Bowling fans who packed Bowlero Wauwatosa on Sunday for the Professional Bowlers Association’s World Championship certainly got their money’s worth as a stacked field of competitors performing at the top of their games took to the lanes.
The boisterous crowd scrambled for seats in the bleachers that lined both sides of the two-lane setup created for the event long before the first pair of bowlers squared off. Those who bought standing-room only tickets lined the back of the room. A national television audience also tuned into the broadcast on Fox’s regular broadcast network.
A return of fans this season after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a spectacular sight for PBA Commissioner Tom Clark, a Muskego resident.
“That’s what I care about. I’m a fan. I grew up a fan,” Clark said. “To me, fans are the most important thing in any sport. I just loved seeing people lined up to get in here today to get a glimpse of these guys. It was absolutely miserable without fans. We were pumping in fake fan noise last year. It was like a bad dream.”
This @PBATour crowd is AH-mazing!!!
— Kimberly Pressler (@MissPressler) March 13, 2022
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/PvE2lQCJZd
After a series of intense games spread out over two hours, Kris Prather captured the PBA World Championship over Jason Sterner in a tense, single-ball roll off after the two bowled to a 237-all tie after ten frames. Prather, bowling first, rolled a strike in the sudden-death format, while Sterner left four pins standing.
.@KrisPratherPBA wins the PBA World Championship presented by @PabstBlueRibbon in a roll-off!
— PBA Tour (@PBATour) March 13, 2022
Congrats, Kris! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/ijTJss0OFK
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The 30-year-old Prather, from Plainfield, Illinois, raised his hands above his head in triumph then hugged his wife, Ashley, as the crowd roared. Prather earned $100,000 for the victory. Sterner, 39, of Rochester, New York, was the fourth seed among five bowlers who qualified for the Sunday’s event. He turned in a gutsy performance and had to win three matchups in a stepladder format to reach the championship game. Sterner defeated Jakob Butturff, Jason Belmonte and Tommy Jones to reach the final game.
Prather, the top seed, had to bowl only a single game to win it all.
“That was a great final. I have been to about 300 of them and there aren’t any I can think of that were better,” Clark said. “What made this one even better was that it was on the Fox broadcast channel. This reached a very large audience.”
Clark presented Prather with the Earl Anthony trophy awarded to World Championship winner.
“A lot of stuff had to happened for me to be holding this trophy and I’m very happy to be here celebrating with all you guys,” Prather said as fans responded with cheers.
The PBA World Championship presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon is one of five majors during the season, with each awarding $100,000 first-place prizes. In total, bowlers have been vying for a season purse of about $4 million. The World Championship served as the main event of the World Series of Bowling XIII being held at Bowlero Wauwatosa over 13 days, which concludes on Wednesday.
Five PBA Tour titles—the PBA Mark Roth/Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship, PBA Cheetah Championship, PBA Scorpion Championship, PBA Shark Championship and PBA World Championship — are being contested at Bowlero. Fox’s main broadcast channel carried the World Championship while its FS1 network is carrying all other events.
Clark created the World Series in 2009.
“It’s become the biggest global professional bowling tournament,” he said. “It gives the players so many opportunities and the fans many opportunities to connect with the players. There are so many different shows and so many different disciplines. Bowlers are bowling on different oil patterns every day. There’s a versatility necessary for the players to make it to this championship, but it’s also for specialists on certain patterns.”
The event has attracted bowlers from around the world, with 27 international players from 14 countries in the elite field of 96 players participating in the World Series events.
“It’s the most international players you’ll see at any PBA event,” Clark said. “It makes winning even greater. People are coming from all over the world to try their hand at this.”
Clark had high praise Prather and Sterner.
“They are both similar in age and have similar accomplishments in their careers. They are kind of the next generation of bowlers who are going to be dominant out here,” Clark said. “And they are very cool individuals. They have a great demeanor, and their bowling form is perfect. You hear a lot about two-handed bowling and unique styles. Prather and Sterner have classic styles and they’ve taken that classic style to another level. Prather has the best form I’ve ever seen. His head is so still. When he puts the ball down on the lane you can barely hear it.”
Both bowlers are known for their work ethic, Clark said.
“They practice more than anybody. To see those guys make it to the pinnacle of the game is really cool,” Clark said. “Prather led the tournament and was the No. 1 seed. I tend to root for that person because they really earned it but what Sterner did all day by beating a murderer’s row of major champions and hall of famers, he ran through them. To get to a last shot situation, you can’t imagine the level of pressure on the shots he was throwing. It ended up being incredible drama with great players who are really deserving. It was perfect.”
Clark spoke as fans continued to mill around the bowling center seeking autographs from the star bowlers and the personable Kimberly Pressler, a member of the Fox Sports broadcast team and former Miss USA pageant winner.
“I’m still buzzing from that show,” Clark said. “That was special, especially with all the split conversions. You could feel the electricity in the room. One of the best things about being in Milwaukee is knowledgeable fans, and for them to see splits like that converted over and over, all in clutch situations. The noise level raised the roof. Whenever you can get a sport to give you a sound like that, it’s special. Then you have a championship match that goes to a roll off. it doesn’t get more exciting in bowling. I’m glad everybody here got to see it.”
The split conversions certainly had the crowd roaring with excitement. Sterner started it by converting a 4-7-9-10 split. Belmonte converted a 3-4-10 split, while Jones succeeded in picking up 2-4-8-10 and 3-4-6-7 splits in successive frames.
THIS MATCH!
— PBA Tour (@PBATour) March 13, 2022
Now, @JBelmo converts the 3-4-10 🔥
📺: LIVE NOW on @FOXTV pic.twitter.com/Q40w5R0dr3
With a strong response from fans for the events at Bowlero Wauwatosa over the nearly two-week stretch and a national television audience, Clark, who bowls every Wednesday night at Alpine Lanes in Muskego, sees a bright future for bowling in the Milwaukee area and throughout the state.
“Tournament bowling in Wisconsin, where top players get together every weekend somewhere in the state, it’s as good as it’s ever been,” Clark said. “The really competitive players are finding a lot of places to bowl and Wisconsin is still a hotbed for that.”
Southeastern Wisconsin, like many areas across the country, has seen a decrease in bowling centers for various reasons over the past few decades, Clark noted.
“But Milwaukee is in the top 10 of any city in the country for the number of centers and the number of certified bowlers,” he said. “You’ll never take bowling and beer out of Milwaukee.”
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