- WEEKLY POLL
Clay grad hits it big on professional bowling tour
By Mark Griffin
Special to The Press
sports@presspublications.com
Troy Wollenbecker has managed to make a pretty good living as a professional bowler.
He’s made as much as $65,000 in one year doing clinics and trade shows “and bowling in a lot of pre-tournament qualifiers and regional tournaments.”
Wollenbecker, 29, who lives in West Toledo, has been a PBA member for four years. For the past three years he has bowled in qualifiers just to get into PBA tournaments. Not anymore.
He has earned a one-year exempt status on the tour after making it through qualifying trials last month.
“It's great,” Wollenbecker said. “Knowing that I don't have to throw a strike to get a check is nice. I can bowl freer and I’m in an even playing field with the rest of the Tour. I have to stay in the top 40 in points from October through March — 20 total weeks.
“As long as you’re in the top 40 in points over that period, you win an exemption. Or, if you win a title, you regain the exemption.”
He is the first bowler to ever come out of the Toledo area as an exempt member on the PBA Tour.
Wollenbecker, who has been bowling since age three, gained his exempt status during the PBA Tour trials May 30 through June 3 in Merrillville, Ind.
Each bowler rolled nine games per day over five days, for a total of 45 games. The top seven scores after 45 games automatically qualify for the PBA exempt tour.
Wollenbecker placed fifth and finished with a combined score of 9,973 pins — just 88 pins from the top spot.
“It was a combination of ups and downs,” he said of that week. “I bowled really good for two days. I had two mediocre days and one day where I was a little under par. A 200 score for a game is par, and over 200 is called plus whatever you are over. So if you bowl a 210, you’re plus-10.
“The first day I was plus-135, so I was 135 pins over par. That was a mediocre day for me. The second day I was plus-77, which was a below average day for me. On day three I was plus-324, which was an exceptional day. The fourth day I was plus-100, and the last day I was plus-336.”
Wollenbecker, the son of Don and Vickie Wollenbecker, is a 1996 graduate of Clay High School, where he bowled for the Eagles all four years. He was on the school’s inaugural team that bowled in the Metro League at Imperial Lanes.
He has bowled in the Key Bank Traveling Classic League for the past three years.
“When I was a kid I realized (bowling) kept me out of trouble and I realized I was pretty good at it,” Wollenbecker said. “It’s pretty much been a family thing. Everybody in my family has bowled at some time. My mom worked at a bowling center when I was growing up. I always bowled with them, and I got into it. They owned Eastgate Lanes on Navarre (until 1995) when I was growing up and I bowled there a lot.”
Wollenbecker said that one day, he met up with Melissa Schroeder, “who asked me why I never tried going professional in bowling.”
“That was four years ago,” he said. “It all came down to finances. She offered to put me out on the PBA Tour, so I've been learning the tricks of the trade on the Tour. I’ve been talking to the best bowlers in the world, what they’ve done to make their game better. You have to put a lot of effort and time into it, and it all paid off.”
His first PBA event will be the USBC Masters Tournament in October in Milwaukee. Wollenbecker, who has contracts with Morich Bowling Enterprises and Turbo 2-n-1 Grips, said he plans to compete in a few regional events leading up to that. Once the PBA season gets into full swing, he said he plans to travel the country competing in every one of the national tournaments.
“It wasn't an easy living up until now,” Wollenbecker said, referring to his exempt status on the Tour. “This makes it a little easier because there is guaranteed money every week. I’m guaranteed $40,000 on the Tour before I even throw a bowling ball.”
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