Roth Tops Field of Pro Bowlers in L.A. Open

Mark Roth, the favorite to be named 1984 Player of the Year next week, will be among 160 bowlers competing for $125,000 in prize money today through Saturday in the Greater Los Angeles Open.

Five of the top six on the Pro Bowlers Assn. 1984 money list will appear in the tournament at Gable House Bowl in Torrance.

Roth, known for his explosive delivery, was the PBA’s leader last year, winning four tournaments and earning a total of $158,000. He is the only active bowler with more than $1 million in career earnings.

Set to challenge Roth are Marshall Holman of Jacksonville, Ore., and Pete Weber of St. Louis, son of PBA Hall of Famer Dick Weber. Holman, 30, and Weber, 22, finished second and third, respectively, in the 1984 money winning race.

Other contenders are Gary Skidmore of Albuquerque, N.M., the No. 5 earner, and 25-year-old Rick Sajek of Tamarac, Fla., who finished a surprise sixth on the money list in his first full year on the tour.

The five leading scorers in the 42-game qualifying playwill compete in the stepladder finals Saturday starting at noon. ABC will televise the finals from 3 to 4:30 p.m. PST.

The only prominent name missing is Mike Aulby of Indianapolis, winner of the 1985 tour’s opening event last week in Union City, Calif. Aulby, a left-hander, tore the skin of his left thumb and will skip Los Angeles in the hope of recovering fully for next week’s Las Vegas tour stop.

The last time a PBA event was held at Gable House Bowl, Don Genalo dropped $6,250 with a single disgusted gesture--a gutter ball. The conclusion of that 1983 spring tournament is still remembered as one of pro bowling’s all-time bizarre finishes.

Genalo, seeded No. 1, thought he needed a strike in the 10th frame to win the tournament. Actually, he needed just eight pins on two shots, but after knocking down five pins on his first ball, he half-heartedly tossed the second into the gutter, thereby giving away the $13,750 first prize to opponent Jimmie Pritts, Jr. Genalo had to settle for the $7,500 second place money.

Both Genalo, of North Merrick, N.Y., and Pritts, of Lawrence, Mass., will be back.

Gable House represents a change of scenery on the winter tour. The only Southern California stop on the winter tour since 1979 was Anaheim’s Wonder Bowl.

But the sponsor of that tournament withdrew its financing following the 1984 event, and the Torrance center, where the tournament was held in the mid-1970s, became the 1985 site. The Greater Los Angeles Open is the only one of the 16 winter tournaments without a major sponsor.