A U.S. Women's Open Finals That Will Live in Infamy?

You may not want to know who won the U.S. Women's Open last night under the blustery Reno sky. And if you don't, don't worry. I'm not going to tell you now, even though I think that if you're reading this blog, you're bound to find out soon enough whether you go looking for it or not. If you do want to know, I'm still not going to tell you here, but you can find out by clicking here.

However, I do want to say a few words about the finals in general. No, I didn't drive the 120 miles to Reno to see them, and they won't be airing on TV till next Tuesday evening (7/3, ESPN2, 8 PM Eastern). But I did the next best thing to seeing them. I followed the USBC's Lucas Wiseman's Twitter and Facebook updates, and what his terse tweets and posts made all too clear is that the championship finals of arguably the most prestigious women's bowling tournament in the world was predictably reduced by the gusty winds and swirling dust to a clownish farce.

Don't take my word for it. Here is some of Lucas Wiseman's rolling account of an unfolding bowling disaster:

It's rather windy out here, maybe sustained winds of 5-15 mph with occasional gusts. Temp is cooling off fast.

The wind is really picking up out here.

Lanes really hooking, players seem to be struggling a bit with the environment.

Both players are completely lost. Things are flying around, this is going to be a challenge.

The lanes are really hooking and you can visibly see dust and debris on the lane. Even spare balls are hooking a ton.

There's a discussion going on with the tournament director and the bowlers. Not sure what the issue is.

If I were bowling under these conditions, I would throw my spare ball at the headpin, try to make spares and shoot 180s.

She's throwing a plastic ball. Yes, plastic.

Nation makes a ball change and goes to plastic.

This is easily the strangest and most interesting TV finals I have ever seen. You won't want to miss it when it airs.

There have been 10 strikes out of 43 first-ball shots so far. And a few of those were Brooklyns.

Missy Parkin is also throwing a plastic ball. Looks like that is strategy the rest of the way for everyone.

The person who makes the most spares is going to win this title. Carry is not good with plastic.

Both players appear satisfied with just making spares at this point.

This is getting ugly. Four opens in a row between the two players.

Both players have gone with the fall back shot using plastic.

Kulick follows the double by leaving the 5-8-10. Figured we'd see one of those.

Of course, there were some who tried to minimize the ridiculousness of it all. One prominent guy in the bowling community opined that all televised finals are a "crap shoot" no matter what the conditions are. Others said that the BPAA executives who approved and planned the event had no way of knowing that the weather would be so inhospitable. And a lot of people said words to the effect that the conditions were the same for everybody and that real champions triumph over whatever challenges they face.

But one guy posted a very incisive and eloquent response, and I share that next after saying that I look forward to seeing the finals for myself and posting to this blog about it afterwards.

The bottom line is that the usbc [BPAA] is trying to cover up a problem with smoke and mirrors. Instead of fixing the problem, its "hey look, we are bowling outside, how cool is that?!" Now obviously anyone in the bowling industry knows it's not that easy, but it was allowed to get out of control. Challenging is one thing, but this has nothing to do with instincts or transition or adjustments. Sometimes things devolve into a flat out impossibility. "Oh they are pros, they should adjust." Not so much. Have you ever bowled on a dirt and debris covered lane? Dont think so. Yes everybody had to deal with it, but following a week of shotmaking, they were stuck with the biggest crap shoot in bowling history. They spent all that money on installing those lanes, when they had the national bowling stadium a few blocks away, just for THAT. Really feel bad for the competitors.

Bowling Video--Jessica Baker Bowls 300 in 2012 U.S. Women's Open

In last year's U.S. Women's Open, over a dozen 300 games were rolled. I guess they really DO like to do everything bigger in Texas. I don't know if they all came in qualifying or if some were also rolled in match play. But only one perfect game has been rolled through the first two 6-game rounds of qualifying this year on the lower scoring conditions at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, and former Wichita State standout Jessica Baker is the one who did it last night.

