Video--Who Do You Think You Are? Kelly Kulick Is!

It's the biggest non-surprise in bowling. But that doesn't make it any less impressive. Kelly Kulick is leading the 2012 U.S. Women's Open after the first three rounds of qualifying and will take that lead into the final six-game round of qualifying today.

Then, barring catastrophe, she'll move on to match play and, in all likelihood, be looking for redemption (and the $40,000 first prize) under the Reno Arch Wednesday evening for her loss to Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg in last year's final match in Cowboys Stadium.

And I, for one, wouldn't bet against her no matter whom she faces.

Kulick and Sandelin Lead After Qualifying Round 3 of 2012 U.S. Women's Open

After three days of qualifying, the field of 201 has been winnowed down to 50 in the regular division of the U.S. Women's Open, with Kelly Kulick regally occupying her customary spot in first place and a predictable Who's Who of female bowling talent populating most of the other positions, including defending champion Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg rising from 38th place the previous day to twelfth place yesterday. In the senior division, Lucy Sandelin continued her round-by-round dominance ending with a pinfall total that would have been good enough to land her in 28th place in the regular division, and the field of 60 has been cut to 15.

The remaining bowlers will roll six more games of qualifying before the regular field is narrowed to the top 16 and the senior field is cut to the top eight for 16 games of round-robin match play beginning this (Monday) evening. The top five in the regular division at the end of match play will meet under the famous Reno Arch Wednesday evening to battle it out stepladder fashion for the championship. It will be shown the following Tuesday on ESPN2 at 8 PM Eastern.

You can check the results of the first 18 games in both divisions and read the USBC's synopsis of the action here. Below, you can watch Sunday's qualifying round 3.

Younger Bowlers Rise and Shine in Early Stage of U.S. Women's Open

In my previous post, I mostly pummeled the USBC, BPAA, and bowling industry in general for their lack of professionalism in covering the great sport of bowling. In this post, I want to give credit where it's amply due by sharing with you Matt Lawson's of the USBC's excellent video recap of the first day of qualifying in the U.S. Women's Open. Matt always does a tremendous job with these videos. What's more, it seems that bowling's female "young guns" are loaded for bear. Now, if only they had more venues to hone their skills even further and reap the rewards of their hard won excellence.

However, I'm still pulling for local girl Leanne to repeat.

Elite Bowling Coverage Should be Better

Reno is now hosting the 2012 BPAA U.S. Women's Open at the National Bowling Stadium. Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg is defending her championship that she won last year in the novel venue of Cowboys Stadium by defeating Kelly Kulick in the final match. This year's televised finals, albeit shown on ESPN2 six days after the fact, will be held in the even more unusual venue of outdoors under the famous Reno Arch.

As you can see from reading entries such as this, I covered last year's Open with considerable enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, I blogged a lot here about the PBA, women's tournaments, junior tournaments, international adult and junior tournaments, and bowling in general for a couple of years.

But I finally began to lose my enthusiasm not for the sport so much as for the haphazard way the bowling industry itself seems to conduct and promote it. I figured if they didn't care enough to do a better job of promoting, covering, and fostering elite level bowling in this country and, as a result, people don't care that much about the sport to follow it, why should I bother to blog about it? Why even people who call themselves bowling fans seem to suffer from a serious enthusiasm problem, and very few appear to regularly watch bowling telecasts much less read blogs such as this one, so, again, why should I spend a lot of time writing blogposts when almost no one cares enough to read them?

As an example of my displeasure with the way the bowling industry is handling their sport, I posted the following comment just a few minutes ago to the USBC's Facebook wall in connection with their coverage of this year's Open. It echoes, to a considerable degree, this blogpost of mine from a while back. A PBA representative took private issue with that blogpost. He said the bowling industry is doing all it reasonably can to promote the PBA and bowling in general. What do you think?

Elite  women's and, for that matter, men's bowling is in a sad state in this country even as it seems to be growing in popularity in other parts of the world. I agree...that the PBA seems to be hanging on by its fingernails, and there's certainly no indication that any kind of women's professional tour will be coming back. And although many will disagree with me, I think part of the reason for this is that the bowling industry has not made as concerted an attempt as it might to publicize and popularize the sport but, rather, continues on with business as depressingly usual.

