Wesley Chapel man might be the most famous bowler in America

LUTZ, Fla. - Tom Daugherty has been bowling 100s or better since he was four. So how do you explain his score last weekend in the PBA's Tournament of Champions?

Daugherty, who also owns the pro shop at Royal Bowling Lanes in Lutz, needed two pins in his final throw just to reach triple digits. This, in the semi-finals of a nationally-televised, $1 million tournament.  Somewhere, Scott Norwood cringed.

It's not like Tom's some slouch. He averages 254, has 65 perfect games, and through the tournament, had the highest scoring average of anyone. It was just the perfectly imperfect game of his life. Split after split, missed spare after missed spare ensued. He said he didn't want to shoot a 99 -- that there's something about round numbers that people like. He had to get 100.

Meanwhile, four frames in, he'd already resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't win. His opponent, Mika Koivuniemi, ended up perfect through 11 frames. His final throw, however, left one lone pin standing, and he settled for a 299.

Tom needed two pins to get his 100, which he nailed -- about the only target he hit the whole game. That was it: 299-100.

He calls it a record that will never be broken. While he admits someone, somewhere, might injure himself and somehow end up south of triple digits, nobody will ever lose by 199 pins again. He says it's virtually mathematically impossible.

But while the way he lost was embarrassing, where he lost wasn't. Tom, who doesn't bowl on tour full-time, made it all the way to the semi-finals, having qualified second out of 200 professionals, many of whom rank amongst the best in the world. His finish landed him in third place overall with a $50,000 payday.

Tom attributes the bad game to nerves, then not making the necessary adjustments to fix the problems. He said he threw the wrong ball in the wrong part of the lane--like hitting a golf ball with the wrong club at the pin, and having it bounce into the trap, then settling for bogey insted of making birdie.

He laughs about the game, though, saying that if he'd bowled a 180 or a 160, it would've been a bad game, but nobody would've remembered it. That's not the case now. He's been talked about on national TV and radio, in newspapers across the country, and just when I was with him, he found out there's a full page about him in Sports Illustrated.

Sudden fame is funny. None of Tom's 65 perfect games gave him close to the recognition he's getting for his most imperfect of all.