August 28, 2024 Nolan Hughes

The game tried to tell Nathan Bohr that he didn’t belong on the PBA Tour any longer. He didn’t listen.

Father Time comes for us all. In sports, that moment arrives when the game evolves beyond one’s ability to compete at the highest level.

This year, Father Time tried to come for 44-year-old Nathan Bohr, the odd man out after the 2024 PBA Tour season.

The season’s top 43 players in points secured exempt status for next season, earning priority entry for all 2025 PBA Tour events with no entry fee and eligibility for the PBA Elite League draft.

Bohr finished 44th with 5,490 points — just 30 shy of AJ Chapman.

“It was the most I'd hurt in a while from this sport,” Bohr said. “I thought it was a mistake. I thought I had stayed ahead of the guys I needed to. If I had knocked down three more pins in the last event, I'd have got those 30 points and I would have been exempt. Three pins. That’s not very many pins after the whole season.”

However, Bohr didn’t have any time to dwell on his misfortune. He had about a week before transitioning to the Motiv ball rep on the PWBA Tour.

That role allowed Bohr to be connected to what he loves — bowling at the highest level and spending time with his wife, Maria José Rodriguez — but it also served as a harsh reminder of what he may have lost.

While he helped the PWBA players living their dream, Bohr knew there was a very real chance he won’t get to do the same next season.

With exempt status, Bohr would be become draft-eligible once again for the PBA Elite League.

Hope was not lost yet for the Texan. He could re-earn full-time status at PBA Tour Trials, where the top 12 of 90 players would join the 43-player exempt field.

But it’s a young man’s game and Bohr would be among the oldest competitors in the field. He would have to outduel the nation and world’s hungriest players across four different patterns for 48 games.

Early on, everything was going according to plan. After two rounds, Bohr sat in 20th place and 29 pins behind 12th place; midway through the event, he moved up to 14th place and 23 pins outside the cut.

The veteran knew the moment would never be too big for him, the pressure would not faze him. If he could just hang around, his poise and know-how would be enough down the stretch.

And then came Rounds 5-6. Bohr showed up to a gunfight with a pocket knife.

As right-handers chased the 44-foot pattern to the deep inside part of the lane and lofted the ball over the fronts, Bohr’s old-school, finesse game stood little chance.

He slipped to 24th place and fell 121 pins behind 12th place. More than that, he felt defeated.

“The way that finished, I thought it ended last night,” he said Friday morning. “When I woke up, I didn’t feel it. Maria asked me how I felt this morning and I lied; I told her that I felt good. But it was at that moment though that something sort of clicked. I started telling myself whether it works out or not, you have to have some sort of belief.

“I decided that one hour last night wasn't going to ruin all the work I'd put in up until that point. I’ve bowled way too good for way too long to have it ruined by just one hour.”

How Bohr played the final pattern of PBA Tour Trials compared to a most right-handed players.

The final day featured a 47-foot oil pattern at an older center, which meant every right-hander would once again be left and lofting by the end of each round, if not sooner.

Well, not quite all of them.

Bohr knew he stood no chance if he tried to keep up with the kids and chase the hold. Instead, he used his soft hand and played the right gutter — a strategy no player in contention to make the cut dared to even attempt.

“It was a pragmatic decision more than anything,” Bohr said. “I tried to get in there with those guys yesterday, and it didn't work. I threw two or three balls (to the right) in practice. I got one that looked like it kind of did the right thing through the front. I thought, ‘Well, let's give it a shot, and then we'll go from there.’ While I was figuring out what the pace was going to be, I could do something that I'm comfortable with.”

With games of 206, 227, 224, 245, 257 and 202, Bohr skyrocketed up to the pivotal 12th place. Had the tournament ended there, he would’ve regained his exempt status by the exact three-pin margin he lost it by.

But Bohr knew better than anybody how tenuous that advantage was — and how badly the players beneath him wanted to destroy it.

Executing the same gameplan, Bohr began the final round with games of 245, 216, 211 and 216. He climbed up to seventh place and created a 69-pin cushion.

“You don’t win 27 regional titles without being able to do something nobody else can do,” said Brett Spangler, Motiv’s PBA Tour ball rep.

The scoring pace plummeted around the cutline, allowing Bohr to coast through to a ninth-place finish and stamp his return to the PBA Tour. 

He hugged his father, who watched all week and helped Bohr keep his mind at ease. For a moment, Bohr felt like every up-and-comer making it on tour for the first time. He said he bowled Tour Trials three or four times in the late 2000s, but was never really close to making it.

“I wouldn't have made this cut 10 years ago,” Bohr said. “The things I've learned since joining Motiv, since meeting Maria and getting married, working with Brett… all those things contributed to me being able to make this cut now.”

With his back against the wall, Bohr stayed true to himself — and that just might’ve saved his career.