In his first television appearance, two-handed competitor Kyle Troup (pictured left) of Taylorsville, N.C., sporting a throwback Afro hairdo and Partridge Family bus-styled attire, won the PBA Wolf Open in the opening event of the Oklahoma's Grand Casino Hotel & Resort PBA Summer Swing.

Proving the adage that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, the son of equally-flamboyant eight-time Tour winner Guppy Troup, defeated 2014 PBA Rookie of the Year Marshall Kent (right), 229-179, in a championship match that featured two of PBA's rising stars.

L-R Mother Sherri Troup, brother Tyler Troup, champion Kyle Troup and father Guppy Troup.

In winning, Troup and his dad became the fourth father-son tandem in PBA history to win Tour titles. "This is an unbelievable feeling," said the 23 year-old Troup. "It's going to take a while for me to realize it.

"It's a dream come true and it makes it all that much better that my family was able to be here to be a part of it."

Troup, who qualified third for the stepladder finals conducted on specially-installed lanes in the Grand Event Center, was using an older technology urethane ball to attack the 32-foot Wolf lane condition, the shortest of the PBA's "animal pattern" lane conditions.

"Anytime I can play the gutter and use urethane that's a game I like to play," Troup said. "I could see the other guys were having some trouble dealing with the transition and eventually it was going to get ugly, so I had confidence that using urethane and playing outside would be a good combination to have to deal with that. Today 'straighter is greater' was the rule of the day."

After Troup qualified for the finals earlier in the week at the nearby FireLake Bowling Center, Guppy, Kyle's mother Sherri and brother Tyler were able to fly in from North Carolina to watch the finals telecast.

The win made the Troup's the fourth father and son to record a PBA Tour win. Eugene and Don McCune, Pete and Dick Weber, and Jimmy and Don Johnson were the previous father-son combinations to win titles.

That's the toughest match I've ever been a part of and I wasn't even bowling in it," Guppy Troup (left) said. "I was hanging on every shot, so I'm a wreck right now. Maybe I'll be less nervous the next time he makes a show but right now I'm just beside myself – it's awesome."

The stepladder began with two-time Tour winner Andres Gomez (above right) of Colombia defeating 15-time Tour winner Tommy Jones (left) of Simpsonville, S.C., in the opening match, 215-195. Troup then beat Gomez in the second match, 203-163, to advance to the semifinal where he beat No. 2 qualifier five-time Tour winner Bill O'Neill (right), 202-188, to advance to the title match against Kent.

Kent was trying to win his second Tour title after winning the Kingdom International Open in Saudi Arabia in his rookie season. With his win, Troup automatically qualified for the Grand Casino Resort King of the Swing special event that will close the Summer Swing.

 

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PBA Wolf Open - Stepladder Finals

Qualifying at FireLake Bowling Center in Shawnee, Okla., United States (May 11, 2015); Finals at Grand Casino Resort Events Center (May 16, 2015)

Championship Round:
1. Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 634 (3 games), $10,000
2. Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 179 (1 game), $5,000
3. Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 188 (1 games), $4,000
4. Andres Gomez, Colombia, 378 (2 game), $3,500
5. Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 195 (1 game), $3,000

L-R Kent, O'Neill, Troup, Gomez and Jones.

Playoff Results:
First Match: No. 4 Gomez def. No. 5 Jones, 215-195
Second Match: No. 3 Troup def. Gomez, 203-163
Third Match: Troup def. No. 2 O'Neill, 202-188
Championship: Troup def. No. 1 Kent, 229-179.