Missy Featured in May issue of Bowlers Journal International Magazine

    

Check out the Bowlers Journal International magazine May issue to see Missy Parkin featured on the "The Pro Approach" article. USBC Hall of Famer and Gold Level certified coach Bill Spigner breaks down Missy's physical game, properly explaining Missy's high backswing, as well as other elements in Missy's physical game.

To subscribe to the Bowlers Journal International magazine, click here. 

Missy's PBA Regional Whirlwind

In the past couple of months, I have been competing in many PBA Regional events. PBA regional tournaments are a great way for me to stay sharp, get in some great competitive practice, as well as get a chance to bowl on the PBA patterns.

My first PBA Regional event of the year was the PBA West Ebonite Open at Palm Springs Lanes in Cathedral City, CA. In this event, we competed on the Chameleon oil pattern. After the practice session on Friday afternoon, myself, Scott Norton and Dave Wodka put on a great clinic for the bowlers in the area. We focused on physical keys to improve bowler's individual games as well as spare shooting techniques. We had a great turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time!

The next day we started qualifying and the lanes ended up being pretty high scoring for the event. I shot 224, 235, 211, 239, 169, 225 and ended on a big note shooting 258, 258 for my last two games. This put me at +219 for the 8-game block. However, I ended up missing the cut by 1 pin to make it to the top 16 matchplay finals. I still cashed in the event, but making matchplay would have been nicer. ;)

The next PBA Regional event I competed in was the PBA Earl Anthony Memorial Classic at Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl. We competed on none other than the Earl Anthony oil pattern, which played very tough all weekend long. Scores were low, so shot making and spares were premium!

During qualifying I had a very roller coaster day, shooting games of 201, 177, 256, 202, 158, 279, 215 and 183 for +69 on the day. That score put me in 6th place overall going into the top 16 matchplay finals. In this regional, we bowled the old PBA Regional format, which is16 games of round robin matchplay on Sunday.

I bowled extremely well on Sunday, shooting +231 scratch for the 16 games and also won 10 out of 16 matches. Each match won earned me an extra 30 pin bonus. However, despite the great bowling and number of matches I'd won, I remained in exactly 6th place for the tournament. Still a great cash and great weekend!

Next stop for the PBA Regional series lead us to the amazingly beautiful state of Hawaii, where we competed in three separate events on the islands. 

The first event was a one day event at Schofield Lanes on the Schofield Barracks Army base on the island of Oahu. We competed on the Scorpion oil pattern. Scores were pretty low for this event, which cut to the top 8 for the matchplay finals. I stayed fairly consistent but ran into a little trouble in the middle of the block, shooting games of 201, 222, 167, 213, 179, 215, 195 and then a BIG 235 the last game to be +27 and sneak in a check, cashing in the event which took +20 to cash.

My best friend Scott Norton had an amazing look all day. He lead qualifying, shooting +239 and then went 5-0 in matchplay to win his 5th PBA Regional title, defeating Rhino Page 245-214.

Our next event, was the PBA Naval Station Open, which actually took place at the bowling center on Pearl Harbor Naval base. We bowled on the Chameleon oil pattern for the event. To say that the lanes were hooking is saying it mildly! I didn't have a great look all day and shot -49 in the event. It took +17 to cash and only +64 to make the top 8 matchplay finals. I will say that it was really cool to be able to bowl on the Pearl Harbor Naval base. I guess if I had to pick an event to miss the cut at and have an extra day off, I'd pick it to be in Hawaii.

After our "wonderful" day of bowling, we decided to do something fun. So we headed up towards Hanauma Bay and actually saw a pod of whales, which breached a few times for us!

Our final event, we flew to the Big Island and ventured to KB Xtreme Lanes in Kona. The bowling center was really nice and had been recently remodeled. We again bowled on the Scorpion oil pattern and the lanes were again low scoring. I shot games of 214, 227, 200, 202, 174, 188, 241 and 254 to be +100 and qualify in 4th place. It only took +38 to make the top 8 matchplay finals.  

In matchplay, I faced Tom Daugherty in the best of 5 matchplay finals. Tom won the first 2 games, and facing elimination, I struck out in the 10th frame the 3rd game to win and stay in the match. However, I couldn't get lined up well enough and Tom defeated me in game 4. I came in 6th place overall in the event.

After all of the regional tournaments, Scott and I decided to stay on the Big Island and sightsee for a couple of days. We had one of the most amazing experiences - snorkeling at night with Manta Rays. It was incredible! We also ventured to the Volcanoes National Park and got to see the glow of the Kilauea crater. 

 

Til next time...

Missy Leads World Bowling Tour Rankings

Missy Parkin has jumped into the lead of the World Bowling Tour points standings after finishing in 1st place among the women competing at the USBC Masters tournament last week. The USBC Masters is a major stop on the World Bowling Tour and therefore rewards double points.

Read the full story here.

Missy's Cashes in USBC Masters as High Woman

This past week, I ventured to New York City as well as New Brunswick, NJ for the USBC Masters at Brunswick Zone Carolier Lanes, the previous site of the PBA U.S. Open.

