Prather bowls through pain to move up ladder
Over the first 20 qualifying games of the PBA Barbasol Players Championship, Kristopher Prather caught the express elevator going up Wednesday and rode it into the elite five.
He was 27th when the day started and third when game 20 was in the books. The trick will be to hold his ground in the five-game morning block and five-game evening block Thursday when the top five will be decided for Sunday’s stepladder finals at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl.
Prather, 25, from Plainfield, Illinois, and eighth last week in the 60th Anniversary Classic in Indianapolis, already has proven he can play with a little pain.
“Coming into this tournament, my hand was really sore,” he said. “I bowled probably 130 games the last couple of weeks, and I was just trying to push through that.”
The big push came in the last three games Wednesday night when, after starting 258 and 198, he rolled 279, 278 and 266. Things came so smoothly in the final game that he would interrupt a conversation with friends well back of the lanes only long enough to roll another strike and then return to the conversation.
“I definitely was very comfortable the last couple of games,” Prather said, smiling. “I think that’s what led to the higher scores.”
He and the others will chase No. 1 Jason Belmonte, the defending tournament champion, and Marshall Kent, who finished day two at the top just as they did day one. They have set a blistering pace, Belmonte averaging 244.20 through 20 games and Kent 240.85.
Then came Prather (236.25) followed by two Englishmen, Stu Williams (234.30) and Richie Teece (233.35), with A.J. Chapman and Wes Malott tied for sixth (231.55), just 36 total pins behind Teece.
Prather was in a fivesome that included Williams, who also was on roll. Unlike in his previous two fivegame blocks, there was no falloff in game five for Williams on Wednesday. As the groups changed pairs of lanes from one game to the next, he stayed consistent with a 235.4 average.
“We don’t get a yardage book like they get in golf,” Williams explained about chasing the oil pattern that deteriorates as the night progresses. “That’s what causes an issue.”
Prather said there was a key to his success.
“It’s just been trying to stay a little patient and keep the ball in play, because the scores are high here,” he said. “It seems like if you get matched up, all you have to do is touch the head pin … and they all just kind of fall over.”
In the race to make the 14-team field Friday in the concurrent Mark Roth/ Marshall Holman Doubles Championship, Belmonte and partner Bill O’Neill held on to the lead after day two, with Kent and E.J. Tackett second.