You can watch her final three impressive shots below, courtesy of  the USBC's Lucas Wiseman's camerawork, as he took time out from his one-man calling of the USBC's live streaming of the day's action to masterfully capture the moment.

EJ Tackett and Men's Team USA

Unless you follow bowling pretty closely, you've probably never heard of EJ Tackett. But he deserves a lot more attention in the bowling world and beyond than he seems to be getting. At least that's the point I tried to make to PBA Xtra Frame's "bowling doctor" Jeff Mark and USBC announcer Lucas Wiseman the other day as Xtra Frame and bowl.com collaborated to bring us live online video coverage of the recent Team USA tryouts for the Pan American Games.

The tryouts, which took place Tuesday and Wednesday at the USBC's amazing International Training and Research Center (ITRC) in Arlington, TX, had all eleven members of this year's men's Team USA bowling eight games on each of four different patterns to partly determine which two bowlers would represent the USA in Guadalajara, Mexico this summer in North and South America's version of the Olympics held every four years.

The competing members were PBA stars Bill O'Neill, Chris Barnes, Patrick Allen, Wes Malott, Tommy Jones, Mike Fagan, and Walter Ray Williams, along with Scott Boyle, Steven Smith, Jarret Mizo, and EJ Tackett. The top two were determined based 60% on where they finished in the tryouts, 20% on their finish in the USBC Masters, and 20% on where they finished in the U.S. Open. By virtue of those calculations, Bill O'Neill, who ran away from the field for most of the tryouts, and Chris Barnes were the top two point-getters and will represent the USA in the men's bowling competition at the Pan American Games. I can't think of two better choices, can you?

But what impressed me almost as much as these two bowling superstars during the tryouts was the performance of EJ Tackett. For much of the competition, he held his own with bowling's big guns on challenging patterns, even sitting in fourth place after 17 games, until he faltered at the end, and by virtue of his performances during the tryouts and the U.S. Open earlier this year where he finished 15th overall, he was the highest overall point-getter among the non-touring pros on Team USA, finishing behind Walter Ray Williams.

What was so impressive about this? Well, EJ Tackett is only 18-years-old and is still in high school, and he throws what looks to me to be one helluva ball. I can't imagine how gratifying it must have been for him to make men's Team USA this year, finish so high in the U.S. Open awhile back, and then bowl so well against such a stellar field of pros in Arlington earlier this week. Talk about a kid's dream come true!

Well, not quite. EJ's biggest dream is probably not to win a PBA "major" or represent men's Team USA in international competition, but to win a PGA major. That's right, EJ Tackett says he loves golf more than he does bowling, is currently a 2-handicapper, and will be attending college on a golf scholarship next year.

As I watched him bowl during the tryouts, I wrote a Facebook message to Jeff Mark and Lucas Wiseman that I was surprised they weren't paying more attention to EJ instead of treating him like just another competitor. Mark's response was that unless and until he wins a big tournament, he hasn't really done anything all that noteworthy and doesn't deserve any more attention or coverage than he's been getting.

I respectfully disagree. I think one of bowling's biggest problems right now is poor public relations. It doesn't know how to market itself to the masses in a way that gets people interested and makes them respect the sport and the players more. When a young phenom like EJ Tackett or Kamron Doyle comes along, bowling publicists should jump on the opportunity to bring them to the public's attention. How many boys and girls and young men and women, who are the future of bowling, might be inspired by the stories of young competitors such as these to take up the game and get serious about it? When guys like Jeff Mark and Lucas Wiseman take the ho-hum attitude that they do, they're just shooting themselves and bowling in general in the foot, and they're not giving superbly talented and accomplished young competitors like EJ Tackett their due.

I wish EJ Tackett well with his golf game. He's certainly right when he says there is more "opportunity" in professional golf than there is in professional bowling. But I hope he keeps bowling too. I really like his game and would love to see him shine as a star on both the PGA and PBA Tours.

Below you can watch two video stories on EJ Tackett and video of the Team USA tryouts for the Pan Am Games. And you can click here for the official USOC press release on the selections for the Pan Am Games.