The Best 25 PBA Players of the Last 25 Seasons
Twenty-five seasons have passed since the phenomenon of Y2K. In that time, more than 500 champions have been crowned on the PBA Tour and almost every notable record has changed hands (pun intended). Two players who had not yet been born have already bowled each other for a major title.
While the goal of bowling remains to knock down 10 pins as efficiently as possible, the method of doing so has changed dramatically. In 2000, there were no one-handers or two-handers — just bowlers.
The two-handed uprising ascended to international prominence when Finland’s Osku Palermaa made the 2004 U.S. Open finals and escalated into a full-blown revolution with Australian Jason Belmonte’s emergence in 2008. The style’s viability could no longer be denied after the 2011-12 World Series of Bowling III, in which Belmonte won two titles and Palermaa claimed the World Championship crown.
Since the turn of the century, a generation of PBA stars have come and gone. The players who predominated the tour in 2000 are not the same ones who compete for titles today. This passing of the torch didn’t happen overnight, of course, except that it basically did.
In 2015, Chris Barnes, Parker Bohn III, Norm Duke and Wes Malott each claimed a title within the season’s first month. Then six days after the airing of Duke and Malott’s doubles title, Jesper Svensson won his first career title. Kyle Troup, EJ Tackett and Anthony Simonsen each hoisted the first trophy of their careers later the same year.
In the subsequent 11 seasons, the four Hall of Famers have combined to win four titles — as many as Tackett won the following season alone — while Svensson, Troup, Tackett and Simonsen have combined for 69 wins and five Player of the Year honors. (Not to mention the exploits of the aforementioned Australian.)
Bowlers, who have never claimed to be leaders in the societal fashion movement, wore khakis and a casual collared shirt almost exclusively in the early aughts. Today, with the famed exception of Troup, black pants and a dye-sublimated jersey make up the conventional uniform. In between, Chris Barnes and Tommy Jones wore neon pants for some reason.
To celebrate the conclusion of the PBA Tour’s 25th season since 2000, the PBA ranked the top 25 players of the era.
These rankings were calculated solely by on-lane performance during the 2000-2025 seasons. Players whose careers began prior to 2000 are eligible, but achievements earned in previous seasons were not considered. Players were awarded points for various accolades, outlined here:
- 1 point per top-five finish in a standard title event
- 2 points per top-five finish in a major title event
- 5 points per standard title
- 7.5 points per major title
- 15 points per Player of the Year award
The rankings will be revealed in descending order over the next several weeks.
Honorable Mentions
Andrew Anderson — 73.5 points
5 standard titles, 1 major title, 20 standard top-five finishes, 3 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
Anderson has two hyper-elite seasons on his résumé: winning Player of the Year in 2018 and finishing POY runner-up in 2025. A few more seasons like those and the 30-year-old could skyrocket up the next edition of these rankings.
Doug Kent — 72.5 points
3 standard titles, 3 major titles, 12 standard top-five finishes, 4 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
At his best, few could compete with the powerful Kent: Just seven other players of this era can match his three major titles and Player of the Year award. Kent stepped away from full-time competition following the 2008-09 season.
Mike Fagan — 69 points
3 standard titles, 2 major titles, 25 standard top-five finishes, 7 major top-five finishes
By the eye test, the King of Swing flirts with the top 10 of these rankings. Fagan opted to pursue business ventures after the 2015 season, giving up a full-time touring career and making it difficult for him to compile enough achievements to rank any higher.
Robert Smith — 62.5 points
6 standard titles, 1 major title, 17 standard top-five finishes, 4 major top-five finishes
A litany of injuries, particularly to his back and right hip, sapped Smith of a lengthy tour career. But few players, of his era and today, could spin the rock quite like Maximum Bob.
François Lavoie — 62.5 points
3 standard titles, 3 major titles, 13 standard top-five finishes, 6 major top-five finishes
As a rookie in 2016, Lavoie shot 300 and won the U.S. Open. He has since added five wins, including two more in majors, and another televised perfect game. The 32-year-old has plenty left in the tank, too.
No. 25: Kris Prather — 76 points
4 standard titles, 2 major titles, 29 standard top-five finishes, 6 major top-five finishes
Prather burst into stardom in 2019, winning his first two titles. The following season, he beat four players who (spoiler alert!) rank above him on this list to win the Tournament of Champions. He led back-to-back majors in 2022 and captured the World Championship title in a roll-off.
