Story And Photo Courtesy Of PBA.Com.
THE BEST 25 PBA PLAYERS OF THE LAST 25 SEASONS
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 NOLAN HUGHES
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.
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.
The remainder of the rankings will be revealed at a later date.