Sunday, December 12, 2010

Rookie Norton Wins PBA Chameleon Championships

California attorney Scott Norton of Costa Mesa, Calif., held 
court for the first time as a full-time Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour competitor 
in the title match of the Chameleon Championship at South Point Bowling Center, 
and he won his case.

The Chameleon Championship finals – the third of five legs in the PBA World 
Series of Bowling - aired Sunday on ESPN.

Norton, a 28-year-old left-hander who passed his California bar exam just a year 
earlier, delivered a powerful opening statement in his first PBA Tour television 
appearance, starting the title match with eight strikes before converting a 4-7 
spare in the eighth frame in easily defeating Sean Rash of Wichita, KS, 
256-181. Rash had won three consecutive matches to reach the championship 
contest.

“It’s pretty amazing. I’ve worked a long time for this,” Norton beamed. “It’s an 
unbelievable, crazy feeling. I was unconscious for a lot of that match.”

The son of Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) and United States Bowling 
Congress Hall of Famer Virginia Norton earned his opportunity to bowl as a 
Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour exempt player for the 2010-11 season by winning the 
2009 PBA Regional Players Invitational. This season might be his rookie year as 
a full-time PBA Tour competitor, but he came into it fully prepared.

“I got to grow up watching my mother bowl, and I got to see her on TV and 
wondered what that would be like,” he said. “I got to see her inducted into both 
halls of fame, and I always kinda dreamed and hoped that I could do that 
someday, too.”

The physical game he learned under his mother’s wing, and the mental game he 
learned under Team USA sports psychologist Dr. Dean Hinitz after winning the 
2000 U.S. Amateur Championship, helped explain his composure as he threw a 
near-perfect game at Rash.

“I knew I could come out here (on Tour) and compete,” he said. “I knew I could 
make shots, but sometimes that’s not enough. It just happened to be in the cards 
today that I was able to make shots and have it work out.

“Seriously, I don’t remember half of that game. I just remember getting up and 
saying the same things to myself, over and over. I told myself I was going to 
hit my target, execute and that set the tone. I was really able to stay within 
myself. I couldn’t see anything to either side. I really thought I was going to 
have a problem with the lights and people and the camera on the ball return, but 
when we got started, I didn’t see any of that. All I saw was the lane and the 
pins.

“When I got up in the ninth frame, I really wasn’t thinking about 300,” Norton 
said. “I realized I was going to win and that’s the only thing that was going 
through my mind.

“Now I know I can compete against these people,” he added. “That show included 
an amazing group of players who are going to wind up in the hall of fame. To be 
able to go out there and beat them really meant a lot to me. It really gives me 
a boost of confidence to know I can do it.”

Rash, who had experienced a series of disappointments on television over the 
past two seasons, looked almost unbeatable in eliminating Finland’s two-handed 
star, Osku Palermaa, 236-211; Chris Barnes of Double Oak, TX, 227-175; and 
Wes Malott of Pflugerville, TX, 235-217. But he couldn’t keep up with 
Norton’s strike barrage in the title contest.


The Scorpion Championship, the fourth of five World Series of Bowling “animal 
pattern” events, will air on ESPN next Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern. The Scorpion 
stepladder finalists will be the first in PBA Tour history with four 
international competitors and only one United States representative. Finalists 
are Dan MacLelland, Canada; Yong-Jin Gu, South Korea; Bill O’Neill, Southampton, 
PA; two-handed specialist Jason Belmonte, Australia, and top qualifier Jun-Yung 
Kim, South Korea.

Free post-finals interviews and other World Series of Bowling special features 
are available on PBA’s Xtra Frame video streaming service. Visit pba.com or 
xtraframe.tv to access Xtra Frame. Full year and monthly subscriptions to Xtra 
Frame are available.

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