December 11, 2024 Nolan Hughes

Purches becomes first PBA Junior product to win PBA Rookie of the Year

Nate Purches of Fond du Lac, Wis. has been named the 2024 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year.

Purches received 70.16% of votes from PBA members and the media. Alec Keplinger, the only other nominee, finished second garnering 29.84% of votes.

Purches led all first-year PBA Tour players in points, earnings and average. He earned a season-high finish of seventh in the PBA Cheetah Championship and a season-high major finish of 12th in the PBA World Championship.

“It felt like everything that I worked for — the dedication, the effort — everything all felt completed at that moment in time,” Purches said of hearing the news. “It means everything to be with guys like Belmo, Pete Weber and all the guys I just idolized growing up. It seems so surreal. It's pretty cool to be on an elite list and part of PBA history.”

Purches, who attends Marian University in Wisconsin, was in finance class one recent Monday morning when his phone rang. The caller ID read “PBA Commissioner Tom Clark” and Purches didn’t know how to react.

“You should probably answer that call,” the student sitting next to Purches said. And who was this mysterious, yet assured student? Only the commissioner’s son, Rory Clark.

“It turned out it was the Rookie of the Year call, which was very funny and probably the best five minutes I took out of class,” Purches said.

Purches, who turned 21 in April, is the first PBA Junior player to earn PBA Rookie of the Year honors. 

In the inaugural PBA Junior Boys National Championships, Purches finished as the runner-up. Purches moved from Marlborough, Mass. to Wisconsin that summer, in 2021, to start his college career.

After one unsatisfying season of collegiate bowling, Purches opted to join the PBA ahead of the 2023 season. Not only did Purches earn PBA Midwest Region Rookie of the Year honors in 2023, but he was named the region’s Player of the Year as well.

Purches said he talked to as many of his competitors as he could to learn and try to lessen the learning curve.

“I talked to EJ Tackett, Benjy Martinez, Kevin McCune when bowling the regionals,” Purches said. “I learned a lot about what the national tour is like from them. I used what they said and (experience from) the regional tour and applied that to the Masters and World Series this year.”

Purches’ spectacular rookie campaign on the PBA Regional Tour earned him a spot in this season’s PBA All-Star Weekend. Paired with EJ Tackett and Pete Weber, Purches competed in the PBA Legacy Cup: Legends and Rising Stars.

The youngster said a few words of wisdom from those PBA legends proved instrumental.

“Pete Weber told me not to get too energetic on the TV show. Ultimately, I ignored him and it cost us a little bit,” Purches said. “But I remember EJ told me you have to go into every tournament saying that you’re going to win. You have to have that mindset, or else you’re not going to win. Since then, I’ve been telling myself that I’m the best bowler in the building and I’m going to win every tournament. It’s been helping a lot.”

Purches’s rookie campaign started slow — he missed the cut in his first three pre-tournament qualifiers — but in the first title event after All-Star Weekend, Purches kick-started his eventual ROY by earning a 26th-place finish in the USBC Masters.

Then at the PBA World Series of Bowling XV in Allen Park, Mich., Purches had his coming-out party. He made three of four match play cuts and earned three top-12 finishes.

While Purches fell to the Rookie of the Year runner-up, Keplinger, in the PBA Cheetah Championship Round of 8, Purches showcased the disposition that has allowed him to buck the learning curve in the Round of 16.

Down 0-2 in a best-of-five-games match against Jason Belmonte, Purches rallied to force a Game 5. Late in Game 4, Purches delivered a clutch strike and exclaimed “Game 5, let’s go!” to anyone and everyone within shouting distance.

“It wasn't a bash at Belmo at all, it was about me showing him that I'm here and I mean business,” Purches said. “Knowing that this next game decided everything, the other four games did not matter, I wanted to keep myself in it. To show myself that I’ve got one more game to pull off probably one of the biggest upsets that bowling has seen in a little bit.”

Purches will have every opportunity to prove his ROY season is only the beginning. In August’s PBA Tour Trials, Purches finished fourth and earned an exempt berth on the 2025 PBA Tour. Therefore, he will be entered in every PBA Tour event for his sophomore season.

“The main goal next season is to stay exempt,” Purches said. “I’d like to make at least one show, I feel like I can do that. I’ve been close three times so far in my one year, so I feel like I could definitely pull it off next year.

“The Hall of Fame is obviously the goal for everyone,” Purches continued, speaking of his career goals. “I want to be a multi-time titleist. I feel like I could pull off at least five to six titles, and maybe give myself a chance to be inducted into the Hall of Fame one day.”

Recent Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year Winners

Nate Purches, 2024
Cortez Schenck, 2023
Santtu Tahvanainen, 2022
Matt Russo, 2021
not awarded in 2020 due to the pandemic-interrupted season (2020 rookies retained eligibility through 2021)
Mykel Holliman, 2019
Kamron Doyle, 2018
Matt Sanders, 2017
François Lavoie, 2016
Jesper Svensson, 2015

Complete list of Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year award winners