The Pro with the Fro

On February 21, 2021, at the Bowlero Jupiter in Jupiter, Florida, Fox hosted the 2021 PBA Players Championship. The championship consists of a stepladder final, meaning the fourth and fifth seed play each other, the winner of that match then plays the third seed, and so on until the finals match against the 1st seed. The winner of the finals match would receive $250,000 along with the major title the PBA Players Champion. If a bowler achieves a perfect game (300) in the finals match they could earn an extra $1 million, which would easily mark the highest sum of money ever received by a single individual for a PBA bowler in a championship event.

Kyle Troup started as the first seed, guaranteeing him at least the $180,000 second place prize if he lost the finals match. Early on, he decided in the first of the 28 qualifying matches that he wouldn't settle for anything less than first place.

Dick Allen, though, had the same plan. Allen ran the ladder as the third seed, defeating the fourth seed Tom Smallwood, and the second seed Francois Lavoie, putting him up against Troup in the finals. Neither player had ever competed in a major championship, adding more nerves along- side the television lights.

The championship started over a month prior and the players managed to stay locked in, minimizing mistakes, focused on one goal, their first major title. Going into the finals match Troup considered himself to be at a disadvantage, since Allen had bowled two consecutive winning games on the lanes before the finals match, whereas Troup had bowled none. This meant Allen had already calibrated his shot and Troup would have to figure it out fast. The game went back and forth, with both players avoiding a single mistake. This changed in the ninth frame. Considered the “foundation frame” in bowling, it has a major impact on a score because it is the bowler's final chance to capitalize on the double point count that a strike grants.

Going into the ninth with a slight point advantage, Allen would win if both players struck out. However, Allen threw his shot and left the 7-10 split–the impossible split–almost guaranteeing an open frame and leaving room for Troup to pounce on the mistake. Allen missed the spare in the ninth frame and Troup threw a strike. Closing the game with no mistakes and winning his first major title, Troup earned $250,000, the greatest sum of money ever won in a PBA major championship.

This was just the start for Troup. Later that year, Troup qualified for the PBA Tour Playoffs, which is done by overall pincount throughout the events the bowlers competed in throughout the year. He qualified with the number one seed again, and defeated Sam Cooley in the finals match to win his second title of the year and earn $100,000 more.

Troup wasn't always this successful. Coming from humble beginnings in a small town in North Carolina, he was raised in a bowling family. His father, John Douglas Troup and his Mother Sherri Herndon Troup, had him on the lanes as a child, where he began bowling at 3 years old. Unable to even hold a bowling ball correctly, he wanted to bowl just like his father.

“Whenever I started bowling my father said that I always winded up wanting to throw his ball, which was 15 pounds. And thus he started me with a heavy ball at the time,” says Troup.

A 15-pound ball might be too heavy for many adults, but Troup learned to use two hands to get the ball down the lane, a style that was unpopular at the time, but would soon become a phenomenon amongst the bowling community because of bowlers such as Troup.

Dedicating his start and success to his father, Troup says, “he started me with a heavy ball at a very young age, which caused me to bowl two handed, which has been my driving success now in my career.”

Troup’s father wasn't any ordinary bowler, he was one of the greats. With eight national titles and 41 regional titles, he dominated the PBA. And that competitive spirit wore off on Troup, who continued to bowl, all of the time. At 17, he joined the PBA, working at Wendy’s to help make ends meet. Honing his skills, he became one of the youngest bowlers to ever make the North Carolina All Star team, a small, prestigious group of athletes. He then went on to be the top qualifier at the 2018 Team USA Trials.

He acquired vast amounts of knowledge along the way, not only about bowling but about life as well.

“Mentally I feel like is where I've learned the most. I've learned to focus on my process and stay in the moment,” says Troup. “I've learned to control what I can control” and forget about the rest.

He adds, “I've learned how to become a man, you know, losing my mother, going back out on the road, having to accept some things in my personal life and still be able to get the job done.”

Troup's mother passed away from cancer in 2019. Troup managed his grief from what he learned from the sport. Keeping his mind focussed, always staying ready for the next frame of life.

Looking towards the future, Troup wants to continue on the pro tour for the next ten years and retire soon after that, eventually fulfilling a lifelong dream of owning a bowling alley. He wants the alley to be more of an investment in the future of the sport than a means of income. He also has set his sights on being inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame, and if he continues on the track that he is on, having won nine titles at the young age of 31, he may just get there. His 2021 season was his best yet, competing in a few more events that year, he ended up with a net purse of a whopping $496,900 in season earnings. This accomplishment broke the previous record for season earnings set by Walter Ray Williams Jr., earning Troup the Chris Schenkel PBA player of the year award, winning in a landslide vote. This award was the cherry on top of one of the greatest seasons ever bowled.