After a slow start to the Professional Bowlers’ Association tour, Guelph native Graham Fach is on a bit of a roll.
The first Canadian to win a PBA Tour event when he won the Barbasol PBA Players Championship in 2016, Fach is on a hot streak with two wins in two events, the first one the PBA Farmers State Bank Central/Midwest Open regional event in Angola, Ind., and the second one a smaller local tournament in Cincinnati.
“For the PBA national tour, this is the first year that bowling has been on Fox Sports rather than ESPN,” Fach said. “They pushed all of the events starting January. They wanted to have a season kind of like most sports do where before bowling was kind of staggered throughout the year.
“From January to March was our season. I didn't have a great season, I'll be honest. I cashed in one of the events (24th at the Oklahoma Open) which is a pretty poor performance for me -- and for most people as well. I was pretty down in the dumps. I would be close to cheques, but come up short and then March happens.”
That’s when the coronavirus pandemic made travel difficult and most travel restrictions were starting to be put in place during the PBA world championship tournament at Las Vegas.
“There are a lot of international bowlers on the PBA tour so mid-event, they told the PBA commissioner that they had to go because they weren't getting stuck in Vegas,” Fach said.
That brought about the postponement of the tournament.
“The last thing the PBA would want to do was trap the bowlers here away from their families,” Fach said. “I'm very thankful we were able to get out when we could.”
Like every other sport, bowling has instituted guidelines in able to continue holding tournaments during the pandemic.
“The biggest thing right now in competitive bowling of the tournaments that are being run are what is done outside of the bowlers' area,” Fach said. “The bowlers are where the tables are that are close to the ball return. You're not obligated to wear a mask when you're in that area, but as soon as you step out of that area and go more toward the spectators, you must wear a mask.”
Precautions are also in place for the fans who can attend the tournaments.
“All spectators must wear a mask and the seats are set up where they can stay six feet apart,” Fach said. “It's more for the spectators than the competitors in bowling. You try to pick a seat far away from somebody else. The biggest thing is that high fives in bowling have been pretty courteous.
“I'm taking every precaution I can. I'm not bringing this home. This is my job. I'm going to take this serious. I'll say 'Good shot,' but I'm not touching you.”
Fach is not alone in taking that stance.
“There are a lot of people that have that mindset, too, because we want to continue doing this so we want to do everything we can to make sure that we can continue to do this and that we're not the reason why it gets taken away from us.”
Around the time Fach won his Major, the bowling community was abuzz after their sport was one of the final eight being considered for five spots as new sports for the since postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Ultimately, it was one of the three finalist sports that weren’t selected.
“Bowling was extremely close to being able to compete in the Olympics,” Fach said. “The bowling community was very excited by the fact that we were even in the running. Hopefully we'll have momentum where we can get in there in the future because we were so close already.”
Bowling was last in the Olympics in the 1988 Seoul Games when it was a demonstration event, but no pros competed. It has been a full medal sport in the Pan Am Games since they were held in Cuba in 1991.
The 28-year-old Fach who lives in Urbana, Ohio, figures that’s almost the perfect location for a pro bowler if he wants to load his schedule with tournaments.
“I'm blessed to be in an area where they are all within and couple hour drive,” he said. “I don’t have to get a hotel room for the night or have an eight-hour drive.”
Fach’s tournament schedule has been reduced this year due to the pandemic, but he has been out golfing every chance he’s had after restrictions on local golf clubs were lifted.
“I've picked it up over the last three years or so and I'm golfing almost every day now,” he said.
And he probably writes off the golf as a business expense as it’s something he uses to keep himself grounded and to take some of the pressure off the bowling. He was allowing himself to make mistakes on the course as his expectations in golf weren’t that high.
“I will say that it has definitely helped me slow my mind down and concentrate on what's really important rather than as soon as you make a mistake your brain is going 100 miles an hour on how you fix it,” he said.
The pandemic has kept Fach from journeying to Guelph for the first time since the Christmas holidays, but a slice of home is never far away.
“I have a bowling ball rack from Woodlawn Bowl and I keep my bowling balls on that,” he said. “That’s pretty cool.”
