What a week it could've been for Zach Wilkins.
The Barrie native had gone six years as a professional without a PBA Tour title, but finally broke through with AJ Chapman at last week's Roth Holman Doubles Championship.
But with his first solo title—a major championship—on the line, he couldn't work the same magic.
Some key mistakes, including an early open frame, gave tour rookie Alex Horton room to pull ahead en route to the PBA Tournament of Champions title, his first tour win.
Horton's 224-176 win put a stamp on a wild tournament run that required entry through the pre-tournament qualifiers (PTQ), before eventually earning the No. 2 seed in the stepladder finals.
Wilkins said before the final that he liked his luck, having matched up with Horton twice in the tournament's match play round and splitting those matches.
The Canadian's second win over Horton on Saturday clinched the top. On his way there, he scored tight wins over multiple major champions including Jason Belmonte, E.J. Tackett, and Brandon Bonta.
And he started Sunday strong, choosing to roll first and nailing a strike right away, but it began a six-frame stretch of alternating strikes, including the fourth when he failed to spare.
Meanwhile, Horton, whose previous best finish in a major was 49th at last year's USBC Masters, began the match with four consecutive strikes to form a massive 44-pin margin.
But, like Wilkins in the fourth, Horton's eighth frame failed to spare, slightly opening the door for Wilkins, but the Canadian couldn't strike in the ninth.
Horton needed a mark in the tenth frame to claim the victory, and did so with back-to-back strikes.
"You can only dream of a moment like this," he said in his laneside interview on the CW Network's broadcast. "All the hard work and dedication that I've put in to be able to put myself in that situation finally paid off right there in that 10th frame."
Horton is the second win the Tournament of Champions coming out of the PTQ without a previous tour title since Matt O'Grady in 2018, and first Black bowler to win it since 1993 (George Branham III).
He is also the fourth tour rookie to win an event in 2026.
Wilkins could have been at a disadvantage not needing to climb the stepladder, but also that the broadcast did not take a commercial break during the final, which could have allowed him to mentally reset.
He did not take a timeout or re-rack during the final.
Had Wilkins had won, he would've likely become the favourite to be PBA Tour Player of the Year, going from zero titles to two in a week.
The only two Canadians to win a PBA major title are Guelph's Graham Fach (2016 Player's Championship) and Quebec City's François Lavoie (2016 U.S. Open).
Defending Tournament of Champions title holder Jesper Svensson failed to make the finals, finishing 71st.
CLIMBING THE STEPLADDER
Belmonte, the fifth-seed finished with six straight strikes in the final four frames to beat reigning Player's Championship winner Brandon Bonta 247-213 in the first match. Each man had three strikes in the first five frames.
The second match started in much different fashion for the 15-time major winner. He opened the match with three splits in his first four frames, compared to three strikes in the first four for Andrew Anderson.
The Australian left four frames as Anderson scored a 236-163 win to advance.
The 2018 USBC Masters champ had a slight 4-3 advantage in strikes through the semifinal's fifth frame against Horton, who came back for a tight 223-212 win after Anderson stumbled late.
