One Small Step for Women; One Giant Leap for Women's Bowling

Brandy Padilla — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 14:02:56 GMT

NOTE: These opinions stated by the Editor do not necessarily reflect those of The Foundation or those of The Kegel Company.

Unless you have been living on some non-bowling planet, you've probably heard about Liz Johnson making it to the final round of a PBA Show. But, just in case, here's a quick recap of the past few months.

Women's bowling, specifically the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA), ceased operation in September 2003. The demise of the professional tour put the top female bowlers out of a job. John Sommer, PWBA founder and chairman, explored some potential avenues in hopes to get the tour back up and running for the 2004 season. Unfortunately, even with the interest of such bowling promoters as Steve Sanders of Pinnacle Events, he was unable to get the tour back on track. Ultimately, the WIBC acquired the rights to the tour and in January 2005, the USBC claimed those rights as the ABC, WIBC, YABA, and USA Bowling all merged into one organization. That brings us to now where we still have no news of a regenerated tour. But that still doesn't get us to Liz Johnson.

With the demise of the PWBA, the PBA opened its doors to allow women to compete. Several women took advantage of the opportunity by competing in regional events all over the country and by competing in the TQR (Tour Qualifying Round) events. The TQR events are held weekly before each tournament stop giving non-exempt players a chance to win one of five spots into that week's tournament. Liz Johnson made history by becoming the first woman to qualify from a TQR and make the round of 64. During this particular instance, Liz qualified as an amateur because she had yet to obtain a PBA card. During the round of 64 at the PBA Uniroyal Tire Classic, she faced long time friend and top ranked professional Brad Angelo. While Liz did lose to Brad, she made it an interesting contest taking the best-of-seven match to six games. Liz finished the tournament in 47 th place. After Liz came Carolyn Dorin-Ballard. Carolyn got her 'bid' in the PBA tournament by slightly different means; she applied for the Commissioner's Exemption and was awarded a spot in the PBA Dallas Open. Carolyn got an automatic spot in the round of 64. However, the PBA modified the format for the second part of the tour swing. Instead of having head-to-head match play in the round of 64, the top 64 bowlers competed in exempt qualifying rounds; two rounds and 14 games and then a cut to the top 32. The top 32 then compete in the bracket style head-to-head match play format. Carolyn finished 41 st after the 14 games of qualifying.

Now we go back to Liz. Liz competed in the TQR for the PBA Banquet Open and finished 4 th , this time as a professional having obtained her PBA card. During the exempt qualifying rounds, Liz finished 11 th earning her a spot in the round of 32 bracket. During her first match, she faced Chris Barnes. Chris shot a 290 and a 300 but that did not stop Liz After six games and a roll-off, Liz persevered and emerged victorious thus moving into the round of 16. In her next match, she faced Mike DeVaney. This proved to be another tiring bout as the match went to seven games. Liz however, did not falter and once again plowed ahead; this time to the round of 8. During the round of 8, Liz faced Richard Wolfe. Richard threw a 299 game and the competition once again went to seven games, but Liz once again triumphed and became the first woman to make it to the televised finals. Once on TV, Liz defeated Wes Malott in the semi-final match. After that she faced Tommy Jones. Liz lost to Tommy Jones who subsequently had a stellar year and is in the running for Player of the Year honors.

That brings us to today and Liz Johnson's history making run on the PBA tour.

Liz made a huge mark for women's bowling and for bowling in general. Knowing that she was going to be on TV, more people tuned in to the show to see how she would fare against the 'top dogs'. Liz generated more publicity for bowling and, in my opinion, any publicity is better than no publicity. She may not have won, but she made a more than valiant effort and she left us all thinking 'who will be next'.

With the likes of other top women professional bowlers such as Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Kendra Gaines, Michelle Feldman, Leanne Barrette, and of course Liz Johnson and top women amateur bowlers like Diandra Asbaty and Shannon Pluhowsky running in the ranks of PBA tournaments, we are certain to see more women competing against the men.

I said it before but I'll say it again, I think the USBC has missed their window of opportunity on the PWBA tour. It has been almost two years and there is no inkling of a tour to be found. I fear it has been gone too long and the USBC will be unable to rejuvenate it; not because they don't have the right business plan, not because they don't have good sponsorship, not because they don't have good marketing but simply because the interest has diminished. The women who were top ranked two years ago are moving into new phases of their lives; they have adjusted to not having a ladies only professional tour. If the tour is revived, would they even be willing to come back to compete. After all, when their tour 'went under', they were competing for diminished prize funds that barely covered their tour expenses and the tour itself was fighting for entrants to even compete in the tournaments. My question is why would they want to come back if they can compete in the PBA for bigger prize funds?

Ladies bowling may not be around as we used to know it, but it is still alive and kicking. Liz Johnson's performance gave it the jolt of life it needed to get it back on track. Hopefully, other women will follow in her footsteps. The PBA Tour trials are set to begin at the end of May. There are some women who plan on competing for a spot on the exempt tour. Maybe one of them will be successful and make another giant leap for women's bowling.

But for now I guess we watch and we wait; we wait to see what will happen with the USBC and the PWBA, we watch to see when more history will be written and we watch to see who will make that history.

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One Small Step for Women; One Giant Leap for Women's Bowling