I'm not sure what it would take, but maybe if they hired the best PR and advertising minds to barrage the media with compelling commercials, human interest stories, and intelligent and entertaining treatments of bowling, rather than the occasional clownish parody, in television series and movies, more participants and viewers could be brought into the fold. As it is now, bowling and bowlers "don't get no respect," and they should, if people had any idea how challenging bowling really is at the elite level.

One thing I find so disheartening is that bowling seems to get so little respect even from bowling organizations and sponsors. For instance, the BPAA, God bless 'em, is sponsoring the U.S. Women's Open, yet they don't seem to be willing or able to get the finals aired live. We have to wait several days after the fact to see them, and, of course, by then only the most hardcore bowling fan will tune in because everyone else with any interest in the results but not enough to watch a seriously delayed broadcast AFTER learning the results will already know the results and won't bother. What's more, the USBC website's coverage of the tournament seems like a confusing maze. Their videos are great, and Lucas's herculean one-man coverage is to be roundly applauded, but where the hell are the results encompassing ALL the bowlers and not just the top 49? And why can't the BPAA and/or USBC, in the interests of fan interest, provide help to Lucas and the USBC website in tracking results as they occur instead of us having to wait hours to find out how the bowlers are scoring?

If even national bowling organizations and sponsors don't respect their sport enough to give it professional level coverage, how can they expect the public at large to respect it enough to follow it and participate in it? We need a real shakeup in the bowling industry in this country, or elite level bowling here seems all but doomed!

Practicing Next to Leanne Hulsenberg

Yesterday I had the privilege of practicing next to Leanne Barrette-Huslenberg, who is gearing up for the USBC Queens tournament next month and to defend her U.S. Women's Open title in June. She told me that the televised finals of this year's Open will be held outdoors on a main street in Reno.

As I've mentioned before, Leanne, who's a 27-time national titlist and USBC Hall of Famer, is one of my favorite bowlers of all time, and I'm delighted that she and her husband Gary own a pro shop in my home house, Fireside Lanes, near Sacramento, CA. and also bowl in the venerable Steve Cook Classic scratch league there along with PBA Hall of Famer Steve Cook, P.J. Haggerty, and a host of other outstanding local bowlers.

I also have the privilege of bowling in a senior scratch league at Fireside that numbers PBA Hall of Famer Larry Laub and his USBC Hall of Fame and former U.S. Women's Open champion wife Betty Morris-Laub among its members. I really feel blessed to bowl in a house with so many great bowlers of the past and present and to even compete against some of them.

For those of you who missed the historic and exciting U.S. Women's Open last year or would like to see it again, you can read my blogpost about it and watch the embedded videos of the entire televised finals here.

Leanne Who?

"i must admit to a funny story .... my sweet hubby didn't recognize you as "hulsenberg" .... kept watchin' you bowl on live streaming, totally fascinated by how good you were & the fact that he'd never heard of you!!! when i said "leanne BARRETTE", he said "duh"....... you're good under any name ....."

--Comment on Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg's Facebook page after she bowled her way into the second seed of the stepladder finals of the 2011 U.S. Women's Open

Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg Seeded Second to Kelly Kulick for 2011 U.S. Women's Open Stepladder Finals

"It's great to be a part of the biggest tournament ever. I actually have a second, third, fourth, and a fifth in the Open, and I've led the Open and lost. This would be totally huge."

--Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg

Okay, I'll admit it. When Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg's husband, Gary, told me a week ago that Leanne was bowling "very, very well" and that he liked her chances at the 2011 U.S. Women's Open this year, I had my doubts. I didn't have any doubts about Leanne's bowling ability, mind you. Her 26 national titles, two PWBA Player of the Year awards, Queens title, multiple U.S. Open stepladder finals appearances, and over 100 televised bowling appearances amply proved her ability to perform masterfully at the highest level of women's bowling.

But what had me feeling a little doubtful was the fact that after the PWBA folded in 2003, Leanne's competitive fire seemed to wane somewhat. Oh, she bowled the Steve Cook Classic league at my home house, still bowled local tournaments, still performed admirably at the USBC Women's Opens, and placed seventeenth in last year's USBC Queens, fourteenth in last year's U.S. Women's Open, and thirteenth in this year's USBC Queens, but I still had the feeling that the absence of a professional tour, recent motherhood, the demands of work, and the fact that she'd be up against most of the finest female bowlers in the world, many of whom were young and hungry and superbly trained members of national teams, including Team USA, would make it difficult for Leanne to crack the top 16 into match play much less have a realistic shot at making the televised finals of the biggest tournament in the history of women's bowling.

