Last year, Ron Mohr just wanted to prove he belonged on the Professional Bowling Association Senior Tour.

This year, he dominated it.

Mohr was named the 2009 PBA Senior Tour Player of the Year on Tuesday in a vote by a panel of veteran bowling writers and current bowlers.

With three tournament wins, the Eagle River resident was the only multiple-event winner on the tour. He made the championship round in five of the 10 events he competed in and was the top bowler in points and average.

"To win three times was completely unexpected. I didn't expect that level of success," said Mohr.

Mohr joined the professional tour after retiring in January 2008 from his job as an air traffic controller.

"Last year, I just wanted to see if I had the ability to compete," Mohr said.

Competing against bowlers that were once stars on the regular PBA tour, Mohr was statistically superior to all the other bowlers on the senior circuit this season. He had a season total of 196,987.5 points, more than 18,000 points ahead of Wayne Webb (178.969) and Mark Williams (175,896). He also had the top average score (223.14).

Both Webb and Williams are in the PBA Hall of Fame and each won more than $1 million on tour. Webb has 20 PBA victories, was the Player of the Year in 1980 and is listed No. 18 on the PBA all-time greatest bowler list.

"The others absolutely have more name recognition, I seemed like the odd-man out," Mohr said.

Even though he was far ahead in the points standings, Mohr still felt he needed a good showing in the final event of the year -- the Senior World Championships in Allen Park, Mich., in early September -- to cement his standing as player of the year in the minds of voters. Mohr finished fourth.

"All the conjecture was that if I had a good tournament, it should turn out for me when it came down to the vote," Mohr said.

After several anxious weeks of waiting, Mohr got the call from PBA president Fred Schreyer on Tuesday.

"He said I won in a landslide," Mohr said. "Considering the guys I was going against, it makes it that much more astounding. It is pretty rewarding."

Mohr got the season off to an incredible start in April, winning the first two tournaments of the year, only the 11th time a bowler has claimed back-to-back titles on the senior tour.

In the second tournament win, at the PBA Senior Dayton Classic, Mohr defeated Brian Voss -- one of the most famous names in bowling. He needed a spare in the 10th frame to seal the win, but left himself a tricky split before converting.

His third win of the season came at the Dick Weber Open in August. Mohr was fourth after the match play section of the tournament. In the stepladder finals, he had to defeat the fifth-place finisher, then each of the bowlers seeded ahead of him, to win the tournament.

Mohr estimated he spent 115 days on the road this year and will be out there again when the 2010 tour begins in April.

"I just have to remain focused," Mohr said. "I have to go out next and prove this was not an anomaly, not a fluke. I'm going to do my best to defend."

Find Richard Larson at adn.com/contact/rlarson or call 257-4335.

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