Kyle Troup is an American professional ten-pin bowler residing in Taylorsville, North Carolina. He uses the two-handed shovel-style delivery with a dominant right hand. Troup says he needed two hands when learning to throw the ball as a young child, calling himself self-taught in that regard. Troup has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association since 2008, and currently competes on the PBA Tour. He won his first national PBA Tour title in 2015, and has six PBA Tour titles to date. Since 2018, Troup also competes internationally as a member of Team USA.
Amateur career
As a teenager, Troup was one of the youngest-ever members of the North CarolinaAll Stars team, bowling in events across South Carolina and Georgia in addition to his home state. On January 7, 2018, Troup finished as the top qualifier at the United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials, making the team for the first time in his career. At the 2018 World Bowling Tour Men's Championships in Hong Kong, he won a gold medal in trios with teammates Andrew Anderson and E. J. Tackett. Troup and his Team USA teammates won the 2019 Weber Cup over Team Europe. Troup bowled in ten matches over the 32-match event, going 5–0 in singles, 0–3 in doubles, and 1–1 in team.
PBA career
Said to be one of the PBA's premier two-handed bowlers, Troup sometimes uses an older-technology urethane bowling ball on shorter oil patterns. Troup has made 16 PBA championship round appearances through the 2019 season, and owns ten PBA Regional titles. He has rolled 16 career 300 games in PBA competition through July 2020.
Early career
Troup spent his first five years as a PBA member bowling mostly in PBA Regional Tour events close to home, while he worked his regular job managing a Wendy's restaurant. He won his first Regional title at age 19 in the 2010 Fort Jackson Non-Champion Regional. He was named PBA Southern RegionPlayer of the Year in both 2013 and 2014.
2015
In 2015, Troup decided to bowl more events on the national PBA Tour, and made it to the championship round four times. He won the 2015 PBA Wolf Open in Shawnee, Oklahoma for his first PBA Tour title. He finished eighth in the South Shore PBA/PBA50 doubles with PBA50 player Jerry Brunette Jr.
2016
In 2016, Troup finished second in the Downums Waste Services Xtra Frame Open, and fourth in the Gene Carter's Pro Shop Classic.
2017
Troup's second PBA Tour title came on in the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship, where he teamed with left-handed two-hander Jesper Svensson for the title. His only other TV finals appearance in 2017 was at the PBA World Championship major, where he finished fourth.
2018
On January 28, 2018, Troup made it to the final match of the, but finished runner-up to top seed Dominic Barrett. Troup won his third PBA title on September 9, 2018 at the Storm Lucky Larsen Masters in Malmö, Sweden, defeating reigning PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte in the final match.
2019
Kyle was a member of the Portland Lumberjacks team, winners of the 2019 PBA League competition. He made a career-high five championship round appearances in 2019, but did not win a title.
2020
Troup won his fourth PBA Tour title at the 2020 PBA Jonesboro Open on February 1. As the #1 seed for the stepladder finals, he defeated Chris Barnes in his sole championship match appearance, 290–269. Troup Won his fifth PBA Tour title at the 2020 Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship on February 29. As the #1 seeds for the final round, Troup and partner Jesper Svensson defeated E. J. Tackett and Marshall Kent, 234–205. This was the second Roth-Holman doubles title for the Troup-Svensson duo, who also won this event in 2017. On July 19, Troup claimed his sixth PBA Tour title at the 2020 PBA Tour Finals held in Jupiter, Florida. After topping Kris Prather in the semifinals, Troup defeated Anthony Simonsen in the championship round. In both rounds, Troup lost the first game of the double-elimination match, then rallied back to win the second game and the 9th/10th frame roll-off. Troup also rolled a 299 game in the televised seeding round of this competition, leaving a 2-pin standing on his twelfth and final shot after eleven strikes.
PBA Tour titles
2015 PBA Wolf Open
2017 Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship w/Jesper Svensson
2018 Storm Lucky Larsen Masters
2020 PBA Jonesboro Open
2020 Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship w/Jesper Svensson
2020 PBA Tour Finals
Personal
Troup is the son of eight-time PBA Tour winner Guppy Troup, the two constituting the fourth father-son pair to each win PBA Tour titles. Troup has become one of the more recognized players on tour due to his throwback Afro hairdo, Partridge Family bus-styled attire, and other unique choices of trousers, similar to his father who was known for his flamboyant public persona. Kyle's nickname on Tour is "Afro Fish". After being knocked out of the 2019 PBA Tour Playoffs in the second round, Troup provided analysis for the final four and championship finals live broadcasts, along with Jason Belmonte and the regular PBA broadcast team of Rob Stone and Randy Pedersen.
PBA career statistics
Statistics are through the last complete PBA season.
