Professional Bowlers Association

WALTER RAY WILLIAMS JR. ENDS YEAR AT NO. 1 A third-place finish in the season ending Lone Star Open was enough to allow Walter Ray Williams Jr. to surpass Norm Duke for the top spot in the PBA’s World Power Rankings. Williams, who made six of seven telecasts in the fall and won two events, ended the year with a ranking of 1,609 points. Ryan Shafer, who finished fourth at the Lone Star Open, also surpassed Duke and ends the year as the No. 2 ranked bowler in the world (1,579). Shafer was ranked 12th heading into the 2000 season. Duke, who finished 16th in the year’s final event, fell to No. 3 in the rankings (1,561). Duke led the Tour in 2000 with three wins. Chris Barnes ends the year ranked fourth (1,536) and Parker Bohn III, who entered the year as the No. 1 ranked player, ends the 2000 campaign ranked fifth (1,488). Rounding out the top 10 are Jason Couch (1,480), Danny Wiseman (1,265), Bob Learn Jr. (1,131), Patrick Healey Jr. (1,130) and Doug Kent (1,091). Since the inception of the rankings in March of 1993, Williams has ended the year ranked No. 1 six times. The only exceptions were at the end of 1995 (Duke) and 1999 (Bohn). STEVE HOSKINS JOINS ELITE COMPANY With his win at the Lone Star Open, Steve Hoskins became the 39th player in PBA history to win 10 career titles. Of those 39 players, only 14 are still active on the National Tour. Ten titles also seems to be a benchmark for entering the PBA Hall of Fame. Of the 37 players with 10 or more titles who are eligible for the PBA Hall of Fame (Duke and Hoskins are not yet eligible), 35 have already been inducted. Current Touring Pros who are close to 10 titles include Tom Baker and Bryan Goebel with nine wins (Baker is already in the PBA Hall of Fame), and Danny Wiseman and Jason Couch with eight. 2000 FAST STATS For the second consecutive year, the tournament leader lost more often than he won. This year, the tournament leader (National Tour) went 8-11 in title matches for a winning percentage of 42%. Last year, the tournament leader was 12-13 (48%). The last time the tournament leader had a winning percentage above 50% was 1998 when the top qualifiers went 16-9 (64%). In 2000, there were 59 perfect games rolled in 19 tournaments for an average of 3.10 per tournament. That number is down significantly from 1999 when the average was 7.03 per tournament (183 perfect games in 26 tournaments). The record for aggregate 300 games in a year is 210 in 1993. There were no televised perfect games in 2000, the first time that has happened since 1995. During televised events in 2000, PBA players converted 443 out of 455 single-pin spares (a conversion rate of 97.36%). That conversion rate is an improvement over 1999 when PBA players converted 478 out of 500 single-pin spares (95.6%)