Butturff became a PBA member in 2015, bowling primarily on the PBA Regional circuit that season. In his seven national events during 2015, he cashed four times and made three match play rounds.
2016 Butturff won his first PBA Tour title in the 2016 PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Southwest Open. In October that same year, he won the PBA Xtra Frame Las Vegas Open for his second title. Butturff had a chance to win his first major championship at the 2017
U.S. Open. He qualified as the #1 seed, leading his next-closest competitor by an astounding 617 pins, but he lost the televised championship match to
Rhino Page, 256–222.
2018 Butturff won the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary classic in
February 2018 for his third PBA Tour title, and first on national television. He then won the PBA Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic in August for his fourth title. In October 2018, Butturff qualified as the #1 seed at the U.S. Open for a second straight season, but again lost the final match, this time by a single pin to
England's
Dominic Barrett on October 31. Butturff joined PBA Hall of Famer
Earl Anthony as the only two bowlers to be the top qualifier in back-to-back U.S. Opens during the modern era (since 1971). Coincidentally, Anthony also lost the final match in both years (1979 and 1980).
2019: first major title Butturff qualified as the #1 seed for the first two tournaments of the 2019 PBA Tour season, joining
Johnny Petraglia, Earl Anthony and
Walter Ray Williams Jr. as the only players to be the top qualifier in three consecutive PBA Tour events (going back to the final event of the 2018 season). Butturff lost the title match in the season-opening PBA Hall of Fame classic, but won the PBA Oklahoma Open the following week for his fifth PBA Tour title. He captured his sixth PBA Tour title and first major at the 2019
USBC Masters, qualifying as the #1 seed for the stepladder finals and defeating Mykel Holliman in the championship match for the win. Butturff won his seventh PBA title and third of the 2019 season on June 30 at the Lubbock Sports Shootout. He also had runner-up finishes in 2019 at the
PBA World Championship, DHC PBA Japan Invitational, and
Barbasol PBA Tour Finals. On October 21, Jakob won the $50,000 winner-take-all top prize in the PBA Clash. This was a non-title made-for-TV event featuring the 2019 season's top eight money leaders, and was broadcast November 3 on Fox. Butturff cashed a career-high $204,380 during the season, and finished runner-up to
Jason Belmonte in the 2019 PBA Player of the Year voting.
2020 In the
COVID-shortened 2020 season, Butturff took a step back, making only one championship round appearance and winning no titles.
2021 In the 2021
PBA World Championship, Butturff charged from the #3 seed to the final match, but had to settle for his second runner-up finish in this major tournament, falling to top seed
Tom Daugherty in the final match, 263–257. Butturff also finished runner-up to
Chris Via, 214–213, in the 2021 U.S. Open. This was his third runner-up finish in the event, and the second time he lost the final match by a single pin. Despite not winning a tournament in 2021, Butturff rebounded in earnings after a disappointing 2020 season, collecting $120,225.
2022 2022 saw continued frustration for Butturff, as he made four final round appearances but could not win a title.
2023 After having multiple runner-up finishes from 2020 through 2022, Butturff finally broke through in the PBA Scorpion Championship on Apr 18, 2023. Qualifying as the #1 seed, he defeated
E. J. Tackett 225–217 in the championship match. With this emotional win (the first following the death of his mother in November 2020), Butturff claimed his eighth career PBA Tour title. Butturff qualified for the May 20–21 PBA Super Slam, a special event intended to feature the five major championship winners in the 2023 season. He qualified as the top finisher without a 2023 major title when E. J. Tackett won his second major of the season at the PBA World Championship (where Butturff finished fourth). Butturff finished the 2023 season ranked fourth in points, third in average (223.92) and fourth in earnings ($175,125).
2025 Butturff qualified as the #6 seed for the 2025
PBA Tournament of Champions and won five straight matches (two in the play-in round to capture the fifth finals seed, then three more in the finals) to face top seed
Jesper Svensson in the championship match. However, he could not complete the quest for a title, falling to Svensson 221–197.
Additional info Butturff has rolled 19 career
perfect 300 games in PBA competition, including the PBA's 28th televised 300 game, which he bowled on July 18, 2020 in the seeding round for the PBA Tour Playoffs broadcast on
CBS Sports Network.
PBA Tour wins Major championships are in
bold type. • 2016: PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Southwest Open (
Lubbock, TX) • 2016: PBA Xtra Frame Las Vegas Open (
Las Vegas, NV) • 2018: Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic (
Indianapolis, IN) • 2018: PBA Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic (
Coldwater, OH) • 2019: PBA Oklahoma Open (
Shawnee, OK) •
2019: USBC Masters (
Las Vegas, NV) • 2019: PBA Lubbock Sports Shootout (
Lubbock, TX) • 2023: PBA Scorpion Championship (
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin)
Non-title wins • 2017 QubicaAMF World Cup • 2019 PBA Clash
Regional Tour success In addition to his national PBA Tour titles, Butturff has won 27
PBA Regional Tour titles, including a PBA-record nine Regional titles in the 2016 season alone. ==Bowling style==