Walter Ray Williams Jr. already had the record for most career PBA Tour titles. Now, he shares the record for most PBA50 titles.

The PBA Hall of Famer won his third consecutive PBA50 Tour title and matched John Handegard’s record of 14 titles on the senior tour with a win Wednesday at the PBA50 Mooresville Open.

Williams took down PBA50 Tour rookie Danny Wiseman, who is also a PBA Hall of Famer, 229-227, in the championship match at Victory Lanes Entertainment Center.

Three tournaments into the 2019 PBA50 season and Williams is the only winner thus far. His three wins, including the season-opening Johnny Petraglia BVL Open and PBA50 National Championship, tie him for second on the list of most consecutive PBA50 victories with Tom Baker.

Pete Weber holds the record for most consecutive wins with four, which Williams will attempt to match this weekend at the PBA50 Hamilton Lanes & Entertainment Center Open in Trenton, New Jersey.

In the championship match, Williams did not put a double on the board in the first seven frames. He turned his fortunes around, however, in the final three frames, throwing five perfect strikes to close out the match and put the pressure on Wiseman.

Wiseman, who never trailed in the match until the final frame, needed a strike on his first shot in the 10^th frame to win the title but left a 10 pin to lose in a dramatic finish.

The victory also firmly solidifies Williams as the overwhelming favorite to win the 2019 PBA50 Player of the Year award just three events into the season.

Making his win in Mooresville even more incredible was the fact that after the first round of qualifying, Williams sat outside the first cut number in 55^th place. He made a run in the second round of qualifying to advance in 33^rd place.

By placing outside the top 24, Williams was forced to bowl the cashers round on Wednesday morning. After surviving that by shooting 256 to advance by just two pins, Williams made it through two rounds of match play to make the stepladder as the top seed.

In the semifinal, Parker Bohn III started with six consecutive strikes against Wiseman but it wasn’t enough as Wiseman rolled to a 258-223 victory.

After starting with the string, Bohn wouldn’t strike again the rest of the match. He left and made seven pins in the seventh and eighth frames before missing the 4 pin in the ninth and tossing a 4-6-10 for an open in the 10th.

Wiseman, meanwhile, started with a double, left a 10 pin and spared it in the third and then strung six strikes in a row to secure the win before the 10th frame.

Bohn advanced into the semifinal with a 258-229 win over Scott Greiner.

Greiner led in the match by nine pins when he struck for four in a row in the seventh but followed it up with a devastating 4-6-7 split for an open in the eighth.

Bohn stepped up immediately following Greiner’s open and popped two perfect strike to build his lead. Needing a mark to secure the win, Bohn went high flush in the 10th frame to lock it up.

The stepladder finals began with Bohn defeating Todd Kjell, 196-181.

Kjell missed a 10 pin in the second frame to fall behind and never led in the match. By the time the final frame rolled around, Bohn needed just five pins to secure the win and buried a strike.