the title match in the season-opening PBA Hall of Fame classic, but won the PBA Oklahoma Open the following week for his fifth PBA Tour title. He captured his sixth PBA Tour title and first major at the 2019

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 ...

, qualifying as the #1 seed for the stepladder finals and defeating Mykel Holliman in the championship match for the win. Butturff won his seventh PBA title and third of the 2019 season on June 30 at the Lubbock Sports Shootout. He also had runner-up finishes in 2019 at the

PBA World Championship The PBA World Championship is one of five major PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) Ten-pin bowling, bowling events. It is one of three PBA Tour major events that are open only to PBA members. (The U.S. Open (bowling), U.S. Open and USBC Masters ...

, DHC PBA Japan Invitational, and

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PBA Tour Finals. On October 21, Jakob won the $50,000 winner-take-all top prize in the PBA Clash. This was a non-title made-for-TV event featuring the 2019 season's top eight money leaders, and was broadcast November 3 on Fox. Butturff cashed a career-high $204,380 during the season, and finished runner-up 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 ...

in the 2019 PBA Player of the Year voting.

2020

In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Butturff took a step back, making only one championship round appearance and winning no titles.

2021

In the 2021

, Butturff charged from the #3 seed to the final match, but had to settle for his second runner-up finish in this major tournament, falling to top seed

Tom Daugherty Tom Daugherty (born February 22, 1975) is a right-handed American professional ten-pin bowler residing in Riverview, Florida. He is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), having joined in 2001. He is one of a very few PBA bo ...

in the final match, 263–257. Butturff also finished runner-up to

Chris Via Chris Via (born March 9, 1992) is an American professional ten-pin bowler from Springfield, Ohio known for winning the 2021 U.S. Open. Chris uses the two-handed shovel-style delivery with a dominant right hand. He competes in events on the PBA ...

, 214–213, in the 2021 U.S. Open. This was his third runner-up finish in the event, and the second time he lost the final match by a single pin. Despite not winning a tournament in 2021, Butturff rebounded in earnings after a disappointing 2020 season, collecting $120,225.

2022

2022 saw continued frustration for Butturff, as he made four final round appearances but could not win a title.

2023

After having multiple runner-up finishes from 2020 through 2022, Butturff finally broke through in the PBA Scorpion Championship on Apr 18, 2023. Qualifying as the #1 seed, he defeated E. J. Tackett 225–217 in the championship match. With this emotional win (the first following the death of his mother in November 2020), Butturff claimed his eighth career PBA Tour title. Butturff qualified for the May 20–21 PBA Super Slam, a special event intended to feature the five major championship winners in the 2023 season. He qualified as the top finisher without a 2023 major title when E. J. Tackett won his second major of the season at the PBA World Championship (where Butturff finished fourth). Butturff finished the 2023 season ranked fourth in points, third in average (223.92) and fourth in earnings ($175,125).

2025

Butturff qualified as the #6 seed for the 2025

PBA Tournament of Champions The PBA Tournament of Champions is one of the five major PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) bowling events. It is an invitational event and the only PBA Tour major that does not have any open field. All participants must meet qualifications to ...

and won five straight matches (two in the play-in round to capture the fifth finals seed, then three more in the finals) to face top seed Jesper Svensson in the championship match. However, he could not complete the quest for a title, falling to Svensson 221–197.

Additional info

Butturff has rolled 19 career perfect 300 games in PBA competition, including the PBA's 28th televised 300 game, which he bowled on July 18, 2020 in the seeding round for the PBA Tour Playoffs broadcast on

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PBA Tour wins

Major championships are in bold type. #2016: PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Southwest Open (

Lubbock, TX Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

) #2016: PBA Xtra Frame Las Vegas Open (

Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-larg ...

) #2018: Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic (

Indianapolis, IN Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County. Indianapolis is situated in the state's central till plain region along the west fork o ...

) #2018: PBA Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic ( Coldwater, OH) #2019: PBA Oklahoma Open (

Shawnee, OK Shawnee () is a city in and the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 in 2010, a 4.9 percent increase from the figure of 28,692 in 2000. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Sta ...

) #2019: USBC Masters (

) #2019: PBA Lubbock Sports Shootout (

) #2023: PBA Scorpion Championship (

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)

Non-title wins

#2017 QubicaAMF World Cup #2019 PBA Clash

Regional Tour success

In addition to his national PBA Tour titles, Butturff has won 27

titles, including a PBA-record nine Regional titles in the 2016 season alone. His 20th title came in just his 59th PBA Regional tournament on January 20, 2019. Of the 38 players to date with at least 20 Regional titles, Butturff is recognized as the youngest (age 24) to reach the plateau.

Bowling style

Butturff has a unique delivery, in part due to being double-jointed with “ hypermobility” in his wrist. According to bowling coach and author Bill Spigner, Butturff's starting wrist position is “almost an impossible position for someone with normal flexibility to achieve.” This allows Jakob to impart high revolutions on his shot, achieving an RPM rate comparable to many two-handed bowlers. For this reason, Butturff frequently uses an older technology urethane

bowling ball A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowlin ...

instead of reactive equipment.

Career statistics

Statistics are through the last complete PBA Tour season. +CRA = Championship Round Appearances

References

External links

Jakob Butturff
at the

archive September 29, 2020
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Butturff, Jakob 1994 births Living people American ten-pin bowling players Bowlers at the 2019 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in bowling Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in bowling