Parks, 54, averaged 247.88 during the first eight-game qualifying block. He finished with 1,983 and a 30-pin lead over second-place Johnny Petraglia from the field of 125 bowlers.
“It gets harder every year out here,” Parks said of the Senior Tour. “There are more great bowlers out every season, so you’ve got to get them when you’re bowling good.”
The Senior Dayton Classic roster includes Petraglia, a PBA Hall of Famer with 14 PBA Tour and eight Senior Tour titles; Tom Baker, a hall of famer and four-time Senior Player of the Year and Ron Mohr, a two-time Senior Player of the Year and winner of four events this season. Those four pros were all in the top five after the first day of qualifying. Brookville bowler Ron Profitt joined the elite ranks in fourth place.
“I saw the scores from this morning and I knew if I bowled well I could shoot pretty good,” Parks said.
It took a few games, however, for Parks to get into a rhythm. The tallest professional bowler on tour made a ball switch and a few minor adjustments early. By the fourth game, he was comfortable and his scores showed it. After a pair of 226 games, Parks never shot below a 246 in the final five games.
“My rhythm started setting in and then I just needed to stay focused,” he said.
While Parks is happy with his position on the leaderboard, he will be much happier if he is still up there on Tuesday when the tournament wraps up. While a win will mean a paycheck, it also comes with a price — a haircut from the center’s proprietor.
“If I win, Mike Irwin is going to cut my hair,” Parks said, smiling. “He can even mess it up.”
Perfect: The high scores of the day belonged to Guppy Troup and Wayne Webb who both opened the B squad qualifier with 300 games. Terry Metzner posted a 299.
Easy read: Four-time Senior Player of the Year Tom Baker had the lanes figured out before he threw a single ball in the opening round of qualifying Sunday morning.
“Actually, I found the shot Saturday at practice,” Baker said. “If the lanes were different today, I would have changed balls but I didn’t have to.”
Baker started strong, averaging 268 through the first four games and finishing the eight-game block with 1,940, a 242.5 average. The 56-year-old North Carolina bowler led the first qualifying squad and was third to Parks and Petraglia after their squad Sunday night.
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