Wolfe defeats two of the game’s greats to win his first tour championship

Walter Ray Williams Jr. didn’t get a record.

Mike Wolfe should have — for degree of difficulty en route to one’s first Professional Bowlers Association title.

Wolfe had reason to howl after defeating first Williams — thereby preventing the legend from matching the all-time victory mark — then Norm Duke to win the Earl Anthony Medford Classic at Lava Lanes.

Wolfe defeated Williams, who remains one win shy of Earl Anthony’s mark of 41 wins, 256-206 in the semifinals.

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He then held off a game Duke, 214-212, to earn the $40,000 winner’s check, a Rolex watch, entry into this year’s Tournament of Champions and exemption on the 2005-06 tour.

All in a day’s work.

Duke had beaten Brad Angelo, 246-211, in the other semifinal.

"They say it makes you a better person if you start at the top and work your way through all the top players," said Wolfe, who admitted his first win after three-plus years on tour might not sink in for a while. "But I still like Walter Ray’s odds of getting to 41 better than mine."

Williams, of course, was a tremendous obstacle, but Wolfe had been clearing them all week. By tournament’s end, he had beaten six players — four of whom are Hall of Famers — with a combined 114 tour victories.

And Wolfe did so after being behind 3-0 in his first best-of-seven match against Ryan Shafer. In succession, he then knocked off Rick Steelsmith, Parker Bohn III and Amleto Monacelli to make the championship round.

To make it even more storybookish, Wolfe nearly didn’t make the tour this year.

His game needed to be fine-tuned, so two weeks before the tour trials last summer, he visited the Columbia equipment plant in San Antonio, Texas, to work with Chad Murphy.

"He asked me if I just wanted to sharpen up my game and get it ready for the trials or change it completely and make it better for the long term," said Wolfe. "I said, ‘Make it better.’ Now I’m glad I did."

Nine straight days, eight hours a day they worked.

With a new, relaxed arm swing that cuts down on drift and provided better control, Wolfe made it through the trials, one of eight players to earn their way onto the tour in that fashion.

Now he’s earned his first title after two previous TV appearances.

Wolfe started strong against Duke, but a 4-7-10 split in the third frame allowed Duke to move ahead.

Wolfe followed with three strikes, then Duke opened in the sixth with a 4-6-10 split.

Just when it appeared Wolfe was in control, Duke reeled off three strikes leading up to the 10th frame.

"I thought I was going to bowl about a 240 game," said Wolfe. "I didn’t think it would be that close, but Norm threw some strikes that turned into doubles. It was pretty shocking that he turned it around with the reaction he had."

Working on a spare, Wolfe doubled in the 10th frame, forcing Duke to do the same.

"He stepped up there with me sitting right behind him and threw two of the best shots he could make," said Duke, who is 11th all-time with 21 career victories. "And that’s what was required of me. I didn’t do that, so good for him. He’ll remember this day for a long time."

Duke got his first strike in 10th to heighten the drama, but his second ball was "half a 10 pin," or weak, he said, and left the 10.

"The first thing I thought of was, this is Norm Duke," said Wolfe, "and he’s one of the best in the world in this situation. What was working for me is he didn’t have his ‘A’ game because he was starting left and curving it. But he made it close."

Williams made it close, too, but only for a while.

He and Wolfe matched each other frame for frame through the first four, but an open on a 4-6-7 split in the fifth frame derailed Williams in his second attempt to equal Anthony’s record.

Wolfe, meanwhile, missed the pocket in the eighth but tripped out the 6 and 10 pins, leaving Williams, who has already won once this year, shaking his head.

Wolfe finished with five strikes.

"That’s the way the whole week kind of went," said Williams, who struggled to get pins to fall and fell behind in most of his matches. "I missed the pocket twice, he missed it three times. I could have bowled a better game, but he got the breaks. I didn’t. That’s the way it goes."

He didn’t give much thought to the chase to 41.

"I want to win, whether it’s to match a record or not," said Williams. "I just want to win."

In his win over Angelo, who has yet to win in six career TV appearances, Duke had a finishing string of nine strikes interrupted only by a spare in the eighth frame.

Angelo began with a turkey, then wowed the crowd with split conversions in two of his next three frames, but Duke was then into his strike string.

Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail ttrower@mailtribune.com