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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