U.S. Open Title Goes to Finn

On his information sheet, Mika Koivuniemi says his goal is “to be the best bowler in the world.” One way to do that is to win major championships.

On Sunday, Koivuniemi earned his second one of those, defeating Patrick Healey Jr., 247-182, to claim the Professional Bowlers Assn.’s 30th U.S. Open title. The 34-year-old native of Finland became the first international bowler to win the U.S. Open.

Koivuniemi, whose $100,000 prize nearly doubled his career winnings in three years on the tour, has two PBA titles, both of them major championships. He won the American Bowling Congress Masters last year. He was the first international bowler to win that too.

“I really like to make history,” said Koivuniemi, who outlasted 258 other entrants in the weeklong tournament at Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley.

In between excited cell phone chats with his wife and two daughters at their home in Ann Arbor, Mich., Koivuniemi talked about how he moved from a tie for 16th after the third round to being the tournament leader.

“I had used three different balls in three rounds,” Koivuniemi said. “But after the [single] matches start ... I found the ball that was the right one. And I kept using it and throwing it to the same spot.”

So that was the ball he used Sunday? “No, actually I used a ball I hadn’t used all week.”

Sunday’s action was defined by a simple decree: one bad frame and you’re gone.

In the first match, Mike DeVaney of Escondido was only two pins behind when a 1-2-10 split allowed Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., to pull away and win, 223-189. Williams lost in the next round when a 3-9-10 split in the second frame paved the way for Healey to win, 279-209. In the final, a 6-7-10 split in Healey’s second frame cleared the way for Koivuniemi, who threw seven strikes in his first eight frames.