Michael Haugen Jr. (born December 29, 1966) is a right-handed professional

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 ...

residing in

Carefree, Arizona Carefree is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is a town north of both Phoenix and Scottsdale, located in the far northeast area of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of th ...

. He is 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), having joined in 1994. He has won five

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 ...

titles overall, including a major title at the 2008

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 ...

.Profile at www.pba.com
/ref> He owns a major title on the PBA50 Tour, having won the 2017 PBA Senior U.S. Open among his three PBA50 titles. Haugen has also earned 23

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 and 6 PBA50 Regional Tour titles.

Career

Haugen first joined the PBA in 1994, competing as a Regional pro. He bowled in selected

events in the 1996 and 1997 seasons, before becoming a full-time bowler on tour in the 1998 season. He has a unique power-stroker style, with the starting position having the ball held low, and a final "plant step," meaning he does not slide to the foul line. He was named the PBA West Region Player of the Year in 1997. In the 2002–03

U.S. Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

, he finished runner-up to Walter Ray Williams, Jr. Early in the

2007–08 PBA season The 2007–08 PBA season was the 33rd season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The season was formally opened on October 14, 2007, at the Araneta Coliseum. The league started the season with the Philippine Cup, or the traditiona ...

, he won the Lake County Indiana Classic in

Merrillville, Indiana Merrillville ( , ) is a town in Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 36,444 at the 2020 census. Merrillville is in east-central Lake County, in the Chicago metropolitan area. On January 1, 2015, Merrillville bec ...

over Wes Malott. In doing so, he won his first tournament in 200 attempts and qualified for the Tournament of Champions. Later that season, he became the second bowler in history to win his first PBA title and the Tournament of Champions major in the same season, joining Joe Joseph who accomplished the feat in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. In the Tournament of Champions, as the number 1 seed, he completed a stunning comeback by defeating

Chris Barnes Chris Barnes may refer to: * Chris Barnes (actor) (born 1965), American child actor *Chris Barnes (bowler) Chris Barnes (born February 25, 1970) is an American professional Ten-pin bowling, bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Associat ...

in the final by one pin, after trailing by 53 pins in the sixth frame. A finger injury cut his season short as he was forced to miss the final seven events of the year, but he did manage to bowl in the Motel 6 "Roll to Riches" event in April 2008. His earnings in the 2007–08 season eclipsed $100,000 for the first time in his career. Injuries again curtailed his 2008–09 season, as he was only able to compete in seven events. But he returned to start the 2009–10 season and made the TV finals for the PBA Viper Championship at the World Series of Bowling. He won his third PBA title at the

Mark Roth Mark Stephen Roth (April 10, 1951 – November 26, 2021) was an American professional ten-pin bowling, bowler. He won 34 PBA Tour titles in his career (sixth most all-time), and is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association, PBA and United ...

Classic in

Allen Park, Michigan Allen Park is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 27,528. Ford Motor Company is an integral part of the community. Many of the company's offices and facilities lie within the city lim ...

on January 26,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. Haugen won his fourth PBA title on November 2, 2014 in the Scorpion Championship at the World Series of Bowling in

Las Vegas, Nevada 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-l ...

. His fifth title was earned at the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

PBA Xtra Frame Gene Carter's Pro Shop Classic in

Middletown, DE Middletown is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the town is 24,164. Geography and climate Middletown is located at (39.4495560, –75.7163207) with an elevation of . According ...

. While still competing in selected events on the regular PBA Tour, Haugen also joined the PBA50 Tour (formerly PBA Senior Tour) in the 2017 season. He won his first PBA50 Tour title in a major tournament: the Suncoast PBA Senior U.S. Open held on June 16, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. He was named 2017 PBA50 Tour Rookie of the Year. Haugen won his second PBA50 Tour title on May 8, 2018 at the PBA50

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 ...

BVL Open, defeating Hall of Famer

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 ...

in the final match. In July 2018, Haugen won his third PBA50 title at the River City Extreme Open. He was named PBA50 Player of the Year for 2018, locking up the points-based award with two tournaments remaining on the schedule. Haugen was the only player with two victories on the season, and also added two second-place and two third-place finishes. Haugen became the fourth PBA50 bowler to win both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year awards in the same or consecutive years.

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the Fourth Doctor, fourth and longest-serving incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television ...

and

Norm Duke Norm Duke (born March 25, 1964) is an American professional bowler who previously competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour and now competes on the PBA50 Tour. He has won 40 titles on the PBA Tour, including seven major champi ...

won both awards in the same year, while

won the awards in consecutive years, like Haugen. Through the end of the 2017 season, he had rolled 33 perfect 300 games in PBA events. He has accumulated over $830,000 in career PBA Tour earnings. In addition to his national tour victories, Haugen has won 23

titles and six PBA50 Regional Tour titles.

PBA Titles

Major tournaments are in bold type.

PBA Tour

# 2007 Lake County Indiana Classic (Merrillville, IN) # 2008 PBA Tournament of Champions (Las Vegas, NV) # 2013 Mark Roth Classic (Allen Park, MI) # 2014 PBA Scorpion Championship (Las Vegas, NV) # 2016 PBA Xtra Frame Gene Carter's Pro Shop Classic (Middletown, DE)

PBA50 Tour

# 2017 Suncoast PBA Senior U.S. Open (Las Vegas, NV) # 2018 PBA50 Johnny Petraglia BVL Open (Farmingdale, NY) # 2018 PBA50 River City Extreme Open (Monticello, MN)

Awards

* 1997 PBA West Region Player of the Year * 2017 PBA50 Rookie of the Year * 2018 PBA50 Player of the Year

Personal

He resides in

, and enjoys

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

ing and going to dance clubs. After qualifying for the TV finals at the 2014 PBA Scorpion Championship, Haugen told ESPN broadcasters he would propose on-air to longtime girlfriend Phuong Truong, only if he won the tournament. He made good on his promise during his post-tournament interview after his victory, and Truong joyously accepted.

References

External links

Michael Haugen Jr.
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haugen, Michael, Jr. 1966 births Living people People from Carefree, Arizona Sportspeople from Maricopa County, Arizona American ten-pin bowling players