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Bowling News USA - October 25, 2009 Sullins Downs Miller at Senior PBA World Championship...

Harry Sullins, who won his fifth and last PBA Tour title in 1994 in Windsor Locks, Conn., defeated Hugh Miller of Mercer Island, Wash., 222-192 at the PBA Senior World Championship. Sullins won $15,000 prize, his first PBA Senior Tour title and a berth of his own in the Tournament of Champions. The PBA Senior World Championship was resurrected as a part of the new PBA World Series of Bowling after lying dormant since 2002. The event was held at Thunderbowl Lanes in suburban Detroit.

“It feels great,” Sullins said. “I’ll be glad to go back to the Tournament of Champions.”

Sullins used the Roto Grip Cell Pearl on the telecast, while Miller used a Storm Virtual Energy.

Sullins admitted to being nervous. “It’s been almost 11 years between TV shows, 15 years since I’ve won a title. You try to stay as calm as you can,” he said. “Some guys might say they don’t get butterflies, but I don’t care who you are – you get ‘em. The question is, how much pressure can you take and still move your feet, swing your arm, roll the ball and hit what you’re throwing at? It worked out.

“The difference was I made all my spares,” he continued. “That keeps the pressure on. It kept me 19-20 pins ahead the whole match. I threw two strikes in a row twice early in the game and that was huge. I could tell Hugh was trying to figure out which ball to use, so I kept telling myself, just get a double, and fortunately I was able to do that.”

Sullins felt like the title was his for the taking after he was warmly greeted by the Detroit area fans attending the finals in a center where he had honed his game for years.

“I’ve bowled at Thunderbowl for 30 years,” the Chesterfield Township, Mich., resident said, “but when we came out for the introductions, I actually had the fans with me. That was so pleasing. It was like, it’s my time to win.”

It was also rewarding because he made a less-than-satisfying debut on the Senior Tour a year earlier.

“I wanted to come out full blast last year,” the 52-year-old Michigan native said. “I had big goals – rookie of the year, all of that – but I went out to the west coast and didn’t do so well. In the Senior U.S. Open I threw my elbow out, so I wound up missing the whole balance of the season.

“This year I had a different outlook. I wanted to start strong in Jackson (Mich.), but I got a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. I hadn’t had a job in three years, so I decided the seniors could wait. I wound up staying home and bowling in the Regional Players Championship at Thunderbowl, which gave me an edge to get ready for the Senior Tour and for the World Series. In the six Senior Tour events I did bowl, I had four championship round appearances including a win and a second. So I’m happy.”

The opening event of the PBA’s 2009-10 season on ESPN also included a PBA Trick Shot Invitational, won by PBA Hall of Famer and Storm staffer Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla. Duke performed a series of trick shots to top a field including fellow Hall of Famers Parker Bohn III and Brian Voss, PBA champions Chris Barnes and Sean Rash, and Finland’s two-handed sensation, Osku Palermaa, for a $5,000 prize.

Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., earned the right to become the first woman to bowl in the Professional Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions thanks to her victory in the inaugural PBA Women’s World Championship .

The finals of the Motor City Open, the inaugural event of the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, will air next Sunday on ESPN at 1 p.m. Eastern.

PBA SENIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Thunderbowl Lanes, Allen Park, Mich.

Championship – Harry Sullins, Chesterfield Township, Mich. ($15,000 - Roto Grip Cell Pearl) def. Hugh Miller, Mercer Island, Wash. ($7,500 - Storm Virtual Energy), 222-192.

PBA WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Thunderbowl Lanes, Allen Park, Mich.

Championship – Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J. ($15,000) def. Shannon Pluhowsky, Phoenix ($7,500), 219-204.

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