I had hoped and even planned to drive to Las Vegas Friday to watch all seven days of the 2019 World Bowling Women’s Championships competition taking place from August 24-30. I even reserved a room at South Point so I could be conveniently close to the action. That’s how enamored I’ve become with elite women’s bowling and with the powerhouse teams and top players competing.
But days before the tournament commenced, prudence dictated that I cancel my plans and settle for watching as much of the action as I could via live-streaming.
I don’t know why I thought the live-stream coverage would be good enough to allay a fair portion of my disappointment over not being able to attend the tournament, but I was quickly disabused of my optimism. The disillusionment began when I went to the Championships website at the scheduled starting time of the first event, singles, at 9 am Saturday, clicked on the link labeled “WATCH LIVE,” and repeatedly got the message “COMING SOON.” By 9:10, I figured that the bowling must have started and that I needed to look elsewhere for a functional link to the action, so I did what any reasonably knowledgeable bowling fan would do and checked out Jeff Richgels on Facebook. The chances are overwhelmingly good that he’ll know what’s happening and how you can see it online if it’s anywhere to be seen.
Thanks to Jeff, I found three camera feeds. But the wide-angle views afforded took some getting used to. For while I could see the competition occurring on several pairs at a time, it all had a kind of offputtingly distorted and distant look to it, and I couldn’t make out the scores displayed on the wall above the pins. Watching it might have been the next best thing to being there, but it was a far, far cry from being there, and it took me a while to settle into making the best of it. Worse still was the fact that of the three cameras operating, one or more of them often lost the feed for significant periods of time, preventing me from watching almost entire games of bowlers I really wanted to see.
Fortunately, one of my favorite lady bowlers, Team Singapore’s Bernice Lim, winner of the USBC Queens title in 2016, was on one of the live-streams, and she came right out of the chute striking her way to a first game of 245, which she followed up with a 247 en route to placing first in Squad 1 after the six games of qualifying with a total of 1354 for a 225.67 average. Team USA’s Liz Kuhlkin finished 12th at 1298 (216.33), and Jordan Richard finished in 29th place with a total of 1223 (203.83).
I was thrilled to see Team Malaysia’s fabulous Sin Li Jane on one of the live-streams for the first game of the second squad. And after she shot 248 her first game and 237 her second, I posted to Facebook that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she took the gold in singles and all-events. But a singles gold was not in the cards as she ended up in 22nd place in that squad with a total of 1269 (211.50).
As it turned out, the top four who qualified for the singles semifinals on Thursday and the top five finishers from both squads all came from the second squad. They were led by Team Korea’s Nayoung Lee who finished with a 289 for a total of 1410 (235.0). Second went to Sweden’s Sandra Andersson at 1401 (233.5). Third was none other than the amazing Shannon O’Keefe at 1392 (232.0). Shannon is arguably the best female bowler on the planet right now. She’s the reigning PWBA Player of the Year, has won a phenomenal four PWBA titles already this season coming off her victory last week in the PWBA Orlando Open, and appears to be at the top of her game physically and in possession of an indomitable will to pravail. It’s a real pleasure watching her compete so masterfully and with such a determined spirit. And rounding out the field of qualifiers to the semifinal round was Team USA’s great Danielle McEwan, the defending all-events champ from the 2017 World Bowling Women’s Championships. She totaled 1371 (228.5) and shot a clutch 242 her final game to edge out Colombia’s Maria Jose Rodriguez who totaled 1368 (228.0).
What I didn’t realize until nearly the end of the bowling yesterday was that only four players in the stellar international field of 176 advanced to the next round in singles and that they had only six games to do it. I guess it can’t be any other way in a one week tournament with so many events, but it sure seems like a shame to make women’s bowling’s equivalent of the Olympics an all-out sprint to the finish line.
Oh well, it is what it is. And what it is will keep me watching as much of the action as I can for the rest of the week. Coming up is qualifying for the doubles event, and I can’t wait to see how my favorite lady bowlers fare in that.
As I wrote in my previous post, I used to enjoy watching male professional bowlers more than I did female ones because they receive more publicity and their games are generally more powerful. But then the renascent PWBA and New Hui Fen and her Singapore teammates (or, as I like to call them, the "Singapore Slingers") came to my home house of Fireside Lanes near Sacramento, CA last May, and I became as big a fan of the female pros and a bigger fan of Hui Fen than I am of the male pros.
As I explained previously, the average bowler, and especially old guys like me, can never come close to throwing it like Belmo, Osku, or E.J., but we might be able to at least crudely approximate the masterful techniques and results of a New Hui Fen, Danielle McEwan, Kelly Kulick, or Liz Johnson and be fairly effective in our leagues or local tournaments. I believe that emulating Hui Fen's relaxed fluidity, effortless release, and outward equanimity as best I can has helped my game immensely over the past year. And so I think most of us have as much if not more reason to follow the women's game than we do the men's.
