Long Island bowler Gary Haines wins first PBA Tour title

All Gary Haines needed was a kiss.

The bright television lights and the idea of being so close to winning a PBA championship were getting to the 36-year-old West Babylon native.

Before the ninth frame of the championship, Haines walked over to the crowd and gestured for his wife, Lauren Haines, to come up to the barricade. They exchanged a quick kiss and Lauren said “let’s go” before Haines approached the lane.

“The rest is history because I threw two of the best shots of my life after that,” Haines said.

After throwing a strike in the ninth frame, Haines needed a spare and four pins in the 10th to win. He delivered, picking up the spare and then nine pins.

Haines defeated Anthony Simonsen, 192-186, to win the USBC Masters title on Sunday at Strobl Arena inside Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Michigan. Along with his first PBA Tour title, Haines won $100,000.

Haines was lights-out the entire week. After qualifying for the tournament, he entered double-elimination match play as the No. 53 seed and went 6-0 to earn the No. 1 seed in the stepladder finals. He needed to be defeated twice in the championship.

Simonsen, who is a three-time Masters champion and has 16 total PBA titles, took a 207-172 win over Haines in the first game of the championship, which was broadcast nationally on Fox.

“It was stressful being under the TV lights for the first time,” Haines said. “It was just a different environment that I’m not used to, so it was more of just battling that, and I didn’t do a great job of it. I’ll be the first one to say it. But somehow in the end, we were there.”

Before the eighth frame of the winner-take-all second game, Dino Castillo — a ball rep for Hammer Bowling — told Haines to take a timeout and go over to his wife.

“You’ve got to change something in your head because you’re panicking. You feel like you’re in quicksand,” Castillo said to Haines.

Despite rolling a strike in the eighth frame, Haines wasn’t happy with it and felt as if he lucked into the strike. It prompted him to take Castillo’s advice and go over to Lauren.

“I’m so happy it worked out,” Lauren said with a laugh. “After that ninth shot, I was screaming at the top of my lungs like I was at a Mets game.”

The couple have been together since they were in middle school and grew up bowling at AMF Babylon Lanes.

“This has always been a dream for him,” Lauren said. “I’ve been watching him bowl since I was 12 years old, so I’m completely ecstatic. I can’t even comprehend what he did. He literally followed his childhood dream.”

Haines became the varsity boys bowling coach at St. John the Baptist this season when Bob Hamilton, who coached the Cougars for more than 30 years, died in September.

Lauren, an SJB alum, has been coaching girls bowling at SJB for three years and was coached by Hamilton.

“I knew Bob Hamilton for my entire life and his family wanted me to take over the boys and be a part of it with my wife,” Haines said. “You know what? He might’ve been right with me this entire week.”

Haines returned to Babylon Lanes on Monday night to bowl in the Monday Invitational League. He was given a warm welcome that included cake, banners, custom T-shirts and a whole lot of joy.

“I wasn’t missing tonight for anything,” Haines said Monday night. “I brought my trophy home to just bring it here. I’ve bowled adult league since I was 17 years old and I’ve bowled at Babylon since I was a kid. Most of the people that I saw here tonight were family . . . I brought the trophy here to share it with them.”

Haines has no plans to leave his full-time job as a control room operator in a steam power plant for National Grid. He’s considered a regional bowler, but after Sunday’s win, he is hoping to compete in more national tournaments. He now is exempt from pre-tour qualifiers, which should help him as he tries to balance bowling and his full-time job.

Haines will bowl in the PBA Players Championship, which begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, April 13, in Jackson, Michigan. He might try to bowl in the PBA Tournament of Champions the following week in Fairlawn, Ohio.

“Even before I made the show, the messages and the social media posts . . . I learned how many people out there are supporting me, and it’s the greatest feeling in the world. I was already feeling like a winner before I even got on that TV show because of the support,” Haines said.

“They had a watch party at Babylon Lanes on Sunday. I heard a tournament in Garden City stopped to watch it. It’s just been unbelievable, the people that followed and rooted me on.”