On a rainy day five years ago, Bermudian Brion Estis decided to kill some time in a bowling alley.

Last month, Mr. Estis walked away from the United States Bowling Congress Open Championship with a sixth-place finish, beating out more than 12,000 other bowlers from around the world in the Classified Singles division.

"I've been to the tournament five years in a row," said Mr. Estis. "Each time, I came up a little bit. My mental game has come up a bit."

At the end of the day, Mr. Estis bowled a combined total of 666 pins in four games. The winner, Jeremy Noland, of Oklahoma, bowled 696 pins. "I wasn't out by a lot," he said.

While the result was his best of the day, Mr. Estis also scored respectably in both the team and double divisions with 540 pins and 569 respectively.

The tournament, so large in scale that it runs over the course of five months, has been visited by Bermudians regularly, but this is the best result for a Bermudian since the 1960s.

"You can't pay attention to anything but the lanes. When I shot these games, I realised that I didn't even notice all those people were around me," Mr. Estis said.

Quinton Hayward, owner of the Southside Family Bowl, gave him a few pointers on his first day at the lanes. Since then, he has become Mr. Estis' trainer.

"The physical part is the easy part to learn," said Mr. Hayward.

While many people, according to Mr. Hayward, believe that bowling is a purely physical game, there is a great deal of thought into the sport, with elements like oil on the wood making a great deal of difference.

"Equipment is a big part of it," said Mr. Hayward. "You have to pick the right ball to adjust to the conditions of the alley."

Mr. Hayward, who coached the Virginia State Bowling team, has a daughter who paid for her college through a bowling scholarship, demonstrating the potential of the sport.

This year, he brought seven bowling teams to the USBC Open Championship, and he already has eight teams signed up for next year.

"My job's going to be more difficult," Mr. Hayward said. "They need to train regularly."

Along with participating in league bowling nights three nights a week, Mr. Estis also spends three to four hours a day on Wednesdays and Sundays to keep his game up, but he feels his scores would improve if he could devote more time to it.

"It's all around work. Every once in a while I'll just come down here and put in a couple of hours in the middle of the day," said Mr. Estis. "If I put the time in like the pros, I'd be bowling like the pros."

With the next USBC Open Championship coming in February, Mr. Estis is already excited to finish even higher in the ranks.

"I'm ready to go next year. I'm ready to go get that first place," he said.