Bowling Galore This Mother's Day

If you love bowling, you had an embarrassment of bowling riches to enjoy today.

First was the final 8 games of qualifying of the U.S. Women's Open live-streamed on Bowl.com and Ustream.com from Ft. Worth, Texas. Liz Johnson started out like a proverbial house afire and overtook longtime leader Kelly Kulick early on to sit atop the leaderboard at the end of the 24 games of qualifying. The top 24 who made the cut to bowl match play Monday and Tuesday include Kelly Kulick (2nd), Shannon O'Keefe (4th), Tennelle Milligan (5th), Lynda Barnes (6th), Leanne (Barrette) Hulsenberg (8th), Stefanie Nation (10th), Michelle Feldman (14th), Kim Terrell-Kearney (17th), defending champion Tammy Boomershine (18th), Tish Johnson (19th), Carolyn-Dorin Ballard (20th), and three Singaporean bowlers.

From what I hear, they'll bowl 12 games of match play Monday, 12 games Tuesday, all carried live online, and then there will be a stepladder final broadcast live Wednesday on ESPN2 at 9 PM EDT. And you should be able to watch part or all of the qualifying rounds online whenever you wish if you missed it live.

As if that weren't enough, PBA Xtra Frame carried the match play and final rounds of the PBA South Region Canton Open live from Canton, Georgia. One remarkable story in this tournament was a 12-year-old boy named Kamron Doyle of Brentwood, Tenn. He not only bowled in the tournament but came in 30th in the field of 94 and cashed, averaging around 213 as I recall.

What was even more remarkable is that this boy didn't look like me when I was 12, yet he still managed to bowl so well. I was 6'4 at that age. This kid looks more like 10-years-old, yet, he threw his 14 pound ball amazingly well and hung in there with some of the top pros in the Southern region. I can't wait to see how good he becomes over the next few years! And you can see how good he looks now by checking out Xtra Frame's archived coverage of today's Cashier's round. You can see a lot of him at around the 40 minute mark.

But I suppose the biggest story of all in this tournament was who won. If you want to find out who it was, all you need to know is that Walter Ray Williams Jr. bowled. I'll leave it at that, except to say that the winner shot 270+ in the final match. :-)

And if this wasn't enough to sate your bowling appetite, ESPN2 rebroadcast the men's and women's USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships. I don't know if ESPN2 will show it again or if you'll be able to catch it online, but I'll let you know if it does or if you can.

What a great bowling day this was. Happy Mother's Day to all.