Phil Barrie rolls 11th perfect game

WORTHINGTON — For Phil Barrie, it never gets old.

Barrie, 40, a Worthington resident, bowled the 11th perfect game of his life Monday during a four-man commercial league at Oxford Bowl.

His latest 300 game came nearly 18 years after his first, which he recorded as a 23-year-old in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“I was trembling, shaking about as bad as an earthquake,” Barrie said, referring to his first perfect game. “Now it’s not near as big of a deal. You still get a little nervous, but it’s not quite as severe as the first couple.”

Barrie began bowling when he was 15, but it started out as a casual hobby. He eventually joined the military and was based in Fort Sill, Okla., where his passion for the sport took off.

“Unless you got off base, it was all you had to do (for fun),” he said. “I bowled about every weekend, and I was down there for three months, and that really got me back into it.”

When he returned home, Barrie was bowling every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Not long afterward, he accomplished a feat that he watched professionals do every Saturday on TV.

“Your mind is just racing,” Barrie said, referring to his first perfect game. “You watch those pros on TV on Saturday afternoon, and it’s just, ‘Oh, my God, I just did what they do.’”

It continued.

About 10 years ago, Barrie bowled in a Professional Bowlers Association regional tournament in Marshall. He also bowled in a PBA pro-am, which allowed him to compete against professionals, and beat two of the three bowlers he faced.

Still, prior to his 300 game Monday, Barrie started to doubt his ability.

“I haven’t been bowling much this year; I’ve just really been struggling getting into it, and, hopefully, this will bring me back around and I’ll get back into it like I usually am,” said Barrie, who bowled for the first time in two weeks Monday. “I was just glad to bowl well and see that I could still do it without having a lot of doubts in my mind that I was losing it.

“It definitely felt good.”

Barrie accomplished 11 times a feat that many bowlers hope to do just once.

He also has a hole-in-one.

“I did it during a treacherous wind storm over the Fourth of July, in Lakefield,” he said, laughing. “We were tackling 30 to 40 mile-per-hour winds. It was a par-3, probably no longer than 150 yards, and I hit a 5-wood. And I sunk it.

“I was running around the course with my hands in the air like I just won a million dollars.”

Maybe Barrie should start buying lottery tickets.

Tags: philbarrie, bowling