AUSTIN, Texas (Nov. 20, 2018) – Second-year Professional Bowlers Association member Andrew Anderson of Holly, Mich., has been selected as the 2018 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year, and 20-year-old Kamron Doyle of Brentwood, Tenn., has won 2018 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year honors, PBA CEO and Commissioner Tom Clark announced Tuesday
Anderson and Doyle will be recognized on national television during the PBA Clash telecast that will air on FOX on Sunday, Dec. 23.
Anderson, a 23-year-old right-hander who is still pursuing a degree in elementary education, returned to Go Bowling! PBA Tour competition in 2018 highly motivated after not being selected to participate in the PBA League Elias Cup competition and won a pair of titles: the United States Bowling Congress Masters (his first major) and the Xtra Frame Greater Jonesboro Open on his way to winning the 2018 Harry Smith PBA Points Leader award. He cashed in 16 of the 19 events he entered and had five top-five finishes, including a third-place finish in the PBA Tournament of Champions. He is the second-youngest player ever to win the award, behind only the late Billy Hardwick who was 22 when he was selected as PBA’s first Player of the Year in 1963.
Anderson out-distanced runner-up EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Ind., the 2016 Player of the Year, and Dom Barrett of England in voting by his fellow PBA members and veteran bowling writers. In one of the most balanced seasons in recent memory, 12 players qualified by rule to make the Player of the Year ballot and 10 of the candidates received votes.
Doyle also dominated voting, winning “rookie” honors easily over Thailand’s Annop Arromsaranon, the only first-year PBA member to win a title (the PBA-World Bowling Tour Busan Cup in South Korea). Doyle cashed in seven of the 15 events he entered, and had a personal-best third-place finish in the Xtra Frame Gene Carter’s Pro Shop Classic in Middletown, Del.
Doyle’s arrival into the PBA Tour ranks has been highly-anticipated since 2010 when he became the youngest bowler ever to cash in a PBA Regional tournament at the age of 12, followed by becoming the youngest bowler ever to cash in the U.S. Open two years later as a 5-foot-5, 105-pound, 14-year-old eighth grader.