Tom Daugherty


Tom Daugherty is a right-handed American professional ten-pin bowler residing in Riverview, Florida. He is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association, having joined in 2001. He is one of the few PBA bowlers to successfully use the one-handed no-thumb delivery. Although Daugherty has won two PBA Tour titles and 16 PBA Regional titles, he is perhaps best known for rolling a nationally-televised 100 game at the 2011 PBA Tournament of Champions, the lowest score ever bowled in a televised PBA event. He has accumulated 21 career 300 games in PBA events. Daugherty is a pro staff member for Hammer bowling balls, Dexter shoes, and Turbo Inserts.

PBA career

Daugherty became a PBA member in 2001, and started bowling regularly on the PBA Tour in the 2003–04 season. After three seasons of little success as a full time Tour bowler, he returned to bowling mostly in PBA Regional Tour events for the next six seasons.

The 100 game

By way of his Regional Tour titles, Daugherty made the initial "Champions" field for the 2011 PBA Tournament of Champions. He fought his way into the "Elite" field and made the January 22 televised finals as the #2 seed, where he faced #3 seed Mika Koivuniemi in the semifinal match. Daugherty wound up on the wrong end of PBA history that day, rolling seven splits en route to a record-low 100 score. With Koivuniemi nearly missing perfection and bowling a 299 in the same match, Daugherty also became half of the most lopsided match in PBA history. Despite the embarrassment, Daugherty ran around and high-fived the crowd after making the two pins he needed to reach the 100 mark. He cashed $50,000 for his third-place finish. In the next season’s Tournament of Champions, Daugherty again made the Elite Field and was candid about the previous year’s debacle:

Success in 2012

Daugherty returned to full-time touring status in the 2012–13 PBA season. He finally found success, winning his first national PBA Tour title on November 11, 2012 at the PBA Bowlers Journal Scorpion Championship in Las Vegas.

Additional career highlights

Daugherty finished third at the 2015 PBA Players Championship, his best finish in a major since 2011. He was also a member of the Bass Pro Shops Silver Lake Atom Splitters team, which won the 2015 PBA League Elias Cup team title.
Daugherty made the TV finals for the 2016 PBA Tournament of Champions and the 2016 USBC Masters, but could not complete the quest for a title in either of these major events. He would win his second PBA Tour title on September 10, 2016 at the PBA Wolf Open in Allen Park, Michigan.
Daugherty was again a member of the Silver Lake Atom Splitters team, which won the PBA League title in.
While he didn't win a title in 2019, Daugherty made a career-high 13 match play rounds and cashed a career-high $74,155 in PBA Tour earnings.

Personal

Daugherty has three daughters and a son. In addition to earning a living on the lanes, he operates two bowling pro shops in the Tampa Bay Area.