Bill Hoffman (born 1971), also widely referred to as The Joker, of Columbus, Ohio, United States, is a Ten-pin bowler.
Hoffman, 29, finished 17th in his Bowling World Cup debut in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2000 . Hoffman qualified for his second Bowling World Cup in 2003 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he rolled the only 300 in the tournament on his way to earning the top seed for the knockout elimination rounds. He eventually was eliminated in the semifinals . Hoffman won the 2007 Bowling World Cup on his third try. Held in St. Petersburg, Russia, Hoffman never was out of the top 5 throughout qualifying, eventually qualifying as the second seed for the stepladder finals. He went on to defeat Andres Gomez (2-0) and Jason Belmonte (2-1) to win the title. With his victory, he ended a 12-year winless streak of U.S. men in the Bowling World Cup. He is a graduate of Ohio State University, where he majored in international relations and political science. He has rolled several 300 games and has a personal-best mark of 857 for three games. Hoffman is averaging 225 in league and tournament play.
The QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, previously known as the International Masters and AMF Bowling World Cup, is an annual Ten-pin bowling championship sponsored by QubicaAMF Worldwide, and the largest in bowling in terms of number of participating nations. Each nation chooses one male and/or one female bowler to represent them in the tournament, and in the majority of cases, this is done by running a qualifying tournament, the winners of which are chosen.
The PBA Tournament of Champions is one of the five major PBA bowling events. It is an invitational event and the only PBA Tour major that does not have any open field. All participants must meet qualifications to be invited.
Chris Barnes is an American professional bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), who currently competes on both the PBA Tour and PBA50 Tour. He has also competed internationally as a member of Team USA.
Jason Belmonte is an Australian professional ten-pin bowler. He plays on the PBA Tour in the United States and in world events. He is known for being one of the first bowlers to gain media attention for using the two-handed approach style to deliver his shot. He has won 31 PBA titles, including a record 15 major championships; he is only one of eight bowlers in PBA tour history to achieve 30 wins, making him the only 30-time winner in PBA Tour history who is not currently a member of the PBA Hall of Fame. He is one of two bowlers in PBA history to have won the Super Slam, winning all five PBA major titles. He is the all-time leader in both USBC Masters and PBA Tournament of Champions titles, winning each event four times. He is also the only three-time winner of the PBA Players Championship.
The World Ranking Masters was ten-pin bowling's international ranking system, as with professional tennis. It was governed by the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA). The rankings were formulated at the end of the three international tours, the European, Americas and Asian tours.
The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Regional professionals, a small percentage of the bowling membership competes at the national and international level, forming the PBA Tour. Founded in 1958, the PBA Tour has been in continuous operation since the inaugural 1959 season.
Osku Palermaa is a Finnish Ten-pin bowler now living in Partille, Sweden. He is a competitor on the European Bowling Tour, World Bowling Tour, and PBA Tour.
Aura Mireya Guerra López is a Dominican ten-pin bowler who won back to back Qubica AMF Bowling World Cup Titles.
Tommy Jones is an American professional bowler currently competing on the PBA Tour, and is a member of the PBA Hall of Fame. He is also an 11-time member of Team USA.
Sean Rash is an American ten-pin bowler who is considered one of the top players on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. He currently owns 17 PBA Tour titles, including two major championships, and was the 2011–12 PBA Player of the Year. Rash has rolled two of his 30 career PBA perfect 300 games on television, making him the first player in history with multiple perfect games in the TV finals of a PBA Tour event. Canadian François Lavoie and American Chris Via, and Australian Jason Belmonte have since joined Rash in this exclusive club. Sean also owns ten PBA Regional Tour titles.
Ryan Jacob "Rhino" Page is a left-handed bowler on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour, and was the 2008 PBA Rookie of the Year. He is also a former U.S. Amateur champion, winning the event in 2005. A San Diego, California native, Page now resides in Spokane, Washington. Page attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. He helped the Jayhawks win the school's first-ever Intercollegiate Bowling Championship in 2004, and was named the MVP of the championships.
William O'Neill is a right-handed professional ten-pin bowler who competes on the PBA Tour in North America. A resident of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, his nickname on tour is "The Real Deal". O'Neill has won 13 PBA Tour titles, including two major championships at the 2009–10 U.S. Open and the 2020 PBA Players Championship.
George Branham III is a professional ten-pin bowler and former member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). He began his career in 1984 and retired at the end of the 2003 season. His career is most noted because he was the first African American to win a PBA tour title and later became the first to win a major championship, which he accomplished at the 1993 Tournament of Champions. He had been the only African American to win a PBA Tour title until Gary Faulkner Jr. won the PBA World Championship in December, 2015.
This is a recap of the 2011–12 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. It is the tour's 53rd season, and the third straight season in which all of the first half events were condensed into the PBA World Series of Bowling (WSOB). The season consisted of 15 title events. This is also the final season in which the PBA is using an "exempt" player list. The "exempt" status for touring players will not be carried into the 2012–13 season.
The 56th season of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour was played in 2015. There were 27 singles title events, three doubles title events, and two team events on the 2015 schedule.
Anthony Walter Simonsen is an American professional ten-pin bowler from Little Elm, Texas, currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2014. Simonsen became known in bowling fan circles early in the 2016 season, when he earned the distinction as the youngest player in history to win a PBA major championship. He is now the youngest player in history to own five major PBA Tour titles. He uses the two-handed shovel-style delivery with a dominant right hand. At age 25, Simonsen eclipsed $1 million in career PBA earnings during the 2022 season.
Edward Dean Tackett Jr. is an American professional ten-pin bowler from Huntington, Indiana, now residing in Bluffton, Indiana. A member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2012, Tackett has won 21 PBA Tour titles, including four major championships, and is one of nine professional bowlers that have completed the PBA Triple Crown. He was named PBA Player of the Year for the 2016 and 2023 seasons, and was runner-up for the award in 2017 and 2018. Tackett is right-handed and uses a cranker-style delivery. He has been called a "unicorn" in the sport, because of his ability to use a one-handed, thumb-in delivery to achieve RPM rates comparable to most two-handed bowlers.
François Lavoie is a right-handed Canadian ten-pin bowler from Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, now making his home in Wichita, Kansas. He is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association, and has been a member of Team Canada. Lavoie has won five PBA Tour titles, including three major championships. He is one of only three players in history to roll a perfect 300 game in two televised PBA Tour title events, and the only player to bowl a 300 game in a U.S. Open telecast.
Jakob Butturff is a left-handed American ten-pin bowler from Chandler, Arizona and a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He competes in events on the PBA Tour and in global events as a member of Team USA. He has won eight national PBA Tour titles and 27 PBA Regional Tour titles. Jakob also rolled the 28th of the PBA Tour's 35 televised 300 games.
Kristopher "Kris" Prather of Plainfield, Illinois is an American professional ten-pin bowler who competes on the PBA Tour. He is known for winning the inaugural PBA Tour Playoffs on June 2, 2019 and the PBA Tournament of Champions on February 9, 2020. To date, Prather has won five PBA Tour titles, including two major championships.
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