We bowled three 5-game blocks of qualifying and then the field was cut to the top 63 players and last year's champion Mike Fagan for the double elimination match play finals.

I bowled on A squad and therefore had my first two squads on the fresh oil pattern and finished the last qualifying squad on the "burn squad," where the lanes were not re-oiled.

My first block, I shot games of 214, 230, 200, 225 and 186 for +55, using my Columbia 300 Oath and Enigma as well as my Hammer First Blood. That put me about 30 pins out of the cut to the top 63.

The second block of qualifying, the heads started out hooking more and the backends were a bit tighter, so that made for a bit lower scoring pace. I shot 222, 176, 175, 221 and 233 using my Columbia 300 Enigma, Ebonite Game Breaker and Hammer First Blood. Even though I struggled in the middle games, I was happy with how I finished the block. That put me at +83 overall and about 70 pins out of the cut to the top 63.  

Needing a big set in my final block of qualifying, I started out strong with a 246 game. I then hit a couple of rough pairs and couldn't get the ball to quite go through the pins correctly to carry. I shot 195 and 189, which both should have been a lot higher. I finished out the set with a 214 and 236 for +80 on the block and +163 overall. I came up 31 pins short for making maychplay, which ended up taking +194.

Overall, I am very pleased with how I physically bowled. I was having to use my "Z" game for the last two blocks, keeping my speed down and using a different release to get more revs on the ball. Physically, I felt my execution was really good all considering. I never missed a single pin spare and picked up quite a few splits and washouts.

I ended up coming in 78th place overall out of 468 bowlers. I was also the high woman in the tournament.

Prior to the USBC Masters, my husband Drew and I ventured to New York City with Scott Norton and his husband Craig. We spent an awesome few days around the City and had a great Valentine's Day dinner. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

HighLine in Chelsea, an above ground park along the Hudson River

The Empire State Building colored Pink, just for me.  :)

Spin New York, a Ping Pong bar in the City 

Valentine's Day dinner

Until next time...

Watch Missy on Feb. 3rd at 4pm EST on ESPN

Missy Parkin will be one of the featured professional bowlers competing with celebrities in the Chris Paul PBA League All-Star event airing on Superbowl Sunday, February 3rd at 4pm EST on ESPN.

Missy teams up with NBA All-Star and Slam Dunk Champion Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, in the eight-team Shootout competition. This marks the first time that a female professional bowler has competed in the Chris Paul Celebrity Charity event since its inception five years ago.

Tune in to ESPN to watch all of the action!

Click here for a preview of the show!

Missy Ventures to Japan for DHC Intl Championships

This week, I travelled to my favorite country abroad  - Japan, to compete in the DHC International Bowling Championships at Inazawa Grand Bowl, just outside of Nagoya, Japan. Inazawa Grand Bowl is the largest bowling center in the world, spanning 116 lanes straight across.

Inazawa Grand Bowl

The trip was very eventful right from the start. My travel day to Nagoya was very long, stressful and scary at times. I was traveling with my best friend Scott Norton and we thought that we were booked on all of the same flights through to Narita airport in Tokyo. However, upon a late arrival into San Francisco and a brisk walk to our connecting flight to Tokyo, we realized that we were not on the same flight.

So splitting paths, I quickly boarded my plane for my nice 10 ½hr flight to Tokyo (minus a personal TV in the headrest in front of me…NOT happy!) To make matters worse, the flight was then extended another hour due to horrific turbulence upon arrival into Tokyo.

We circled the airport and attempted to land two different times before successfully landing on the 3^rd attempt. Side not…I’m not a nervous flier and I was pretty scared and started saying some prayers... Then we finally landed to find that Narita airport was covered in a winter wonderland with blizzard-like conditions. Another 45 minutes crawling to our gate and then we finally were able to get off of the plane.

The airport was a zoo with flights delayed, immigration lines incredibly long and everyone trying to get somewhere in a hurry, with little success. I couldn’t get ahold of Scott, whom I hoped had also landed safely in the mess outside. Finally after getting through immigration, getting my bags, going through customs, getting lost in finding the rebooking area (since my flight to Nagoya had been cancelled), I finally rebooked my ticket and was only told “hurry” to get to my next flight.

Running through another airport, getting through security and finding the bus to my gate and plane, I finally arrived as one of the last people to board the last flight of the night to Nagoya. Thank goodness as soon as I got on that flight, I saw Scott.

That was just the first of many crazy events on this trip to Japan.

Scott didn’t receive any of his bags and the airline had no idea where they were (which is always a good thing.) So long story short, that next day, the only way for Scott to get his bowling balls and lugagge in time to actually compete in the tournament was for him to take a bullet train back and forth from Nagoya to Narita airport in Tokyo (which is 265 miles away.) Taking the Shinkansen or bullet train is NOT cheap in Japan, so I was not able to go with Scott to help him out. Luckily our very amazing and helpful friend Mr. Noda met Scott in Narita and helped him sort everything out. He arrived back at the hotel with all of his bowling balls and luggage around 11pm that night.