Prather narrowly eclipsed his doubles teammate, Andrew Anderson, for the final berth in the top 25, a hilarious coincidence that will either spur a 2026 Roth/Holman Doubles Championship title or expedite the pairing’s demise.
No. 24: Rhino Page — 76.5 points
5 standard titles, 1 major title, 26 standard top-five finishes, 9 major top-five finishes
Page won a title in each of his first three seasons after joining the tour in 2007. He made five championship rounds while competing out of pre-tournament qualifiers in his stellar freshman campaign and his rookie earnings record stood until Ryan Barnes broke it this season.
Winning the U.S. Open title in 2017 solidified Page’s status in these rankings.
No. 23: Ryan Shafer — 80 points
5 standard titles, 29 standard top-five finishes, 13 major top-five finishes
Shafer bowled on tour for 13 years before winning his first career title in, conveniently for the purposes of this exercise, January 2000.
A top-25 ranking without a major title and just five standard titles is a testament to Shafer’s consistency in major championships. Only nine players earned more than Shafer’s 13 top-five finishes in majors.
No. 22: Marshall Kent — 81.5 points
6 standard titles, 1 major title, 32 standard top-five finishes, 6 major top-five finishes
If you factor in Kent’s amateur achievements — which include a standard title, two standard top-five finishes and a major top-five finish (hence his presumed stardom) — Kent would rise to 19th in these rankings. The Washington native has lived up to the massive expectations he faced beginning his tour career in 2014.
No. 21: Ryan Ciminelli — 83.5 points
7 standard titles, 1 major title, 25 standard top-five finishes, 8 major top-five finishes
Among the more impressive individual accomplishments of this era was Ciminelli’s 2015 U.S. Open title, when the next-best southpaw after Ciminelli finished in a distant tie for 59th place.
Ciminelli’s three-title 2015 campaign was the best of his career. The Ryan Express made three major finals and finished a narrow runner-up to Belmonte in Player of the Year voting.
No. 20: Mike Scroggins — 84 points
5 standard titles, 2 major titles, 30 standard top-five finishes, 7 major top-five finishes
Wins in the USBC Masters and U.S. Open proved the West Texas southpaw could succeed under any circumstance. In total, Scroggins racked up seven wins in the 2000s and finished as the runner-up in 2009-10 Player of the Year race.
No. 19: Jason Couch — 87 points
7 standard titles, 2 major titles, 27 standard top-five finishes, 5 major top-five finishes
The somewhat-arbitrary timeline interrupts the prime of Couch’s illustrious career and his iconic threepeat of the TOC. His 21st century résumé, Hall of Fame worthy on its own, still earned him top 20 among all players.
No. 18: Jakob Butturff — 93.5 points
7 standard titles, 1 major title, 31 standard top-five finishes, 10 major top-five finishes
Only 13 players have earned more top-five finishes in majors than Butturff’s 10 and only five players have tallied more top-two finishes than Butturff’s eight, which includes seven runner-up finishes — as many as any player.
A couple of those runner-up finishes going in Butturff’s favor would be negligible in terms of these rankings, but those could-have-been titles would have made Butturff title-eligible for the PBA Hall of Fame well before his 30th birthday.
No. 17: Dom Barrett — 120.5 points
7 standard titles, 3 major titles, 47 standard top-five finishes, 8 major top-five finishes
Barrett is one of four players to have won the Triple Crown during this time period, along with Belmonte, Tackett and Barnes. The Englishman’s 47 standard and 55 overall top-five finishes each rank 12th among all players.
No. 16: Kyle Troup — 127 points
10 standard titles, 2 major titles, 35 standard top-five finishes, 6 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
Troup is the only multi-time champion of the PBA Playoffs since the event’s return in 2019, illustrating his prowess in televised, head-to-head matches. His artistry in championship rounds is best epitomized by his 2024 U.S. Open triumph, in which he beat Belmonte, Tackett and Simonsen in the stepladder.
Troup is the era’s first Player of the Year to appear on these rankings.
No. 15: Jesper Svensson — 129 points
12 standard titles, 2 major titles, 38 standard top-five finishes, 8 major top-five finishes
Svensson’s incredible finish to the 2025 season, back-to-back titles including a second TOC victory, propelled him past his Roth/Holman Doubles Championship partner.
