In a Masters final that pitted two friends against one another, smooth-swinging Parker Bohn III edged white-hot Jason Couch--with the help of one stubborn 9-pin
THERE ARE TWO GROUPS OF people you should never bet against when coming to the gleaming gambling mecca of Reno: blackjack dealers in the glitzy casinos and left-handed bowlers in the sparkling, $50 million National Bowling Stadium.
Sometimes you may beat a cold dealer, but for some strange reason there are no cold lefties, at least in the American Bowling Congress' prestigious Masters Tournament. Going into the 51st ABC Masters, lefthander Mike Aulby had won the two previous events. In addition, lefthander Dave Davis won the 1995 ABC Senior Masters, and fellow lefty Parker Bohn III rolled a 300 game on a national telecast at the Stadium and won a doubles event held there in January.
So what happened during this latest competition, from June 11 through 16? Not much you wouldn't have expected. Lefties dominated play, claiming almost half of the 68 final berths for the double-elimination phase of the tournament; three made the ESPN telecast, and Bohn won his 27th career title (and his first major) by beating fellow southpaw Jason Couch by 11 pins.
Righthanders were irate, calling for lefties to bowl each other in the match-game competition when the $350,000 ABC Masters is held in the National Bowling Stadium next January. There were even silly rumors flying that the alley beds were titled to favor lefthanders. But the more righthanders ranted about the Stadium, the more lefthanders' confidence soared, to the point where lefties could hardly wait to jump into the Stadium's elevator and punch the fourth-floor button that leads to the lanes.
According to Bohn, the better you bowl in one particular center, the more your confidence goes up when you return. "I have been knocking on the door of the Masters for a long time," says Bohn, who finished as runner-up in both 1998 and '99 and made the TV show last year in Albuquerque. "And to tell the truth, I've been sick of being the bridesmaid in the major tournaments." There was no question that Bohn was elated with his victory. "The monkey is off my back in the majors. No longer will people be asking me why I never have won a major."
But there was also a note of sadness, because the New Jersey bowler beat his roommate, Couch, in a thrilling championship match, 248-237. "As happy as I am for myself, I feel bad for Jason because I know how it feels to finish second in this tournament," Bohn said. "We both bowled great games. Jason just got a bad break--the worst break in bowling, as a matter of fact [the 9-pin failed to fall on a solid hit in the 9th frame]--and I was able to take advantage of that."
Couch, who was in Bohn's wedding this past July, had knocked Bohn out of the tournament's unbeaten ranks in play the previous night. Leading up to the 9th frame of their title match, the two lefthanders had bowled clean games. Couch started the match with a double and picked up single-pin spares in frames 3 and 4 (7-pin and 8-pin). Meanwhile Bohn, who won his 25th title earlier this year at the National Bowling Stadium (National/Senior Doubles, with Rohn Morton) and his 26th in Latham, N.Y., converted two single-pin spares (7-pin 1st frame and 10-pin 2nd frame), struck in the 3rd, and picked up another 10-pin in the 4th frame.
The two lefthanders both struck in the next four frames. Bohn went on to strike in the 9th while Couch, holding a tenuous eight-pin lead, fell victim to that solid 9-pin and finished the match first with a strike in the 9th frame and an eight-count spare (3-8 combination) in the 10th.
Couch had no regrets about his shot in that 9th-frame heartbreaker: "I couldn't have thrown a better ball--it was a perfect shot. I'm not disappointed with the way I bowled today--I'm just very disappointed with the outcome."
Actually, Couch proved to be a calm and cool veteran with that 9th-frame shot. Just as he started his approach, he spotted movement down the lane and stopped dead in his tracks. The 25-second timer was reset and Couch lost no composure, rolling a perfect shot that resulted in the unlucky 9-pin. Bohn needed a nine-count spare and a strike in the 10th frame to win but stepped up with a strike on his first ball to secure the victory. He's now beaten Couch three out of four times in title matches.
