Thursday, May 13, 2010

12-Year-Old Kamron Doyle is Youngest
to Cash in a PBA Tournament

Twelve-year-old Kamron Doyle of Brentwood, Tenn., finished 30th in the Professional Bowlers Assocation Canton (Ga.) Open Regional tournament May 19 at Cherokee Lanes, becoming the youngest bowler ever to cash in a PBA event. He earned $400 which will be deposited into a scholarship account.

Bowling as a non-PBA member, Doyle had a 2,797 13-game pinfall total (215.1 average) bowling against a 94-player field which included some of the top regional and national tour professional players from the organization’s South region. The event was won by 2009-10 PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr., a 47-time PBA Tour title winner and member of the PBA Hall of Fame.

Asked about his formula for success the Brentwood Middle School sixth-grader said, “I just practice and bowl in a lot of tournaments. There’s no secret--just go out there and do it.”

Doyle is a youth bowling phenom who already holds the all-time record as the youngest bowler to roll a United States Bowling Congress-certified 800 series (he rolled games of 279, 278, and 245 for an 802 three-game series at the age of 11 years, 2 months, and 1 day) and is also the third-youngest bowler to roll a 300 game in certified competition. In all, Doyle has two 800 series (highest is 803) and two 300 games.

According to his mother Cathy, Kamron became interested in the sport when he attended a friend’s bowling birthday party at the age of seven.

“After that he was hooked,” Cathy said. “Before we knew it he was bowling three days a week and at this point I think he’s got about 60 bowling balls.”

The Doyle’s live 10 minutes from Nashville in a region of the country that has recently been hard-hit by flooding but the family has not been directly affected by the disaster.

Bowling in his second PBA regional tournament, Kamron regularly competes in youth leagues and the Southern Scratch Junior Bowling Association where he has won several tournaments and also averages about 215. In addition to youth competition, he often competes in other adult tournaments where he has a best finish of fourth.

Kamron is already thinking about his future in the sport and seems to have his priorities in order.

“When I’m ready for college I’d like to go to Wichita State or Webber State because they are two of the top bowling schools,” Kamron said. “After that I’d like to bowl on the PBA Tour.”

He was featured in a Disney Channel Get’cha Head in the Game feature in the summer of 2009.

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