Only six players boast more than the Iceman’s five multi-title seasons during this time period.
No. 14: Patrick Allen — 137 points
11 standard titles, 2 major titles, 36 standard top-five finishes, 8 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
Allen captured 11 of his 13 career titles during a dominant half-decade in the late aughts that alone would’ve placed him on this list.
Allen is one of two southpaws (and the most recent) to have been named PBA Player of the Year of this era. The other?
No. 13: Parker Bohn III — 141.5 points
10 standard titles, 3 major titles, 40 standard top-five finishes, 7 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
Bohn’s 2015 PBA World Championship title, which Bohn won at the spry age of 51, elevated his status to the best left-hander of the quarter-century by a narrow margin.
All three of Bohn’s career major titles came post-2000, arguably the second-best 25 years of his career; he won 22 of his 35 career titles before 2000.
No. 12: Wes Malott — 145.5 points
9 standard titles, 1 major title, 50 standard top-five finishes, 14 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
There may be 11 players ranked ahead of the Big Nasty, but not one of them has an entire section of their Wikipedia page titled “King of Bowling.”
Malott wore that crown for almost a decade, defeating Chris Barnes, Patrick Allen, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Rhino Page, Parker Bohn III, EJ Tackett, Jason Belmonte and Tommy Jones in matches that ascended his name to legendary status (but, unfortunately for Malott, did not count one iota for the purposes of this statistical exercise).
No. 11: Pete Weber — 147 points
9 standard titles, 4 major titles, 36 standard top-five finishes, 18 major top-five finishes
Weber notched just 54 top-five finishes post-2000, ranking 13th among all players, yet only five players won more than Weber’s four majors.
That sums up the latter half of Weber’s transcendent career. Even when his body didn’t allow him to be the consistent force he once was, he rose to the occasion in the game’s biggest moments. All the while he remained one of, if not the, face of the sport.
No. 10: Bill O’Neill — 174.5 points
12 standard titles, 3 major titles, 66 standard top-five finishes, 13 major top-five finishes
O’Neill made 12 career televised championship rounds before winning his first title. Fifteen years and 15 titles later, The Real Deal is a PBA Hall of Famer and the 10th-best player of his era.
The significant gap between O’Neill and Weber illustrates a definitive top 10 players of the last 25 seasons.
No. 9: Mika Koivuniemi — 182.5 points
11 standard titles, 3 major titles, 49 standard top-five finishes, 13 major top-five finishes, 2 Player of the Year awards
Koivuniemi’s 2011 PBA Tournament of Champions title is emblematic of his career in that, at his best, even his competitors could only marvel at the greatness of Major Mika. He shot 224, 299 and 269 to win the major and record $250,000 top prize.
Only four players won multiple Player of the Year honors during this era — Belmonte (7), Tackett (4), Williams (2) and Koivuniemi (2) — and just six players won more than the Finn’s three majors.
No. 8: Anthony Simonsen — 187.5 points
11 standard titles, 5 major titles, 51 standard top-five finishes, 22 major top-five finishes
Six days after the Y2K crisis turned out to be marginally less catastrophic than an off-spot pin, Simonsen turned three years old — a fitting celebration as only three players have won more majors this century than Simonsen.
Simonsen already boasts a résumé that leaves Hall of Famers dripping with envy and awe despite the fact that he, still a full season shy of his 30th birthday, is the highest-ranked player to have not won a Player of the Year award.
No. 7: Sean Rash — 206 points
16 standard titles, 2 major titles, 64 standard top-five finishes, 16 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
A defining figure of the 21st century, Rash became the first player to win a title out of a pre-tournament qualifier (then called the tour-qualifying round). He won the title in each of his first four televised appearances and won his first seven televised matches.
Rash is tied with the next player on this list with 80 top-five finishes, trailing only Belmonte, Barnes and Tackett.
No. 6: Tommy Jones — 213 points
18 standard titles, 2 major titles, 67 standard top-five finishes, 13 major top-five finishes, 1 Player of the Year award
Jones is one of four players to have won at least 20 titles during this time period and owns the unofficial record for coolest Hall of Fame induction weekend, shooting 300 and winning the PBA Hall of Fame Classic.
And without factoring in his extensive PBA League and Team USA accomplishments, this ranking perhaps undersells Jones’ mastery.
The remainder of the rankings will be revealed at a later date.