By all accounts, Couch shouldn't even have been bowling the finals, as it took miracle runs for him to make the qualifying cuts. As Couch said the night before the title match, "This was a huge week for me, and I'm very fortunate to be in the top-seeded position going into the TV show. I made each of the two qualifying cuts by just three pins," including a late charge that saved him from oblivion in the first round. "I'm just letting everything loose right now. I feel like I have nothing to lose."
But after bowing his head in despair as Bohn struck in the 10th frame, Couch clearly felt the agony of defeat. Sure, the difference in prize money--$40,000 for the champion and $20,000 for the runner-up--was big, but not nearly as large as the prestige that comes with winning a major title.
Bohn advanced to the championship by defeating Tony Reyes in the semifinal match, 200-170. Reyes, a third-year pro who was making his third championship-round appearance, took home $14,000 for third place. Reyes, of San Jose, bested amateur Shannon Buchan in the second match, 237-190. Buchan, of Waterloo, Iowa, was the only amateur in the field. His fourth-place finish was worth $9,500. In the first match, Buchan outdid Chris Hayden, 201-170. Hayden, of Tampa, sealed for fifth and a $7,500 check.
If anything, Bohn's Masters win is a signal that he's not only back from a somewhat disappointing 2000 season, but that he's also ready to challenge Couch for the 2001-02 PBA Player of the Year Award. Bohn was the consensus PBA Player of the Year in 1999, winning a career-high five titles, banking a PBA-best $232,595, winning his first High Average Award with a PBA-record 228.04, and tying a PBA record with eight 300 games. He became one of just a handful of players who have won five titles in a year and also became just the 12th man to break the PBA's 20-title mark on the national tour. The 2000 season wasn't as kind to Bohn, as he earned "only" two titles and saw his earnings more than cut in half.
"What separates champions from the rest," Bohn says, "is the ability to shrug off bad shots and bad weeks, and at the same time know how to take it to the finish line once you've figured out the lanes. It takes a great mental outlook."
Since 1989, Bohn has earned more than $100,000 in every season except one. Bohn ended a two-year winless streak in 1997 and came within an eyelash of winning PBA Player of the Year honors in 1998 after winning four times. During the 1990s, Bohn took 18 titles and banked more than $1.5 million, only to be overshadowed by Walter Ray Williams Jr.'s 25 titles and $1.9 million in earnings.
Couch, from Clermont, Fla., is unabashedly dubbed by the PBA as its "poster boy for perseverance." In 1992, he was the PBA's Rookie of the Year, and he topped that feat in 1993 by winning in Windsor Locks, Conn., and capturing the PBA Touring Players Championship in Indianapolis for his second title.
Then reality set in. Over the next three years, Couch made enough money to keep chasing his dream, but his consistency fell off. It didn't help that his roommate was Bohn, a fellow lefthander who was blossoming as a superstar. But on the other hand, Bohn was a boon to Couch's growth: He was the guy Couch most wanted to beat and the role model Couch knew he had to follow if he hoped to accomplish that goal.
In 1999, Couch began making regular 70-minute trips to the Kegel Training Center in Sebring, Fla., which was equipped with the most modern teaching technology in the sport. By watching himself bowl on Kegel's Computer Aided Tracking System (CATS), Couch began systematically isolating his flaws and fixing them. Couch put in long hours with Kegel instructor Richard Shockley, fortifying his mental game. He bowled on every conceivable type of lane condition, using every possible type of ball layout.
"I work on the whole ball of wax," Couch says. "I work on my physical game until it's sharp and then I work on my mental game. Kegel's technology removes the lies. The computers show you the mistakes you're making, and those mistakes quite often are not the mistakes you think they are."
What Couch learned during his three- and four-times-a-week treks to Sebring was that he had as good an "A" game as anyone on tour. "But you won't find a PBA Player of the Year who is one-dimensional," Couch says. "You have to have a good `B' and `C' game, too."
