Austin Grammar Wins First Career Title in Surfside PBA New York Classic

Austin Grammar, following the theme of the 2026 PBA Tour powered by Go Bowling season, captured his first career PBA Tour title in the Surfside PBA New York Classic at ABC Gates Bowl in Rochester, N.Y.

Grammar, a 23-year-old rookie, shot a near-perfect 299 game in the championship match to defeat Kris Prather, 299-234.

Grammar joined Brandon Bonta, who shot 300 in the PBA Players Championship title match, and last week’s champion Spencer Robarge among rookies to win titles this season.

This is the first season in PBA Tour history to have three rookies win titles.

Prather, who was the No. 4 seed for the stepladder finals, said he was confident in his ability to win the title if he could win the first match.

“If I get out of the first or second match, somebody's gonna have to bowl really, really well to have a chance of beating me,” Prather said. “Because once I see what's happening on the lane and I get comfortable, I don't think that my confidence is going to waver at all.”

Grammar’s near-perfect performance could be described as bowling really, really well.

Prather defeated Chris Via in the first match, 194-171, showing that strikes on the 38-foot Bear oil pattern were not as easy to come by early in the stepladder finals.

Via left three 10-pins in the first four frames while throwing urethane. He switched to reactive equipment and did not leave any more 10-pins; instead, Via left the 2-10 split three times.

Prather went on to defeat another rookie in Riley Woodard during the second match.

Woodard took the early lead with three consecutive strikes as Prather converted five consecutive spares. But the rookie’s lack of experience showed after the commercial break with back-to-back open frames.

Prather rallied with six straight strikes to end the match with a 236-191 victory.

The six-time PBA Tour champion continued to cruise along in the semifinal against Patrick Dombrowski.

Dombrowski, who won the Go Bowling U.S. Open earlier this season, started with a pair of strikes. Then he went high on four of his next five shots, leaving three splits and three open frames.

Prather shot a clean 244 to Dombrowski’s 156 to advance to the title match against Grammar.

Grammar said he watched how other players were playing the lanes and liked Prather’s gameplan of throwing urethane on the right lane and reactive on the left lane.

He replicated that strategy during his practice shots and grew very confident in his ball reaction.

Confident that he could win the title? Well, not exactly: Grammar said he felt confident that he could shoot 300.

“I thought that in practice, truthfully,” Grammar said. “I thought I had the ball reaction to do it. It was just going to come down to making good enough shots. Earlier in the week, I shot 290 and 270 a couple times. I was close, just one shot away. So I thought if I could make one more better shot a game, it’s out there if the pins go my way.”

The PBA Tour continues with the Owen's Craft Mixers PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship later this week in Portland, Maine.

Competition begins on Thursday with the finals set for Sunday, April 19 at 4 p.m. ET on The CW.

Championship Round Matches

Match One: No. 4 Kris Prather def. No. 5 Chris Via, 194-171
Match Two: No. 4 Kris Prather def. No. 3 Riley Woodard, 235-191
Match Three: No. 4 Kris Prather def. No. 2 Patrick Dombrowski, 244-156
Championship: No. 1 Austin Grammar def. No. 4 Kris Prather, 299-234

Final Standings

1. Austin Grammar, $30,000
2. Kris Prather, $18,000
3. Patrick Dombrowski, $13,000
4. Riley Woodard, $10,000
5. Chris Via, $9,000

Complete standings are available here.