PBA Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles

This week, the PBA and PBA Women's Series ventured to Denver, Colo. for the PBA Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles event held at Brunswick Zone Wheat Ridge.

The event marked the last PBA Women's Series event for the 2009-2010 PBA Tour season. With 32 women competitors and 64 men comprising the field, the bowlers competed 14 games of qualifying separately.

We bowled 7 games of qualifying the first day, and I personally struggled and had yet another roller coaster block. Not being lined up well to start, I shot 173, 202 and then a disastrous 148. Finally switching to the Bounty Hunter Pearl, throwing it very slow and playing very straight and inside, I shot 209, 209, 254 and then hit a bad pair for a 184 finish. I ended the day at -21 and was 42 pins out of the top 16 cut.

The next day, we came back for our final 7 game block of qualifying. After making several surface adjustments on my bowling balls (i.e. sand blasting quite a few), I had a much better second block. I used the Clutch Solid all day and played the tightest line inside, keeping my ball speed down as much as possible. I had started with the wrong ball the first few frames, leaving a pair of splits, then switching to the correct ball and shooting 183, 224, 207, 238, 267 (with the front 8), 229 and 201 for +128 overall and shooting +149 for the block. This block rocketed me to 7th place.

With the women finishing the 14 games of qualifying first, it was then a waiting game to see which of the men would finish in 7th, thus being paired with me for the duration of the tournament. That bowler ended up being exempt player Steve Harmon.

The next day we bowled 16 games of round robin baker match play, meaning that we alternated each frame to complete the game. Steve anchored for the most part, as his look on the lanes was MUCH better than mine. Unfortunately, we struggled to win matches and with 30 bonus pins on the line, that proved to be devastating. We only won 5 out of 16 matches, although one win was against the dominating team of Jason Belmonte and Michelle Feldman. We finished 13th overall.

A few side notes and reflections for the season...
Although this was the first season that I failed to make a TV show for the women's series, I am not totally disappointed. I was badly injured for the majority of the World Series of Bowling, which comprised 5 out of our 7 stops. And I still managed to just fall short of the TV show for the PBA Women's World Championship, coming in 3rd place overall.

I'm not entirely sure if the World Series of Bowling concept is such a good idea, simply due to the fact that we only competed in one bowling center the entire time. This highly favors any bowler whose natural game matches up with that center's characteristics. No matter what pattern that was put out, those bowlers were still going to have the advantage. I think that the concept would have been better if the tour went to somewhere like Las Vegas and competed at a different bowling center every week, but still remained in the same city for an extended period of time.

Another change for this season, was the complete separation of the men and women bowlers each tournament. The women either bowled at completely different times or as in the World Series of Bowling, competed in a completely different area (the Arena Bay) than the men, making it more difficult for fans to watch both the men and women. Prior to this season, the women competed qualifying mixed in with the men and shared paddocks/ball workout areas. This year, everything has been separated between the men and the women, which in a way feels a little like the women have been pushed aside. I will say that having our own paddock and work out area was definitely a plus, but the rest was a little disheartening.

Lastly, I'd like to thank the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) for it's continued support of women's bowling! Without USBC we wouldn't have had the PBA Women's Series for the last three seasons.

I do have one HUGE favor... anyone who is happy seeing the women back in action on TV, can you please send an email or write a letter to USBC stating that fact. In these hard times, you never know what next year brings and bowling needs to not lose professional women's bowling again. Please pass this along to all of your friends.

United States Bowling Congress
Attn: Jeff Boje
621 Six Flags Drive
Arlington, TX 76011

jeff.boje@bowl.com
darlene.baker@bowl.com

Thank you!!!!