A Bowling Pro
Mike Tryniski talks about competing in bowling leagues in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, his career and earning $50,000 in a bowling tournament
By Tim Bennett
Mike Tryniski, 64, of Fulton, had no idea when he picked up his first bowling ball at 7 years old what a dramatic effect the sport would have on his life.
Fifty years later, Tryniski is still passionate about something others may only equate with fun and friends.
But from a young age bowling was serious business for Tryniski.
As a teenager, he realized bowling only once a week in a kid’s league didn’t cut it. His grandfather, who worked at Lakeside Lanes in Fulton asked the owner if his grandson could bowl there for free. When he consented, Tryniski took advantage, his skills grew and so did his ambition.
By the age of 20 Tryniski had proved his bowling prowess on the high school team and local leagues. Now he wanted to see how far he could climb on a national level. To him that meant moving to Houston, Texas, a big city with tough competitors and entering as many professional tournaments as possible. Surprisingly, Tryniski won his first two tournaments.
Hence began Tryniski’s 30-year bowling career, which has taken him to competitions around the world and many states in the U.S. On the world stage, Tryniski has bowled in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and England. In the States, Tryniski says the hotspot for tournaments is Las Vegas, where he’s competed “hundreds of times.” Vegas claims to be the “bowling capital” of the U.S.
After a few years in Houston, however, Tryniski missed his family and returned to Fulton where he started a carpet cleaning business. Although he did well in Texas in the tournaments, he felt he needed something more stable and less grueling than trying to survive the 35-week schedule of a PBA Tour. Being self-employed also meant that during the winter, when his business slowed down, he could focus solely on bowling tournaments.
Later, Tryniski also found that this arrangement with bowling and his business was more suitable for family life. He’d met many Professional Bowlers Association bowlers who were divorced and he knew long absences could destroy marriages.
Tryniski has won two national championships with the United States Bowling Congress, one with a local team and the other on a doubles team. One of Tryniski’s biggest triumphs was at the Hoinke Classic Tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he came in second place and won a hefty $50,000. Another time he beat the great Dick Weber in the final of a PBA tournament in Rochester.
Over the course of his career, Tryniski estimates he’s earned between $1.5 million and $2 million for his efforts.
Today, Tryniski and his twin brother, Mark, own Lakeside Lanes. It was where he had learned to bowl and he and his brother were grieved when it had fallen into disrepair by the early 2000s. In 2005 they bought the bowling alley and did extensive renovations to the property to make it more of a “destination center” as opposed to just a bowling alley.
Tryniski still enjoys bowling and said he maintained a 238 average over 90 games in a league last year and occasionally will go to bowling events in the area.
The following interview took place at Lakeside Lanes bowling pro shop with the distant sound of bowling balls blasting pins in the background.
Q. How did you first get into bowling?
A. It started here at this bowling alley. My grandfather was an employee here and he was really good friends with the owner, Ulysses Papini, who was the original builder and owner back in 1961. So my grandfather got permission for me to bowl for free when I was 14. I had been bowling in a league but I knew I wasn’t going to get much better only bowling once a week. But bowling is big in my family. My grandfather, grandmother and father are all in the Fulton Bowlers Hall of Fame. And, I’m in four halls of fame — Fulton Bowlers, Syracuse Bowlers, Syracuse Sports and the New York State Bowling Hall of Fame.
Q. So you inherited that talent.
A. I did.
Q. Did you take lessons?
A. No. There were no lessons back then. You just learned by trial and error and playing over and over. My father gave me the basics, but it wasn’t really like the coaching you can get today. So, I started bowling in more leagues and when I was an adult I started bowling in tournaments and got the tournament itch.
Q. How do you qualify for a tournament? Do you need a certain average?
A. The PBA [Professional Bowling Association] had minimal requirements back in the ‘80s. I think you had to have a 190 average. There are also entry fees. I joined the PBA in 1983 and I moved to Houston, Texas, with a friend of mine when I was 20. Bowling was big down there and Houston is a big city with a lot of good bowlers. It really helped my bowling to bowl in tournaments all the time.
Q. Did you beat many of the top bowlers?
A. I did, but not very often. I did bowl in an ESPN PBA tournament on TV in Vegas once. So, I bowled part-time and traveled around the world. I’ve bowled in some weird places like Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Q. So isn’t that a bit of a gamble? You have to pay to get there and then you have to pay the entry fee? Why did you want to go to Qatar?
A. Because they paid a lot of money. You could win 50k for first place. It was sponsored by the oil people who had plenty of cash. Back when I went there, the UAE [United Arab Emirates] league was just getting started and they invited a lot of pro bowlers to come.
Q. What was in like in Qatar? Were there many other Americans there?
A. The people are different. The food is different. The culture is different. For example, their weekend is Wednesday and Thursday and they don’t work after 11 a.m. and they don’t reopen until after 5 p.m. because it is so hot there. The people were nice. There were a handful of Americans. A lot of Europeans. The Arabs were not very good bowlers then. They pay coaches from the U.S. a lot of money to go over there to teach their players. I have a friend there right now.
Q. I was reading about this top bowler Jason Belmonte from Australia who bowls with two hands. Is that unusual today to see people bowling this way?
A. I think eight of the top 10 are two-handed bowlers. And probably in 10 years there won’t be any one-handers. That has probably been the biggest change in bowling over the last 20 years.
Q. Why is that? Do you have more control with two hands?
A. You have a little more control but you can hook it. The skill for bowling is curving the ball. With two hands everybody can curve it, whereas with one hand it requires a special technique.
Q. Was Belmonte controversial in the beginning?
A. Actually he was when I started bowling overseas. He was maybe 18 or 19 at the time and I was in my mid to late 30s. He was pretty raw back then, just getting started.
Q. Did professional bowlers want to ban him?
A. Well, they didn’t like that style, but bowling has a governing body here in the U.S. and they deemed it was OK.
Q. So, have you tried it with two hands?
A. No. I don’t have a great back so I would not want to bowl with two hands because you have to bend over all the time. I coach it though. In fact, Garrett Arnold, a kid I coach who bowls two-handed, now has bowled five 300 games in the last several weeks. He goes to high school at Cicero North Syracuse. I can show the technique but I don’t want to risk hurting myself, because then I could not bowl.
Q. How did you do at the overseas tournaments?
A. I did well in all the tournaments but I never won one overseas. I think I was fifth in Qatar, 10th in Singapore, and 10th at the one in the UAE.
Q. When I was growing up a 220 bowling average would be enough to become a pro. What kind of average do you need today to compete professionally?
A. I don’t even know if that even means anything because house bowling lanes are easier than the lanes you use on tour. It’s where you put the oil on the lanes, where it is distributed. The oil on the house lanes usually steer the ball to the center making it a little easier. But to consider going pro I think you’d need a 230 or 240 average today.
Q. Where do you like to spend your bowling time today?
A. A lot of my time today I spend coaching individual kids. Some of them are very talented. There is a young woman I taught once a week for six years and she will be on the Team USA this January, which represents the United States in team bowling events all around the world. She’s only 17 and if she wants to bowl in the PWBA; she probably will.