Bowling: Wodka returns to defend Greater Detroit Open title

TAYLOR -- October 27, 1999, was a historic day in the life of Dave Wodka. He won his first national tournament after 10 years on the PBA tour, The Greater Detroit Open. And he was part of the first mother/son team to win national championships in bowling history. During his acceptance speech to the crowd, he promised that he would come back to Taylor Lanes to defend his title. Two year later, he's back in Taylor making good on his promise. But, this time, instead bowling for a first place check of $15,000, Wodka is gunning for the new and improved $40,000 first place check. "It would be nice to repeat as champ."

Wodka, of Henderson, Nevada, is retired from bowling full time on the PBA Tour. His last TV show appearance at the Johnny Petraglia Open on October 17, 2000. He placed fifth. Little did he know that that would be his last appearance on TV. Four weeks later, Wodka sent out a letter to the PBA Tour and all of his friends that he was calling it a career after 11 years. "I've done everything that I've wanted to do while touring," said Wodka. "I now have a great job with Ebonite and I wanted to spend more time with my family." He has bowled in only two national events this year and four regional events winning $10,115 so far this year. Says Wodka, "I plan on bowling in maybe one more regional event, the tour event in Las Vegas and the U.S. Open in L.A."

Unfortunatly, Mr. Wodka was not able to reach the championship round this year. After nine games of qualifying, Wodka finished in 96th place, 74 pins off the pace. Paul Koehler leads the field with a 2,146. Jason Hurd trails by 15 pins. Steve Hoskins ended up in third on the strength of the day's only 300 game. Parker Bohn III and Chris Barnes the top five. Pete Weber, after winning last weeks' Great Lakes Classic at Spectrum Lanes in Grand Rapids, is tied with Randy Weiss and Jim Pratt for 16th seed.

With 143 bowlers particapated in this event, only six bowlers from Michigan made the cut down to 64. Coldwater's Curtis Odom, Saginaw's Dale Strike, Chris Sand of Chesterfield Township, Holland's Sean Quinn, Travis Raskey of Farmington Hills and Jimmy Levondowsky of Grand Rapids. Odom, who has no career titles in his 20 years on tour, finished in 51st place last week in Grand Rapids. Sand, who during the offseason is the bowling instructor at Turbo 2-N-1 Grips' Institute of Bowling Technology, joined the tour earlier this year and earned $4,210 so far in four events. Strike, who finished in 97th place in Grand Rapids last week, has bowled in nine regional events this year earning $1,610.

Pros who missed the cut include: Warren's "Big Wheel" Kurt Pilon, Bruce Falcon of Bay City, Anthony Moses of Inkster, Michael Eaton, Jr. of Wyoming, Bill Gates of Saginaw, DeWitt's Brian Hatcher, Three amateurs, Detroit's Tom Campbell, Dave Tulak and Robert Shackleford, missed the cut.

The competition will heat up at Taylor Lanes as the field of 64 bowls nine more games of qualifying Sunday starting at 10am. The round of 32 will begin its best-of-five, single elimination match play at 6pm Sunday night. The round of 16 will bowl on Monday morning at 9am. The round of 8 starts bowling Monday night at 6:30pm and the TV finals will held on Tuesday live on ESPN at 8pm.

Darrin Hill is a freelance writer.