March 14, 2025 Professional Bowlers Association

Throughout PBA history, there are nine instances of a player, who was not a PBA member at the time, winning a PBA Tour or PBA50 Tour title.

The player earned the trophy and money, but did not receive a champions banner (for first-time winners), an entry into the PBA Tournament of Champions, or official recognition in the PBA record books.

As of today, official title status has been granted to the below players who won national events conducted by the PBA.

Moving forward, in the rare cases that a non-member is allowed to compete in and wins a PBA Tour or PBA50 Tour event, they will be officially recognized as a PBA champion.

This decision does not involve regional titles or events conducted by any organization other than the PBA.

PBA Tour
Mats Karlsson, 1983 AMF Grand Prix of Tenpin Bowling, Crawley, England
Brian Ziesig, 2010 PBA Plastic Ball Championship, Long Island, NY
Yong-Jin Gu, 2010 Scorpion Championship, Las Vegas

PBA50 Tour
Rick Minier, 2007 Senior US Open, Las Vegas
Nick Morgan, 2008 Northern California Classic, Brentwood, CA
Eugene McCune, 2018 South Shore Open, Hammond, IN
Tore Torgersen, 2019 Senior US Open, Las Vegas
Tom Adcock, 2013 PBA50 Senior/Super Senior Doubles Classic, Decatur, IL
Warren Eales, 2018 Lucas Magazine Classic, New Port Richey, FL