By Scott Grooms
sgrooms@lowcountry.com
This week’s Spotlight is Len Leonard who manages the Pro-Shop and Leagues at Lowcountry Lanes. Len, as he likes to be called, was born in Lexington, North Carolina the self-proclaimed barbecue capital of the world. His father was salvage diver and moved to Charlotte for a few years after he graduated from High Point College. After Charlotte the family settled in James Island and Len considered that where he grew up.
Len went to Clemson from 70 to 74. He went into the food distribution industry and worked in the grocery for Winn Dixie and Ingles food stores in the Carolinas primarily in the upstate and the mountains of North Carolina.
He explains, “How I got back here was that I had a blind date when I was at Clemson. We fell in love and got engaged. Both of us were very stubborn. And we decided we’re just get married, and we looked at houses in Sommerville. We looked at houses here in Walterboro, found a house and bought it. I’ve been in it for 26 years.”
Len is an avid bowler but never really went on regional or pro circuit. He averaged over 200 back in the 90’s. He says, “at that time, that was in the top 5% in the country.” He goes on to say, “I’ve managed the pro shops, and I ran a shade tree pro shop out of one of my friend’s garage for a little while. Then I bought a pro shop at Sandpiper lanes. Bowling has just been a passion of mine for a long, long time.”
He actually quit Bowling at one point. Len comments, “Well, you’re in the top 5% and my brother-in-law was a big golfer. He was pharmaceutical salesman, so he was playing golf full time. I took up golf but only played at it a little bit. I got my handicap down to a six and that’s fairly good. I got to the point where my knee hurt and playing golf had just stuck in the mud or something. I said, you know, let’s just go back to bowling because you don’t have to go look for the ball. The ball comes back to you.”
When asked about hobbies, He really does not have any, He just likes to bowl and help people with there game.
When asked what he would like to do if money and time were no object, he said, “I would like to have the opportunity to run a bowling center and run it the way I think it should be run. Customer service is a big priority of mine. There’s a bowling center and Rock Hill “Strikers Lanes” and was probably the best run bowling center in the Carolinas, and I would use that as a pretty much as a as a model. That’s really all at this point in time in my life. That’s all I want to do.”
You will find Len at the Pro Shop at Lowcountry Lanes or working with the Bowling Leagues.
