Ex-Upstart Is Duke of Lanes : Pro bowling: After becoming phenom at 18, Norm Duke endures ups and downs before reaching the top again.

It has taken a decade of hits and misses for Norm Duke to become No. 1 in bowling.

The Oklahoman from Edmond was 18 and an overnight sensation in 1983, when he won a title in his first year on the Pro Bowlers Assn. tour. No one that young had won a PBA title. And no one younger has since.

Yet, he struggled for the next eight years, until he won two tour titles in 1991 and then another in 1993 along with the ABC Masters.

“Then my whole game came together like I’d reached a rare level of competitiveness,” Duke said, reflecting on 1994. His shot-making helped him win the Brunswick World Tournament of Champions, four other tour titles and the pro money championship ($273,753) in addition to topping the average standings (222.83 for 808 games) and setting five PBA scoring records.

He added more to his bankroll Tuesday when named 1994 PBA player of the year, an award accompanied by a $10,000 bonus sponsored by the International Order of Foresters.

“I’d undergo surgery to have another year like ’94 in ‘95,” he said, grinning while signing autographs on the lanes at Cal Bowl in Lakewood. He is the defending champion among 160 bowlers in the $240,000 AC-Delco PBA Tournament, starting today in a four-day competition for the first prize of $45,000.

He said that winning the first tournament of 1994 at the Lakewood center definitely “spurred me to all the good things that followed. I’d like it to happen again this week, but few bowlers repeat on the tour. It’s that difficult a challenge.”

He said Walter Ray Williams, Pete Weber, Brian Voss, Bryan Goebel, Eric Forkel and Amleto Monacelli are likely to challenge him this year on the pro tour.

Duke, at 5 feet 6 and 130 pounds, said he doubts smaller bowlers have an advantage, an old argument in the game.

“It’s really up to the person to eliminate his disadvantages,” he said. “If the smaller is more consistent on accuracy, the taller has more power on the ball.”

The PBA’s public relations director, Kevin Shippy, said that more tournaments this year will use arenas for tournament finals after three days of competition in bowling centers.

Last year, finals in arenas, using four portable lanes, were held successfully at Erie, Pa., (4,500 fans at Erie Civic Center), and Richmond, Va., (2,000 fans at Arthur Ashe Center). Additional arena finals are scheduled this year at Sayville, N.Y., (Stony Brook College auditorium), Detroit (the U.S Open in Joe Louis Arena) and possibly Chicago for the Brunswick World Tournament of Champions, which is being moved from Akron, Ohio.

Thirty-five Southern Californians are competing in the AC-Delco.

Among them is amateur Robert Smith of Moorpark, who lost to Duke in his first try for a PBA title in a 247-223 final of this tournament a year ago. Smith, still competing in international competition, will bowl as a guest entrant.

Another is Chatsworth’s Forkel, who started 1994 as victim of the Northridge earthquake. Surviving a leg injury while scrambling out of a shaking house, he returned to the tour to win the rich Brunswick Memorial at Chicago and finish fourth in the money standings with $138,639.