Well, my doubts were dashed to pin dust by Leanne's remarkable showings in qualifying and match play over these past few days. She finished seventh in qualifying, rose to third after a blistering block last night in the first round of match play, and, following today's 8 games of match play, she finds herself seeded second for tomorrow night's stepladder finals. That's right, Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg needs to win only two matches tomorrow night to accomplish about the only great thing she has yet to accomplish in her storied bowling career--a U.S. Women's Open title.

The USBC's Lucas Wiseman reported during the live streaming of today's match play that when he talked to Leanne briefly this morning after it became certain that she'd make the stepladder finals, she confessed that she'd be feeling very "nervous" when it came time for her to bowl under the television lights on specially constructed lanes in the middle of Cowboy's Stadium in Texas tomorrow night. But I'm guessing that her less experienced and less accomplished opponents will be feeling just as nervous if not more so, and that she has a very good chance to win the title.

For even if she wins her first match and faces top seeded Kelly Kulick--who in one mind-bending five game stretch of match play today strung together games of 279, 278, 269, 279, and 248--in the final match, anything can happen in one game, and anyone can win. Leanne can certainly beat any female bowler on the planet, as she did this morning when she defeated Kulick in the position round to close out match play. She can do it again tomorrow night, if she gets the chance.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to watch the action until ESPN2 airs it Saturday at 6 PM Eastern. But I know I won't be able to resist finding out what happens as soon as possible after it happens.

You can watch the position round of today's match play below.

Video streaming by Ustream

Kulick Shines, Hulsenberg Rises, and Pluhowsky Falters in U.S. Women's Open

The first 8 games of match play of the U.S. Women's Open were not kind to Shannon Pluhowsky last night. After residing in first or second place throughout most of the qualifying rounds, Pluhowsky went a disastrous 1-7 and averaged only 210 in match play to drop like a rock from solid second to shaky seventh place with only 8 games of match play remaining today.

However, while Pluhowsky stumbled, Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg was busy going 6-2, shooting 300 in her sixth game and 279 in her eighth, and amassing the highest match play total of the field with a 1909 scratch total for a 238 average to rise to third place.

Meanwhile, Kelly Kulick cruised along to a 6-2 record and 231 average for her eight games of match play to increase her imposing lead over the rest of the field.

The ladies will bowl eight games today to determine the field for the stepladder finals. Stay tuned for the results, click here for the details on yesterday's match play round, and check out the video below of yesterday's match play.

Video streaming by Ustream

Video streaming by Ustream

2011 U.S. Women's Open Qualifying--First Round

Bowling is underway in Texas for the U.S. Women's Open, and a bowler from the Netherlands is leading after the first round. Lisanne Breeschoten averaged almost 250 for her first 8 games. Shannon Pluhowsky sits in second, Shannon O'Keefe in third, Liz Johnson in fifth, defending champion Kelly Kulick in seventh after shooting 1014 for her last 4 games, Lynda Barnes in tenth, and Sacramento favorite Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg in sixteenth.

The record field of 286 bowlers is divided into three squads, and each squad will bowl 24 games of qualifying, with 8 games each on fresh oil, on intermediate breakdown, and on "the burn" before the field is cut to the top 32 on Tuesday and the top 16 on Wednesday. The finals will take place on Thursday night in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX and, for some inscrutable reason, be telecast by ESPN2 on Saturday at 6PM Eastern. The winner will receive a record $50,000. Furthermore, if anyone shoots 300 in the title match, she will receive $1 million. I can't imagine the pressure of going into the tenth frame with all strikes, but I hope somebody does it. Unfortunately, those of us who watch the telecast will almost certainly know not only who won the tournament but also whether she shot 300, which kind of takes away the tension.

You can click here for the story and standings of the first round, and you can view yesterday's first round of qualifying action below. Moreover, you can access live streaming of all the qualifying and match play rounds on bowl.com.