So, I was delighted to learn months ago that the PWBA was returning to Sacramento this May for the third consecutive year. But I was extremely disappointed that Hui Fen and her team weren't on the roster and that she didn't know, even a few weeks out, whether they were coming or not.
I finally resigned myself to their not coming but still looked forward to the Storm Sacramento Open on May 5-6. And then one day out of the blue, Hui Fen messaged me that she and some of her teammates would be competing in Sacramento after all, and I was like a little kid anticipating the imminent arrival of Christmas Day.
That anticipation swelled to near manic excitement the day before the tournament began when I drove the ten or so miles from my house to Steve Cook's Fireside Lanes that Sacramento summer-like evening to watch the ladies warm up for an hour-and-a-half. When I began walking from my car to the building, there was the legendary Kelly Kulick walking right in front of me, and I shyly said, "Hi, Kelly" to one of my lifetime bowling idols.
When I got inside, there were a goodly number of the best female bowlers on Earth waiting for their practice session to commence, and, as corny as it may sound to the uninitiated, I don't know that I could have been happier anyplace else on Earth.
But it became immediately apparent that I wouldn't be seeing stratospheric scores over the next couple of days. Though, for reasons I still don't fully understand, the PWBA wouldn't be releasing the oil pattern specs until weeks later, it was obvious that the oil pattern went very long and would require well-executed shots with the right equipment from a tight, inside line to hit the pocket and carry with any consistency, and that superb spare-shooting would be imperative. In other words, it was going to be a challenging grind-fest to the Casher's Round, match play, and the stepladder final.
And that's what it was. I think 279 may have been the highest score of the tournament, a 194 average was enough to place in the top 32 for the Casher's Round, and a 207 average was enough to make the top 12 for match play.
What I saw again and again was players executing a great shot for a strike and then missing by just a tiny bit to the right or left or throwing the ball with just a little more or less speed or with a slightly different release in the next frame and missing the pocket entirely to leave a nasty washout or split respectively. And if right-handers threw the ball outside ten board, the ball would skid as though on ice and they'd be lucky to get a three count, and lefties were playing deep inside. It certainly wasn't the Fireside house shot that enabled an old and mediocre bowler like me to average 218 for 136 games this season in my senior league throwing old urethane equipment.
A case in point was the struggles of my favorite bowler New Hui Fen. Last year she was the only right-hander to make the televised stepladder final of the Sacramento Open. And, for almost two games of the stepladder final conducted on last year's oil pattern but held in Las Vegas weeks later, she made the pattern look, in the words of commentator Kelly Kulick, "like league" with powerful strike after strike after strike. But she wrestled incessantly with the lanes this time around. She'd throw one or two great shots and then miss a little right or left or with some other aspect of her delivery and leave washouts, splits, or multiple pin spare combinations that sucked the pins from her score. She seemed to have almost no margin for error, and many of her high-rev shots went high, since she was especially afraid to miss right in the long oil. I had the impression that by late in the Casher's Round Saturday morning, she was mentally exhausted even though, at least on paper, she remained in contention for the top 12 and match play until she was a few frames into her final game.
But it also became apparent that some of the players were likely to do comparatively well with their games and the way they were playing the lanes. Liz Johnson, Rocio Restrepo, and Diana Zavjalova, among others, distinguished themselves relatively early on with their consistently good shotmaking and scoring.
Rocio qualified first last week in the Sonoma County Open on a very challenging flat pattern, and if someone were to ask me who I thought will win PWBA Player of the Year this season, I'd pick Rocio without hesitation. First of all, the Singapore bowlers will only be bowling three tournaments here this season because their main focus is on team competition overseas that takes place during the same time as most of the PWBA season, while Rocio will probably bowl every tournament if she's physically able. Second, there seems to be no lane condition out there right now that Rocio can't hit and carry on as well as anybody. And finally, Rocio may be small in physical stature, but she's a tiger on the lanes. She seems to put everything she's got into every shot, and this appears to keep her enthusiasm high and her focus sharp through every game if not frame of the tournament. I don't see anybody else out there who appears to want to win as badly as Rocio does, and when you combine that attitude with her great physical and mental game, you have a potentially dominant combination. I'd pick Liz Johnson, the previous two seasons' Player of the Year, and the formidable Danielle McEwan as Rocio's main competition for PoY.
In my next blogpost, I'll have more to share about the Storm Sacramento Open and, especially, about some of my personal reflections on my experiences over those two wonderful days.
