To Loser McCordic Go Spoils : His 300 Game Earns Him $100,000; Winner Karlsson Gets $18,000

Pete McCordic’s dream of winning a title on the Pro Bowlers Assn. Tour failed to materialize Saturday.

However, another dream of unexpected magnitude did.

The Houston right-hander strung 12 consecutive strikes in the nationally televised final of the Greater Los Angeles Open.

For the perfect on-camera game in the opening match of the stepladder roll-off, McCordic collected an on-the-spot check worth $100,000, a bonus prize from a sponsor.

It was the richest payoff for a 300 game in bowling history.

Four other off-camera 300s in the high-scoring weeklong tournament at Gable House Bowl in Torrance netted only $100 PBA prizes to each of the shooters.

McCordic described the closing moments of his performance--the 12th 300 of his 14-year pro career--”a nerve-racking experience.”

That may explain why his game suddenly cooled as he could only muster a spare in the first frame of the second match against Sweden’s Mats Karlsson.

Karlsson whipped McCordic, 234-206, and then went all the way to the $18,000 title, beating Kentuckian John Gant, 234-226, and, in the championship showdown, defeated Diamond Bar’s Ricky Corona, 235-181.

Corona kept hitting the pocket solidly but failed to get strikes. “It just wasn’t my day,” said Corona, who averaged 224 for 42 games to be the top-seeded spot in the final.

Karlsson, 30, won for the second time in four years of pro bowling after being an international star in amateur play. He first won in 1986, taking the Southern California Open at Riverside’s Town Square Lanes.

“Bowling is one of Sweden’s biggest sports,” he said. “I’ll be getting good write-ups back home for this win. “

Saturday’s 300 game was viewed by 500 in the Gable House Bowl audience and by about 5 million watching the ABC telecast, according to the PBA.

Play was stopped and the bowling center went wild with cheers and jumping fans when McCordic crashed the pins for the 12th strike.

Rushing to him first was his wife, Susie.

“I was scared to death in the 10th frame,” he said. “I swear my knees were buckling on the last shot. For a split second, I thought I had thrown a bad one, but when I saw it hooking back, I knew I had a chance.”

McCordic used a polished ball with less hooking efficiency on Lane 14 and a less-hooking unpolished shooter on Lane 13.

“I switched balls just before the match,” he said.

McCordic lugged eight balls into the tournament paddock. “You go with the ones you think will get you a good line to the pins,” he said.

His was the fourth 300 game to be scored in a televised final on the national pro tour.

Jack Biondolillo of Houston rolled one in the 1967 Firestone Tournament of Champions. The others were by Seattle’s Johnny Guenther at San Jose in 1969 and Chicago’s Jim Stefanich in 1974 at Alameda, Calif. A PBA 300 in those days paid a bonus of $10,000.