Bowlers Return to Lakewood With $300,000 on the Lanes

Pro bowling’s AC Delco Classic returns to Cal Bowl in Lakewood today with a $300,000 purse, tying it with the Tournament of Champions for the largest on the tour this season.

And according to defending champion Tom Baker of Buffalo, N.Y., who hadn’t won a tournament in 10 years before his 1996 victory at Cal Bowl, winning an event of this magnitude can give a bowler a new outlook.

“It changed my whole life around,” Baker said. “I started to bowl with more confidence. It definitively did a lot for me.”

Among those rolling for the $48,000 top prize will be Baker, PBA player of the year Walter Ray Williams Jr., Grand Slam winner Mike Aulby and former AC Delco champions Norm Duke, David Ozio, Randy Pederson and Jess Stayrook.

Bob Learn Jr. of Erie, Pa., runner-up last year, will also be back, hoping to move up one place. Baker defeated Learn in last year’s final, 278-247.

Qualifying rounds will begin this morning at 9, with another scheduled at 4 p.m. After another morning qualifying round Thursday, the top 24 qualifiers will begin three rounds of match play, then the top five bowlers will move into the final elimination round Saturday at noon.