Roth Moves to Top of Ladder in Greater Los Angeles Open

A few things simply didn’t live up to their billing in the early rounds of the $125,000 Greater Los Angeles Open in Torrance.

Marshall Holman, once the John McEnroe of bowling, has matured into a courteous sportsman. Not only did he fail to kick any of Gable House’s ball-return machines, he faded out of the tournament field in 58th place before the 24 survivors began match play.

And Mike Aulby, winner of the first tournament of the PBA winter tour last week at Union City, Calif., couldn’t live up to that standard this week, skipping Torrance with an injured thumb.

But one name bowler was true to form. Starting in 15th place after the first round of qualifying, Mark Roth confidently scaled the standings to lock up the No. 1 seeding for today’s televised stepladder finals.

ABC will carry the last round at 3 p.m. PST.

Roth outdistanced Gary Skidmore of Albuquerque by 185 pins, 9,930 to 9,745, over the 42 games. Roth never slipped under 200 in any of the day’s 16 games, averaging 222.1. Skidmore averaged 219.8.

Clustered in the other three places were Larry Laub of Tuscon with a 215 average and 9,527 pinfall, George Pappas of Charlotte, N.C., with 214.4 and 9,518 pins, and former leader Steve J. Martin of Kingsport, Tenn., with a 217.2 and 9,499.

Bruce Carter of New Braunfel, Texas, had a chance of breaking into the final five, but Laub beat him, 241 to 202, when Carter required a 30-pin margin to move up. Carter finished with 214.5 and 9,399.

Three of the finalists, Roth, Pappas and Martin, have already won a title at Gable House. The top five are a seasoned group, with 64 titles among them, 32 of which belong to Roth.

The PBA’s Player of the Year in 1977-78, some of Roth’s peers suspected, or maybe hoped, he had lost something in the past five years--that his explosive style or perhaps his equipment were no longer so effective as they once were.

“They said I was over the hill,” Roth said.

But the doubters were wrong. Roth dedicated 1984 to them. “Here it is. Take it,” he said, earning $158,000 to lead the money list.