Minor adjustment pays major dividends for Fagan in PBA World Championship

The pins were falling for Mike Fagan. But something didn’t feel right.

The 34-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, was fighting to stay on the lanes at the South Point Bowling Plaza on Sunday, facing Stuart Williams of England in the semifinals of the PBA World Championship. And then Fagan made a key adjustment, moving slightly to his right on his approach.

It was a brilliant move. Fagan, the No. 2 seed, went on to defeat Williams 219-206, and that momentum carried over to the championship match, where Fagan outdueled top-seeded Wes Malott 252-212 to win the final major of 2014 and the first-place check of $50,000.

“It’s rare to move to the right, but I moved it slightly and I was able to create more consistency with my shots and more speed to help carry the pins,” said Fagan, who won his second major and fifth career PBA title. “I’m pretty good at adjusting on the go, and fortunately it paid off.”

Fagan said competing in the semifinals didn’t give him an edge against Malott, who, because of his No. 1 seeding in the five-player stepladder finals, didn’t get on the lanes until the title match.

“I feel like I didn’t have a great reaction in my first game, which was why I adjusted,” Fagan said. “But I was locked in during the final. Bowling on TV is a much different game, with the lights and the crowd. But I was fully concentrated on what I was doing, and I didn’t know I won until the end.”

The two engaged in a game of bowling chicken, each waiting to see who would flinch first. It was Malott, who had started with four consecutive strikes only to wind up with an open frame in the fifth after leaving a 4-10 split he was unable to convert.

Fagan, who began the match with six straight strikes, led by 35 pins through six frames. But he settled for a spare in the seventh, then had his own misfortune in the eighth when he encountered a 4-10 split and was only able to get one of the two pins for his lone open frame of the match.

But Malott couldn’t take advantage of the opening. He left the 6-pin up in the ninth but got the spare, and when he was unable to strike out in the 10th and final frame and Fagan threw a strike on his first ball in the 10th, the match was over.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Fagan said. “These types of opportunities are very few and far between.”

The five finalists had bowled 52 games in late October during the World Series of Bowling to qualify for Sunday.

In the first match, Williams defeated Todd Book 246-211 after Book had a dreadful fourth frame that saw him take down just five pins on his first ball and finish with seven for the frame.

Williams carried that momentum into his next match, defeating Ronnie Russell 259-248.

But Williams started slowly in the semifinals with an open first frame and a spare in the second. He had a couple of chances to regroup, but Fagan held on for the victory.

“It’s a great way to end the year and a great way to start 2015,” he said.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.