By CURTIS DUFFIELD
snieronbowling.com
FAIRLAWN — Kris Prather was a man on a mission Friday night at AMF Riviera Lanes.
Prather averaged 248 for eight games to earn the top seed for Sunday’s KIA PBA Tournament of Champions. He will look to win this prestigious event for the second time in three years.
Prather will be the top seed in a TV final for the first time in his career. It’s going to be a different way of going about business, but there’s no place he would rather be.
Joining the 30-year-old Prather (Romeoville, Ill.) in the TV finals will be No. 2 seed Dom Barrett (Great Bentley, England), No. 3 Sean Rash (Montgomery, Ill.), No. 4 Tommy Jones (Simpsonville, S.C.) and No. 5 Shawn Maldonado (Sugarland, TX).
“A lot of good shots, but a lot of good guesses as well,” said Prather about his last set of games of match play. “Pair to pair is dictated by who you follow and being able to adjust to it quickly is something we all work on out here. I think I just made all the right choices today and it paid dividends.”
Sitting in eighth place after qualifying, Prather jumped to third after the early eight-game set of match play, before jumping up to first, where he would be the rest of the way.
He went 17-6-1 in match play, including 6-1-1 on Friday night. Five of those seven games were over 245, including games of 278 and 279.
“Being able to make a decision and commit to that choice, whether it’s good or bad, is a battle we all face,” said Prather. “After Game 4, I knew I was close with the ball I was using, so I decided to make a ball change (Storm Dark Code) and threw 15 in a row, finishing Game 5 with a 245 and then went 279, 278.”
Going into the position round (final game of match play), Barrett was fourth behind Rash and Jones, but leaped both bowlers, who struggled in that final game. Rash went 191, while Jones had 158.
“Just trying to bowl well, after a bad start to the day,” said Barrett. “I came into tonight more determined and made a nice little run.”
Barrett, Rash and Jones will be looking to win their third career majors, with Jones and Rash both with a TOC title to their name.
Rash, who has 17 career titles, has won at least once in nine of the last 10 years and has all the experience to win title No. 18.
“I had a lot of confidence going into the week and just bowling extremely well right now,” said Rash. “I’ve had success in this building before, making the show two years ago when I lost to Prather. Being patient has played a big role for me this week.”
Jones and Maldanado will face off in the first match of the stepladder, which will air at 1 p.m. Sunday on FOX. Jones has 20 career tour wins, with his TOC win coming in 2007. Maldonado won both of his titles last season in the Chameleon Championship and the Lubbock Sports Open.
“Winning this tournament, with all its history, especially in this building would mean a lot,” said Maldonado. “But winning a major would be great to add to my resume.”
See the final match-play and position-round scores here: https://www.r2sports.com/website/standings.asp?TID=38031
On Twitter: @snierbowl