Top seed Kyle Troup defeated No. 11 seed Sam Cooley to win the 2021 Kia PBA Playoffs, 3-1, in a race-to-three-points competition, in which each game is worth one point. Troup’s second Guaranteed Rate PBA Tour title of the season is also the eighth of his career. With the $100,000 first-place prize, Troup has now earned a single-season PBA Tour record $469,200 in 2021.

Troup won the first game, then fell victim to Cooley rolling the 31st televised perfect game in PBA Tour title-event history, knotting the match at one point apiece.

“I felt really confident,” said Troup of his mindset entering game three despite Cooley having rolled 300. “I knew I pretty much lost that game by the seventh or eighth frame, so I switched my focus to rooting Sam on. I wanted to see him bowl 300 and get the extra $10,000. It’s one to one, all right, I just need to win a game. I really wanted to win game three to put the pressure on him to make him feel like it was a must-win situation.”

Troup did win game three, taking advantage of an open frame from Cooley in the seventh after Troup had also struggled with missed spares, including a missed 9 pin in the sixth.

“I was frustrated about the bad break,” said Troup of missing the 9 pin. “I flagged it. I had to get myself refocused. Once I did that, I was okay.”

Troup doubled in the 10th to clinch game three and take a 2-1 lead entering the fourth game.

“I felt like I bowled a fantastic game four,” said Troup. “The lanes were just toast. They were ugly.”

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Troup struck on his first shot in the 10th frame of game four, then left an 8-10 split on his next shot, needing one pin to clinch the victory. Troup took down the 8 pin and immediately hoisted the WWE championship title belt.

“I wanted to pick this belt up, give the Ric Flair ‘Wooo,’ and bring the belt back home,” said Troup. “I know I have a lot of fans back home rooting me on and people around the world. It’s so special to get this win.”

Perhaps making it more special is Troup’s eighth career title ties him with his father, Guppy, who was in attendance for all of Kyle’s Playoffs victories, in all-time Guaranteed Rate PBA Tour titles.

“I caught up to him,” said Kyle Troup, adding, “I’m thinking I’m getting to nine a lot faster than he is.”