2011 Senior Player of the Year Mohr defeats Harry Sullins in championship match of final tournament of the season; Walter Ray Williams Jr. Earns First Senior POY Crown

DECATUR, Ill. – Ron Mohr of Eagle River, Alaska, won the Professional Bowlers Association Senior Decatur Open presented by Brunswick Tuesday for his eighth career Senior Tour title while PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. captured his first PBA Senior Player of the Year crown in the final tournament of the 2012 season.

Mohr, the 2011 and 2009 Senior Player of the Year, defeated three-time Senior Tour titlist Harry Sullins of Chesterfield Twp., Mich., 243-181, in the championship match to win his first title of the 2012 season.

“It really wasn’t realistic to expect I would have a season like last year,” Mohr said. “Plus, I was having trouble matching up my ball drilling layouts with the conditions for the first half of this season. It comes down to having to adjust and I really didn’t start making the right adjustments until about the middle of the season.”

Both Mohr and Sullins had trouble finding the pocket in the first half of the championship match but Mohr was able to string six strikes in a row from the fifth frame while Sullins continued to struggle.

“When you’re given the opportunity you have to take advantage of it,” Mohr said. “I could see he was struggling and I knew if I could just put a few good shots together I could win it.”

Despite being eliminated in the match play Round of 16, Williams earned his first Senior Player of the Year title to go along with his record seven on the PBA Tour.

Prior to the start of the tournament, 2012 USBC Senior Masters winner Mike Edwards of Tulsa and Hugh Miller of Seattle, who won last week’s Senior South Shore Open, had a chance to catch Williams in the Player of the Year race but both had to win for any chance. Edwards was also eliminated in the Round of 16 and Miller failed to advance to match play handing Senior Player of the Year to Williams.

“The guys that had a chance didn’t bowl all the tournaments this year so it would have been interesting to see how it would have turned out if they did,” said Williams, who was the Senior Tour’s Rookie of the Year in 2010. “I would have liked to finish it off with a win or at least a better finish but the breaks didn’t go my way and I let it get to me a little bit today.”

The PBA Tour’s all-time career titles leader with 47 wins, came off of what was probably his worst PBA Tour season in April failing to make a television appearance for the first time in 26 seasons, but he rebounded to win two titles during the Senior Tour season. He will now turn his attention to the 2012-13 PBA Tour season which starts with the PBA World Series of Bowling in Las Vegas in November.

“I’m looking forward to the World Series and probably am going to give it another year on the PBA Tour and evaluate it after that,” Williams said. “It’s a little different bowling out here on the Senior Tour than the regular Tour but I’m encouraged by the season I had on the Senior Tour.”

In the semifinal matches, Sullins defeated Wayne Webb, of Columbus, Ohio, 257-237, to advance to the championship match with Mohr beating Michael Henry of Brunswick, Ohio, 222-175.


PBA SENIOR SENIOR DECATUR OPEN PRESENTED BY BRUNSWICK
Spare Time Lanes, Decatur, Ill., Tuesday a-indicates amateur

Championship Match
Ron Mohr, Eagle River, Alaska ($7,500) def. Harry Sullins, Chesterfield Twp., Mich. ($4,000), 243-181.

Semifinal Round
(losers earn $2,500)
Sullins def. Wayne Webb, Columbus, Ohio, 257-237.
Mohr def. Michael Henry, Brunswick, Ohio, 222-175.

Round of 8
(best-of-three games, losers eliminated, $1,700 each) Webb def. Lennie Boresch Jr., Kenosha, Wis., 2-0.
Mohr def. Darryl Bower, Middletown, Pa., 2-0.
Henry def. Rick Minier, Houston, 2-0.
Sullins def. Sammy Ventura, Syracuse, N.Y., 2-1.

Round of 16
(best-of-five games, losers eliminated, $1,300 each) Sullins def. Tom Baker, King, N.C., 3-2.
Ventura def. Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 3-2.
Boresch def. Kenny Parks, Hammond, Ind., 3-2.
Minier def. Mark Williams, Beaumont, Texas, 3-1.
Henry def. Mike Edwards, Tulsa, Okla., 3-2.
Mohr def. Mike Mineman, Belleville, Ill., 3-0.
Bower def. Bob Learn Jr., Erie, Pa., 3-1.
Webb def. Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, 3-0.

Round of 24
(best-of-five games, losers eliminated, $1,150 each) Baker def. a-Kevin Humble, Lake Mary, Fla., 3-2.
Ventura def. Dave Axon, Bellevue, Neb., 3-2.
Parks def. Ricky Beck, Box Elder, S.D., 3-2 Monacelli def. Peter Knopp, Germany, 3-0.
Bower def. Dale Traber, Cedarburg, Wis., 3-2.
Mineman def. Charlie Tapp, Kalamazoo, Mich., 3-1.
Henry def. Dennis Lane, Kingsport, Tenn., 3-0.
Minier def. Jeff Richgels, Madison, Wis., 3-0.

Round of 32
(best-of-five games, losers eliminated, $1,050 each) Humble def. a-Tom Adcock, Decatur, Ill., 3-2.
Axon def. Dale Eagle Tavares, Fla., 3-2
Parks def. Dale Csuhta, Wadsworth, Ohio, 3-2.
Monacelli def. William Keenan Jr., Orlando, Fla., 3-2.
Bower def. Ron Winger, Las Vegas, 3-2.
Mineman def. Kent Wagner, Palmetto, Fla., 3-2.
Lane def. Robert Harvey, Boise, Idaho, 3-2.
Minier def. Don Sylvia, Reno, Nev., 3-1.