Jakob Butturff made a bowling lane look as if it had been drawn for one left hand: his distinctive delivery sent the ball toward the gutter before it turned into the pocket. Butturff, an eight-time PBA Tour champion and 2019 USBC Masters winner, died on July 31, 2026. He was 32.

Butturff was born and raised in Las Vegas, and Gold Coast was among the centers where he grew up bowling. He later lived in Phoenix and Binghamton, New York, while the PBA listed him from Tempe, Arizona. When he joined the PBA in 2015, he brought a release that looked unlike anyone else's and soon produced results to match.

His breakout arrived in 2016. Butturff won his first two national Tour events, took a record nine PBA Regional Tour titles in one season, and earned both West and Northwest Region Player of the Year honors. Two more Northwest awards followed in 2017 and 2018. The regional circuit became the base for a career that ultimately included 27 regional victories.

In 2017, Butturff led the U.S. Open by 617 pins over 56 games before finishing second in the televised final. He carried that experience directly to Hermosillo, Mexico, for his Team USA international debut. One game from missing the World Cup semifinals, he rolled 277 to advance. He then struck on 17 of 21 shots across his last two matches and beat Oscar Rodriguez 246-201 for the title. “To be a world champion in something I love to do, I couldn't ask for more than this,” he told the United States Bowling Congress.

That victory began seven consecutive years on Team USA. Weeks later, he entered the deciding match as the United States swept Chinese Taipei for team gold at the 2017 World Bowling Championships in Las Vegas. He collected two more medals at the 2019 Pan American Games, then shared men's team gold with A.J. Johnson, Kristopher Prather and Kyle Troup at the 2022 IBF World Cup in Australia.

The major title came at a center he knew from childhood. At the 2019 USBC Masters at Gold Coast, Butturff went undefeated through match play to earn the top seed, then defeated Mykel Holliman 228-196 in the final. The United States Bowling Congress recorded it as his first major and sixth PBA Tour victory after three runner-up finishes in major television finals. He won three Tour titles that season and finished second in PBA Player of the Year voting, points and earnings.

Butturff's signature motion also carried him to a perfect game on television. At the 2020 PBA Tour Finals, he rolled the 28th televised 300 in PBA history. In April 2023, he ended a nearly four-year Tour title drought by defeating EJ Tackett for the Scorpion Championship. Afterward, he credited his late mother for the foundation of his bowling life: “She motivated me. She took me to every event in juniors,” he told the Professional Bowlers Association. The win was his eighth on Tour.

He remained capable of bending a major tournament around his game. In March 2026, Butturff totaled 3,668 across 15 USBC Masters qualifying games, the second-highest qualifying score in the event's history, and entered match play as the top seed. In the Professional Bowlers Association announcement of his death, Commissioner Tom Clark called him “one of the most unique players in PBA history.”

His record remained visible in eight Tour victories, 27 regional wins, the Masters trophy he earned in Las Vegas, international gold medals and a televised perfect game. Bowlers can also return to the unusual left-handed path he made effective at every level, from regional stops to major finals and world competition.