This 800 club is just one - News, Notes & Quotes - Bob Korth - Brief Article

IF YOU FOLLOW BOWLING, you'd probably know one of the game's former superstars, Marshall Holman, is from Medford, Ore. But unless you're a bowling super-junkie, you probably wouldn't know the name of another bowler from the Medford area--a member of four halls of fame--who has accomplished something neither Holman, nor any other bowler, has: an 800 series in each of five decades.

Bob Korth, a 59-year-old carpet layer and pro shop operator, rolled an 824 series last June for his ninth 800 in a five-decade span, going back to 1965. He has used balls of seven compositions in the achievement.

The 824, shot with a Hammer 3D Tour reactive resin ball, came in the doubles competition of the Oregon Bowling Association State Championships, part of his all-events record score of 2,316. That beat the all-events record of 2,298 set a couple weeks earlier by, of all people, Holman. Three months earlier, throwing a Track Enforcer particle ball, Korth shot an 812 in a doubles league in Grants Pass, Ore.

Korth got his first 800 in 1965, using his trusty Brunswick TracMaster hard rubber ball for an 801. It came in a doubles league at Kenmore Lanes in Seattle on games of 289, 256, and 256. In those days, 800s were very rare and such achievements got headlines. It was only the second 800 in Seattle history, the first being shot in 1954 by a former pro star, John Gunther. Since then, Korth has scored eight more 800s (not counting some 800s that were not sanctioned).

"It started getting easier in the '80s when urethane balls came out," Korth says. "The [800] I got in the '60s, that was hard to do back then."

He shot three 800s in the 1970s with polyester/plastic balls (814, 818, 844) while on five-man teams in Medford and Ashland, Ore. The era of urethane, then reactive resin balls, sent scores soaring in the 1980s. In 1984 Korth, with a urethane ball, shot an 834 in a trios league in Ashland. In 1993, with an Ebonite Crush R reactive resin ball, he got an 817 in doubles during the Oregon state tournament.

In July 2000, Korth got an 812 in a doubles league at Caveman Bowl in Grants Pass. His 800s in March and June of this year sealed his accomplishment.

Korth, who started bowling at age 11, is a member of the Oregon, Medford, and Seattle Bowling halls of fame, plus the Medford All-Sports Hall of Fame. This year he carried averages of 224, 220, and 219. He has carried a 200 average for 39 consecutive years and in 1984 averaged 200 both right-and left-handed.

Amazingly, Korth never shot a 300 in any of his 800 series, although he has rolled 20 career perfect games. His best showing in the American Bowling Congress tournament was a second in doubles and 14th in all-events in 1965. He says he's been drilling his own equipment since the early 1960s.

Korth was a PBA member for 18 years but says he didn't have the money to go out full-time on the tour. He won a regional in Salem, Ore., in 1994 and on the Senior tour in 1993 finished fifth at Long Beach.

"I think I could score with it [today]," Korth says of the rubber ball he used back then. "I bet I'd still average 200 with it."

Korth writes an "Ask Bob" column for The Southern Oregon Kegler, Van-Port Northwest Bowling News, Ten Pin Alley, and the Web bowling magazine Bo-Fish Bowling News.

A resident of Central Point, Ore., near Medford, Korth also helps operate a pro shop at Showtime Family Lanes in Grants Pass. He and his wife, Theresa, have three children and two grandchildren.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group