David Claybourn: Sports Views: I've been following bowling since age of 12

Sep. 26—I've been enjoying the sport of bowling as a bowler, fan or journalist since the age of 12.

Believe it or not my first shot in 10-pin bowling was a strike at Coastal Bend Lanes in Aransas Pass on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Many years later I tried five-pin bowling while on vacation in Vancouver, Canada. My first shot there was also a strike.

Five-pin is vastly different from its more famous counterpart here in the U.S. There are five less pins to knock down and the ball is much smaller and fits in the palm of your hand. It has no finger or thumb holes. To me it was like rolling the wooden ball in the arcade game Skee-Ball. I'm pretty good at Skee-Ball so I bowled a decent 185 in my first five-pin game. Much higher than my first 10-pin game!

But while I enjoyed success on the first balls I threw in both 10-pin and five-pin I learned it's a lot harder to master the 10-pin game of bowling than it looks. I started off throwing a straight ball and couldn't pick up a lot of strikes. I'd hit the pocket with the ball but leave a single pin. So I worked on hooking the ball and bought a ball that would hook better on the lanes. My strikes went up and so did my scores but controlling the hook wasn't always easy.

After you master your bowling technique you learn to adjust to the lane conditions. The bowling center lays down oil patterns on the lanes. The oil helps the bowlers control their shots but if you're not lined up correctly it can be frustrating.

I watched one of the bowlers on the Professional Bowler's Association tour shoot 22 straight strikes over two games in qualifying on a Thursday at the Quaker State Open at the Forum Bowl in Grand Prairie. But when he bowled in the TV stepladder finals on Saturday poor Justin Hromek couldn't buy a strike. The lights for TV dry the oil on the lanes and cause bowlers to adjust on the fly. Some make the right adjustments and some don't. And they only have a few shots to get locked in or they're beaten.

When I was younger the top bowlers on the PBA tour were Mark Roth, a right-hander who really cranked the ball, and Earl Anthony, a left-hander with a smooth delivery. What a contrast it was to see them on the lanes.

I would watch them and the other top bowlers compete on ABC-TV on Saturdays with Chris Schenkel on play by play and Nelson "Bo" Burton Jr. providing the expert commentary. Schenkel and Burton were the best.

One bowler I've long admired is Walter Ray Williams Jr. He's nicknamed "Deadeye" because he's so accurate with a bowling ball and he's also a nine-time national horseshoe pitching champion. In two different seasons from 2005-6 Williams never missed picking up a single-pin spare in 475 attempts. Williams leads the PBA in career wins with 47. Anthony is second with 43 and Roth ranks sixth with 34.

I've long been a big fan of Texas bowler Norm Duke, who is from New Boston near Texarkana. His parents managed bowling centers in two Northeast Texas cities so Norm literally grew up on the lanes. He ranks third on the career list with 40 wins.

I bowled in some pro-ams in Grand Prairie with Pete Weber, Mike Aulby, Roger Bowker and Mike Miller. Weber ranks fourth on the career list with 37 victories. Aulby is eighth with 29. Weber, who has been known to lose his temper in TV matches, was friendly and very knowledgeable about sports. Aulby, a former PBA president, was a really nice guy. Miller was known for bowling without a thumb hole for his ball.

There's been some top bowlers bowl in Greenville. Chris Barnes, who ranks 17th on the career list and a former U.S. Open champion, won a regional title at what was called DB's but is now Shenaniganz.

Wes Malott, who's won 10 PBA titles and a former U.S. Open champion, bowled in one of the regional tournaments here. They call him the "Big Nasty" because he's so powerful.

Two more U.S. Open champions, Del Ballard Jr. and Gary Dickinson, bowled in regional tournaments in Greenville. Ballard shot a perfect 300 game in qualifying but did not win the tournament.

Danny Wiseman, a 12-time winner on the tour, bowled some practice games at the old Hilltop Lanes in Greenville when he was in Hunt County visiting family. I looked at his score sheet. All games over 200.

Bobby Cooper, a 1970 U.S. Open champion, was a former manager at Hilltop. He told me about an embarrassing moment when he split his pants while bowling live on national TV.

Donna Dillon, who won the prestigious Bluebonnet Queens women's state title several times, also managed the lanes at Hilltop. I watched her average 222 for nine games in a city tournament one time.

I use to love to walk behind the bowlers while they were competing in the regional tournament. While their approach and deliveries were usually different their follow throughs were very much alike.

The successful bowlers today put a lot of revolutions on the ball with their release. More revs create more pin action which usually leads to more strikes. But not always, which makes the game interesting.

Bowlers using two-hands can put a lot of revs on the ball so now you see two-handed bowlers like Jason Belmonte and Texan Anthony Simonsen finish among the leaders in tournaments on the tour. "Belmo," who is from Australia, is probably the best bowler on the PBA tour right now. But I wonder. Would Belmo use two hands for five-pin bowling? That would be something to see.

David Claybourn is sports editor of the Herald-Banner.