Video streaming by Ustream

Video streaming by Ustream

Video streaming by Ustream

Leanne Barrete-Hulsenberg Looking Forward to 2011 U.S. Women's Open

As I was leaving the bowling center last night after my sport league, I ran into Gary Hulsenberg, husband of female professional hall-of-famer Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg. Gary and Leanne operate a pro shop at Fireside Lanes in Citrus Heights, CA. They're departing for Texas today so that Leanne can compete in the U.S. Women's Open.

Leanne has appeared in televised bowling competition over 100 times, has won 26 PWBA titles including the USBC Queens Championship in 1999, was twice voted PWBA Player of the Year, and is a member of the USBC Hall of Fame in the Superior Performance category, but she's never won a U.S. Women's Open.

But Gary says she's been bowling very well lately and that he and she both like her chances this year. For one thing, the U.S. Open format favors her game because it's a long tournament where the lanes will have a chance to break down and Leanne can keep moving left into her wheelhouse and open up the lane with her unusually powerful release. This gives her an edge over all but a handful of elite female bowlers who'll be competing this year.

I hope to see her in the televised finals broadcast live from Cowboys Stadium on July 2 at 6 PM Eastern, and I'd love to see one of The Strike Shop walls adorned with a bigger-than-life copy of the $50,000 first place check for winning the title.

Go, Leanne.

Preview of Tonight's USBC Queens Televised Finals

"I'm just taking everything in as it happens and trying to enjoy being out here and competing. When I'm not in a bowling center, I try not to think about bowling or talk about bowling. Tonight, I'm going to relax and enjoy the moment and just wait for the lights to go on tomorrow."

--Elysia Current

Tonight, ESPN2 will televise the match play finals of the USBC Queens Championship live from the Oncenter Convention Center in Syracuse, NY at 7 PM EDT. Former college bowling standout Elysia Current, who knocked Sacramento favorite and past Queens champion Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg out of the competition, went undefeated yesterday in double-elimination match play and will be the top seed in tonight's stepladder finals, needing to win only one match to claim the coveted Queens tiara and a $20,000 check.

I watched Bowl.com's live streaming of the competition most of yesterday and the day before, and I have to say that Elysia looks like she has an excellent chance of winning tonight. She has a sound, cleanly efficient style and throws a powerful ball that seems tailor-made for the lane conditions in the Convention Center.

The first match of the star-studded finals pits Cathy Dorin-Lizzi, who handed her sister Carolyn Dorin-Ballard her first defeat yesterday, against three-time Queens titlist Wendy Macpherson. The winner will take on Kim Terrell-Kearney. The winner of that match will go up against Missy (Bellinder) Parkin. And the winner of that match will advance to take on Elysia Current for the championship.

Last year's champion, Kelly Kulick, got knocked out relatively early in yesterday's match play competition.

You can click here to see how the bowlers who made it to match play fared in the brackets, here to read Bowl.com's preview story on the finals tonight, and here to watch match play action from Monday and Tuesday in the Bowl.com/Ustream archives. Finally, below is a video preview of tonight's finalists and matches.

Carolyn Dorin-Ballard and Leanne Barrette Impressive at the End of USBC Qualifying

Carolyn Dorin-Ballard led the USBC Queens qualifying and went into match play seeded first, followed by Shannon Pluhowsky, Wendy Macpherson, Stefanie Nation, and Carol Gianotti. Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg rose from 35th to 6th place with a monster block of 204-299-256-236-234.

You can check out the final qualifying results here.

Dorin-Ballard and Nation Leading USBC Queens Qualifying After Second Qualifying Round

Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is leading after the second round of USBC Queens qualifying action in Syracuse, NY, Stefanie Nation is in third place, last year's champion, Kelly Kulick, is in ninth place, and local Sacramento favorite Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg is hanging in at 35th place.

The top 80 placers in the beginning field of 206 will return to bowl 5 more games of qualifying today, and then the field will be winnowed to the top 64 who will then compete in double-elimination match play until the players are determined for the televised finals that will be shown live on ESPN2 on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m EDT.

You can read the Bowl.com story and check the current results here, watch live streaming of the action here, and below is a USBC video showing Stefanie Nation and Dorin-Ballard competing this year and talking about their first two qualifying rounds.