Bowling With World’s Best, Then Rejoining 8th Grade
By MARY PILON
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — In professional bowling, that corner of the sports landscape where gray-haired and balding athletes can thrive, Kamron Doyle presents something different.
He is 14 and he is winning prize money against the best bowlers in the world.
Sipping a blue sports drink and eating a Milky Way candy bar for breakfast Friday morning, Doyle, a 5-foot-5, 105-pound eighth grader, prepared for the next round of the United States Open, an event with nearly 400 competitors and a top prize of $60,000.
In advancing this far he had already become the youngest bowler to reach the prize-money level in a Professional Bowlers Association national tour event.
“We have no idea where he gets it,” said Sean Doyle, Kamron’s father, an orthodontist who seldom bowls.
Some family basements roar with the blare of a teen’s loud music. In the Doyles’ house in Brentwood, Tenn., the noise comes from Kamron’s bowling.
The family built two lanes in the basement in November. “It sounds like thunder when he’s down there,” Sean Doyle said.
Many of Kamron Doyle’s competitors here have been bowling professionally longer than he has been alive. Their swings were refined and they knew better how to play off the shifts of the oil on the 60-foot lane’s surface to make their balls curve just right.
Doyle bowls with a 14-pound ball (lighter than most) and does not have a coach. Long and lanky, he quietly strode the glossy floor, his back to dozens of perplexed fans staring at him.
“When I first saw him, the bowling ball was bigger than he was,” said Tommy Jones, a 33-year-old bowler from greater Greenville, S.C., who has become a friend and mentor to Doyle. “Now, he’s at a whole new level.”
Eleven of the bowlers in the United States Open field were 17 or younger, organizers said. Doyle was the only one among the top 98 players Friday morning.
“It’s very unusual,” Bill Vint, a spokesman for the P.B.A., said. “This is the toughest bowling tournament around, and to have him advance to the cash level is quite remarkable.”
By 9 a.m., having made several practice throws down the lanes at the Brunswick Zone-Carolier bowling alley, Doyle was ready for competition.
On either side of him were some of the sport’s best known players, including Johnny Petraglia and Sean Rash. The smell of nachos hung in the air with the sound of crashing pins.
Players exchanged occasional high-fives or fist bumps with Doyle, but for the most part they did not speak to one another.
Although Doyle competes in professional tournaments, he is not technically a professional bowler, as he is not a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. (Roughly half the competitors in this week’s tournament meet this definition of professional.)
The governing body for bowling allows those 18 and younger to compete in elite tournaments while meeting amateurism requirements.
Prize money is rolled into a scholarship fund. Doyle’s account so far has more than $20,000, which will be used for his college education.
Since bowling does not attract the endorsement deals available in some other sports, the current arrangement is fine, his father said.
“It’s not like someone is going to write him a check for $5 million,” he said.
Kamron Doyle traces his career to when he attended a birthday party at a bowling alley when he was 6.
He was hooked instantly, and repeatedly asked his parents to take him back to the bowling alley. He began to watch elite players on YouTube.
“I can’t really remember why I liked it so much at first,” he said. “I just remember watching some of those guys on TV and thinking I should do it, too.”
Neither of Doyle’s parents bowls, but now Sean ushers his son to tournaments. On Friday, he called his wife, Cathy, with frequent updates during Kamron’s games.
“It’s like a roller coaster today,” he told Cathy. Kamron bowled games of 246, 173, 226 and 163. Sean acknowledged that he is “a nervous wreck” when he watches his son compete, but said it beat standing out in the rain for a football game.
“No one expects him to play like he does,” Sean Doyle said. “It could be Kamsanity,” he added, a nod to the recent craze over Jeremy Lin of the Knicks. “Sometimes we have to tell him not to practice so much.”
After five hours of bowling, Doyle finished 61st Friday afternoon and did not advance to the evening round.
For the tournament, he averaged a score of 200.77 and knocked down 5,220 pins. His performance bested that of at least four members of the P.B.A.’s hall of fame — along with his mentor, Jones, who won this event in 2006 — and produced an additional $1,340 for his college fund.
On Monday, he will return to his middle-school classes.
“I did the best I could do,” he said after zipping his bowling balls in a red rolling bag. “I’m going to rest up and get back to practice in a day or two to prepare for next year. I’ve got a long time to practice.”
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