Nominees for the 2022 PBA Player and Rookie of the Year Award Announced
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is pleased to announce the nominees for the 2022 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year and Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year.
These are the two PBA end-of-season awards that are based on in-season performances. All 2022 award winners will be announced next week.
Wednesday, Nov. 2: Tony Reyes Community Service Award and Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award
Thursday, Nov. 3: Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year
Friday, Nov. 4: Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year
The Tony Reyes Award, founded in 2013 to honor the late Tony Reyes, will recognize a PBA member who has done extraordinary community service and/or charitable contributions in the calendar year. The recipient is selected by a panel of PBA leaders.
The Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award honors Nagy’s memory as a PBA Hall of Famer and founding member whose guidance in the PBA’s formative years was considered critical to the tour’s success. The winner is selected by PBA Tour players who bowled in at least half of the season’s tournaments.
Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year
The Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year award recognizes only the world’s finest bowling talents. To qualify for the ballot, a player must win at least one PBA Tour title and rank among the top-10 earners during the calendar year. Any player with multiple titles year is automatically added to the ballot.
Here are the six nominees for the 2022 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year award (in alphabetical order):
Dom Barrett
Barrett averaged nearly 223 and topped $200,000 in earnings in 2022. His triumph at the PBA Tournament of Champions underlined his spectacular season. The win made him the eighth player in PBA history to complete the Triple Crown.
He later added a second win at The Storm Cup: PBA Colorado Springs Open and finished second to Belmonte in the Tour Finals.
Titles: PBA Tournament of Champions (major), The Storm Cup: PBA Colorado Springs Open
Other notes: Runner-up at PBA Tour Finals
Jason Belmonte
The six-time PBA Player of the Year turned in yet another splendid campaign, hoping to tie Walter Ray Williams Jr.'s record for the most Player of the Year awards. The 39-year-old Australian led the tour in points (34,230), earnings ($302,525), games (380), top-five finishes (8), top-10 finishes (13) and titles (5). His 224.38 average ranked second on tour.
Belmonte compiled a 20-4 record in championship round appearances en route to racking up five titles in 2022. He won 14th career major at the PBA Players Championship to open the season before taking home four more standard titles.
Titles: PBA Players Championship (major), The Storm Cup: PBA David Small's Kokomo Open, PBA Scorpion Championship, The Storm Cup: Lubbock Sports Open, PBA Tour Finals
Other notes: Led Storm Cup series in points, shot televised 300 game at the PBA Tour Finals
Kris Prather
A near-perfect two week stretch highlighted Prather’s 2022 season. He earned the top seed at the PBA Tournament of Champions, averaging over 233 during his bid for a second ToC title in three years. His quest came short as he fell in the title match to Barrett.
In the next singles event, Prather once again rolled to the top seed at the PBA World Championship. This time, he took down Jason Sterner for the title in a historic roll-off. He finished the season fifth in points (19,155) and third in earnings ($222,750)
Titles: PBA World Championship (major)
Other notes: Runner-up at PBA Tournament of Champions (major), Won PBA League Elias Cup Finals with Portland Lumberjacks
Anthony Simonsen
Simonsen has developed a knack for making history. With wins at the U.S. Open and USBC Masters, he added two more major titles to his résumé, becoming the youngest player to win one, two, three and four majors. He finished no lower than seventh in the season’s final four majors.
The 25-year-old ranked second in earnings ($274,975), points (26,195) and top-five finishes (6) this season.
Titles: U.S. Open (major), USBC Masters (major)
Other notes: Runner-up at PBA Scorpion Championship
EJ Tackett
The 2016 Player of the Year and 2012-13 Rookie of the Year turned in one of his most consistent seasons to date. Tackett led the tour in average (225.27), top-25 finishes (15) and cashes (15).
A dominant showing at the U.S. Open resulted in one of his two runner-up performances, but he still added a pair of titles to his name in 2022.
Titles: PBA Mark Roth/Marshall Holman Doubles, PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles
Other notes: Runner-up at U.S. Open (major), The Storm Cup: Lubbock Sports Open
Kyle Troup
The 2021 Player of the Year put up another tremendous campaign in 2022. Troup repeated as PBA Playoffs champion, while his $213,950 in earnings ranked fourth on the tour and his 11 top-25 finishes ranked third among POY candidates.
At the Tour Finals, he rolled the 33rd televised 300 in PBA history. Troup earned Mark Roth PBA League MVP honors while helping lead the Portland Lumberjacks to a third straight Elias Cup title.
Titles: PBA Playoffs
Other notes: Shot televised 300 game at PBA Tour Finals, Won PBA League Elias Cup Finals with Portland Lumberjacks, Named Mark Roth PBA League MVP, Won PBA Strike Derby
Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year
The Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year award honors the top first-year player on the PBA National Tour. To qualify for the ballot, a player must finish inside the top five in points and earnings among rookies.
Here are the four nominees for the 2022 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year award (in alphabetical order):
Kevin McCune
As the son and grandson of champions on the PBA Tour, you could say McCune was born to succeed on the tour. He led ROY contenders in games bowled (227) while averaging 211.23.
McCune’s 16th-place finish at the U.S. Open, where he averaged 212.80 across 56 games of the season’s most demanding lane conditions, marked the highlight of his rookie campaign.
Brandon Runk
By virtue of advancing to the East Region Finals of the PBA Players Championship, the first telecast of the 2022 season, Runk made the season’s opening bid to be the top rookie. He averaged 232 across 28 games to earn the No. 2 seed, sitting 201 pins ahead of the third place qualifier. On the show, Runk’s eight-strike 243 wasn’t enough to take down Patrick Dombrowski’s 257, but he made quite an impression nonetheless.
Runk led all ROY candidates in points (5,445), while ranking second in earnings ($15,930), average (212.02), games (195), top-10 finishes (1) and top-25 finishes (2).
David Stouffer
The glorious, gray-haired Stouffer doesn’t look like a rookie, but he ranked fourth among first-year players in points with 2,790. The rook made the first telecast of his career in the South Region Finals of the PBA Players Championship. Though he lost to DJ Archer in his first match, a fourth-place finish in the region and top-20 overall finish in the major made for a tremendous debut.
Stouffer later added a 39th-place finish at the U.S. Open. Those two performances propelled him to an 80th on the tour’s points list.
Santtu Tahvanainen
The 25-year-old’s immense power caught the eye of Norm Duke — well, technically Tommy Jones and Bill O’Neill — and helped make him the lone rookie drafted into the PBA League. Tahvanainen topped all 2022 rookies in earnings ($31,350) and average (216.28).
His runner-up finish at The Storm Cup: PBA Colorado Springs Open was the best finish of any rookie this season; in fact, he posted more top-10 finishes (2) than all others on the ballot combined (1).
2021 PBA Player Award Winners
Tony Reyes Community Service Award: Warren Eales
Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award: Jake Peters
Harry Golden Rookie of the Year: Matt Russo
Chris Schenkel Player of the Year: Kyle Troup
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Note: Since publication, announcement dates for the 2022 PBA Player Awards have been updated.