Kulick maintains lead at U.S. Women’s Open
By Lucas Wiseman
USBC Communications
EULESS, Texas – Defending champion Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., went 6-2 in the opening round of match play Tuesday night as she maintained her lead at the 2011 Bowling’s U.S. Women’s Open.
Kulick has a 40-game total of 9,812, including 30 bonus pins for each victory, to lead the final 16 bowlers in the field at AMF Euless Lanes. The top five players for Thursday’s championship round will be determined in the final eight games of match play starting Wednesday morning.
“I didn’t score as well as well on the fresh today as I did yesterday,” Kulick said. “I’m trying to pull away from the field, but everyone is bowling well behind me. I think if I focus on repeating shots, I’ll be in position to make the show tomorrow.”
The Team USA member, who won the 2003 and 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, turned it on down the stretch, closing with games of 249, 257, 228 and 232 to lead by 247 pins. Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, N.Y., is second with 9,565.
Leanne Hulsenberg of Roseville, Calif., who was one of two bowlers to shoot 300 Tuesday night, is in third place with 9,551. Lynda Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, is fourth with 9,487, while Rachel Perez of Maumelle, Ark., is fifth with 9,440.
The finals of the U.S. Women’s Open will take place at Cowboys Stadium and be broadcast on Saturday, July 2 at 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2. If a bowler throws a 300 game in the championship match, she will win $1 million. The champion will earn $50,000.
The 2011 U.S. Women’s Open has already broken one record with 286 participants, which tops the previous record of 267 set in 2003. A total of 17 countries are represented in the field.
For more information Bowling’s U.S. Women’s Open, visit bowlingsuswomensopen.com. For complete coverage of the event, including stories and videos, visit BOWL.com.
About International Bowling Campus
The International Bowling Campus (IBC) is the headquarters for the bowling industry and directly serves the more than 71 million bowlers in the United States. The IBC houses the resources of the United States Bowling Congress, the governing body and membership organization for the sport; the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, representing the business interests of bowling centers; Strike Ten Entertainment, the marketing arm for the industry; the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame; The Bowling Foundation; the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association; the Bowling Writers Association of America; the Bowling News Network; the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America; and the International Training and Research Center.
http://www.bowl.com/news/xmlburner.jsp?xa=./webapps/ROOT/news/main/data/062811USWO4.xml
Related posts
Qualifying starts today for five bowl berths at Cowboys Stadium
A record total of almost 300 bowlers will flood AMF Euless Lanes starting today for a chance to reach the finals of the U.S. Women’s Open.
But only five will advance to Thursday’s event at Cowboys Stadium.
The qualifying rounds include competitors from Columbia, South Korea, Denmark, England, Finland and the Philippines.
New Jersey’s Kelly Kulick won the event in 2010. She was the first woman to win a Professional Bowling Association Tour title when she won the 45th Tournament of Champions in January 2010.
“I’m ecstatic about how big this tournament has grown,” she said. “There are over 280 entries. And the fact that it is being held at Cowboys Stadium will make it even more exciting and energetic for the crowd to watch.
“This event is taking place in a venue that is unprecedented in bowling. We’ve never bowled outside of a bowling center or an arena. So this is new for everyone. All I can do is hope for the best and hopefully be in the top five that get to bowl for the show.”
There will be three blocks of qualifying. Once the field is cut to 16, bowlers will compete in a round-robin format to determine the top five.
“We have a record number of participants with the strongest ladies from all around the world,” said Grand Prairie’s Stefanie Nation, one of the sport’s young stars. “It will be no easy feat to be one of the top five finalists, but you just have to take it one game at a time and hope for the best.”
By William Wilkerson – wwilkerson@star-telegram.com
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/23/3176116/qualifying-starts-today-for-five.html#ixzz1QDAbIJKh
Related posts
Pins topple at the Oncenter as women’s bowling tournament begins
Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – For the next 88 days, Syracuse will be home to thousands of female bowlers taking part in the U.S. Bowling Congress Women’s Championships. The event got underway Thursday with a simultaneous roll down each of the 48 lanes specially built in the Oncenter.
The event is expected to bring about 30,000 total bowlers to the area through July. It is also expected to inject $40 million to the local economy.
With so many people stopping by during the tournament, the squeeze is on at hotels.
Vicki Larson, for example, just rolled into town with a team of six for the weekend. She says she’s learned to book hotel rooms far in advance, after all her years of traveling to tournaments. “I usally book in September,” she said.
Over the next three months, the bowlers are expected to spend 54,000 nights in hotel rooms that might have otherwise been empty.
“We’ll have at least 5,000 just at our hotel alone. It’s huge,” said Sandy Baker of the Crowne Plaza hotel. “We are the closest hotel to the Oncenter and we are so excited.”
Hotels outside the City are also picking up some extra business. The brand new Staybridge Suites in Liverpool opened Thursday, just in time for the tournament.
“Most of the time you open up a new hotel and you don’t have any business for a couple of weeks, but we started out well and the bowling tournament has been a big help to us,” said Jim Gallagher.
The rooms are going to be even more difficult to grab during graduation weekend.
“Graduation weekend is always a big weekend for the entire community but on top of the bowling tournament. It’s probably going to be one of the best weeks we ever had here,” Gallagher said.
The transformation of the Oncenter into a world-class bowling center took about a month and cost about $2 million. In addition to 48 meticulously leveled lanes, a video screen was built that spans the entire length of the setup.
In all, there is enough wood used for the lanes, stands and other structures to build five, three-bedroom homes. Underneath runs six miles of wiring.
Each day until July 3, pins will topple from about 7:00 a.m. through midnight. In late April, ESPN will be in Syracuse to televise the finals for the professionals who will be competing.