The PWBA Tour 2015 schedule
May 13-19: USBC Queens*, Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley, Green Bay, Wis.
July 9-12: PWBA Storm Sacramento Open, Steve Cook’s Fireside Lanes, Sacramento, Calif.
July 16-19: PWBA Lubbock Sports Open, South Plains Lanes, Lubbock, Texas
July 23-26: PWBA Wichita Open, Northrock Lanes, Wichita, Kan.
Aug. 6-9: PWBA Topeka Open, West Ridge Lanes, Topeka, Kan.
Aug. 13-16: PWBA Lincoln Open, Sun Valley Lanes, Lincoln, Neb.
Aug. 20-23: PWBA Minnesota Open, Island Xtreme Bowl, Welch, Minn.
Aug. 27-30: PWBA Detroit Open, Super Bowl, Canton, Mich.
Aug 31- Sept. 6: Bowlmor AMF U.S. Women’s Open*, Brunswick Zone Carolier, North Brunswick, N.J.
Sept. 10-13: PWBA Tour Championship*, location TBD
*Major PWBA Tour event
For the first time in more than a decade, women bowlers will have a competitive professional tour.
The Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour is being re-launched this summer with 10 tour stops across the country. A three-year funding commitment from the United States Bowling Congress and the Bowling Proprietors Association of America enabled the PWBA Tour to return to the lanes for the first time since 2003.
“The dream now is a reality and professional women’s bowling is back for a new generation to experience,” said Kelly Kulick, a six-time major champion and PWBA spokesperson. “The tour schedule visits all types of cities across the country with a format that is fun for fans and allows women to be pro bowlers without sacrificing their career path or family time.”
Regular season tour events have a Friday through Sunday format, which will allow for greater flexibility for work and family obligations. The tour kicks off in mid-May with the USBC Queens and runs through mid September.
“It’s definitely something positive for the sport,” longtime Team USA member Shannon Pluhowsky said. “And it’s going to give kids another reason to want to bowl.”
Pluhowsky, who juggles both work and family, plans to compete in several of the events, especially those in the Midwest.
“I’m pretty excited about it and I know a lot of other bowlers are too,” she said.
Hall of Fame bowler Linda Kelly, who competed on the PWBA Tour from 1990-2003, is likewise thrilled by its resurgence.
“The success and the survival of the game is only as good as the pros people aspire to be like,” Kelly said. “If kids – in this case, girls – don’t have something to aspire to, they won’t work at it as diligently.”
While Pluhowsky continued to bowl competitively after college, the same was not true of many of her fellow collegiate bowlers.
“Prior to this, for a lot of college kids, there weren’t a lot of opportunities,” she said. “It’s been 12 years, so there’s been a pretty big gap.”
The payoff isn’t limited to increased opportunity as regular-season events will have $60,000 in guaranteed prize money per event with a $10,000 first-place prize.
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