Jason Couch | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jason Couch November 8, 1969 |
| Occupation | Ten-pin bowler |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Spouse | Kim Couch |
Jason Couch (born November 8, 1969) is a ten-pin bowler on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour, and a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame. A left-handed cranker, Couch graduated from Clermont High School in Clermont, Florida and still resides in Clermont. He owns 16 PBA Tour titles, including four major championships, plus one title on the PBA50 Tour. He also owns 26 PBA Regional Tour titles and one PBA50 Regional Tour title.[1]
Couch joined the PBA in 1991. In his first full season (1992), he made his first TV show at the 1992 Quaker State Open, and won PBA Rookie of the Year honors. Jason's first title came at the 1993 Tums Classic, defeating Brian Voss in the final match. Later that year he won his first major title at the 1993 Touring Players Championship. After four more titles between 1995 and 1999, Couch pulled off a historic "three-peat" in the Tournament of Champions, winning consecutive events in 1999, 2000 and 2002. (The event was not contested in 2001 because the PBA switched from a calendar year to a fall-spring seasonal format.)
Couch's 14th and 15th career titles came in back-to-back events in 2007, the first and only time he had done this in his career. After a four-year drought, he won his 16th and final PBA Tour title at the 2011 Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, an event where players were limited to only two older-technology plastic bowling balls for the entire tournament.
Couch earned over $1.7 million over his PBA Tour career. He had season-ending knee surgery in 2007 and had to defer his 2007–08 exemption to 2008–09. He was ranked #24 on the PBA's 2008–09 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years." Through the end of the 2010–11 season, Jason had recorded 41 perfect 300 games in PBA events. In February, 2012, he was elected to the PBA Hall of Fame.[2] Also in 2012, Couch announced his retirement from full-time competitive bowling on the PBA Tour, although he continued to have a role on the tour as a ball representative for Ebonite[3] and as current manager of the Philadelphia Hitmen PBA League team.
Couch joined the PBA50 Tour in 2020, only to have the season canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He won the second event of the 2021 season, the Johnny Petraglia BVL Open, for his first PBA50 Tour title.[4]
Major championships are in bold text.