The next day, Day 3 of our trip, I watched Scott bowl the qualifiers. I had been invited to the tournament and was therefore seeded into the main event. Scott successfully qualified on his first attempt but bowled another squad for practice, while I practiced for about 2 ½hrs trying to work out some kinks.

The next day, we had the official practice session followed by the opening ceremonies and then started our first block of qualifying. Qualifying consisted of 9 games, in sets of 3-game blocks. Then the field was cut to the top 24 players and then another 6 games were bowled to determine the top 5 stepladder finalists for the TV show.

I had a VERY rough start to say the least. I played the lanes incorrectly, missed some easy spares, left a couple pocket 7-10s and just simply didn’t throw the ball well. Meanwhile, the rest of the field was shooting 300 like it was nothing and the scoring pace was extremely high. I dug a HUGE hole for myself, shooting -67 with the cut being around +70. So needless to say, not a good start. The only good thing about the day was that afterwards, Mr. Noda graciously took Scott and I out for some yummy Shabu Shabu, which is raw meat cooked in boiling water with vegetables - my favorite!

Mr. Noda preparing our shabu shabu

After talking with others that scored well, thinking about things I didn’t try and just re-evaluating everything, I made some major adjustments for the next day. Needing two big sets, I started out with a 233, followed by a clean 192 (never missing the pocket) and then shot 239 to be -3 overall. They didn’t re-oil for the next set and I needed a big set to make the cut.

Changing hand positions and opening up the lanes, I shot 244 and 247, putting me at +88 going into the last game. I needed one more big game to make the cut, and then I hit a bad pair. Starting out with a double and then leaving a pocket 7-10, it was all downhill from there and I missed the cut to the top 24, which ended up taking +135.

I will say that I was especially impressed with 14-year-old Japanese youngster, Shion Izumune who nearly made the championship TV show. She did, however, qualify for the trios event representing Japan. 

Shion Izumune and I 

Immediately after getting done with my final game, I was heading over to see how Scott was bowling (the guys took a lot longer to bowl each block and were therefore still bowling), when Kelly Kulick ran up to me and said “Missy, Scott is looking for you, he wants to go to the hospital.” Being completely stunned and in shock, I quickly ran over to his pair to find out what was going on. He looked like a ghost and was still attempting to bowl his 2nd game of the block.

He quit after that game and I with the help of our friends and the staff of the tournament, rushed him to the nearest hospital. Thankfully we were seen fairly quickly and he was super dehydrated and needed an IV for an hour and received some medicine. He got his color back and slept for the next 13hrs once we got back to the hotel.

Thankfully that was the end of the craziness. The next day, Scott was much better and we went to watch the TV show and attended the farewell party.

Big congratulations to Shayna Ng from Singapore and Tommy Jones who won the tournament.

Tommy Jones during the title match

Although this was a very short, yet eventful trip and definitely the worst I’ve ever bowled in Japan (prior worst finish being 6^th), I still enjoyed seeing all of my friends and eating yummy Japanese food. I just hope that it’s not too long before I venture back to my favorite country abroad!

Missy Makes Team USA 2013

Missy Parkin was selected through Team USA Trials to represent the United States as part of Team USA 2013. This marks Missy's fourth year as a member of Team USA.

Missy joins Diandra Asbaty, Josie Earnest, Brittni Hamilton, Liz Johnson, Kelly Kulick, Danielle McEwan, Stefanie Nation, Shannon O'Keefe and Shannon Pluhowsky. The men's team is comprised of: Chris Barnes, Mike Fagan, John Janawicz, Tommy Jones, Marshall Kent, Kyle King, Bill O'Neill, John Szczerbinski, Steve Smith and Eddie VanDaniker.

Missy first made Team USA as a senior in high school, being the youngest to qualify for the adult team in 2000. She was also a member of Team USA in 2001 and 2008. Missy also became the first ever Junior Gold National Champion, winning the inaugural event in 1998 and making Junior Team USA in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Team USA 2008

Missy first represented Team USA in 1998, at age 16 in the FIQ American Zone Junior championships (now PABCON Youth American Zone) in Guatemala City, Guatemala where she won a gold medal in Team event and a bronze medal in doubles.

She later went on to represent the United States on the adult team in the FIQ American Zone championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2001. She earned a gold medal in team event, where she anchored the team, striking out in the 10th frame of the final game to secure the team gold medal. She also earned a gold medal in the trios event.

Team USA trials were conducted at Sunset Station in Henderson, NV. The tournament was comprised of five 6-game blocks, each block bowled on a different oil pattern. After five days of bowling, the top three men and women based on ranking points automatically made Team USA. Then two other bowlers were selected from Team USA Trials and an additional five bowlers were selected based on resumes.

Each day, bowlers received ranking points based on their finish in that day's competition. High qualifier for the day received one point, second for the day, two points etc. The object being to accumulate the least amount of points as possible.

Missy earned 16 points, 2 points and 2 points for the first three days of competition putting her in 2nd position overall. However, in day four, Missy struggled coming in 61st for the day and dropped significantly in the standings. Missy came back strong on day five, the final day of competition, for a 10th place finish and overall was ranked 11th in the standings in ranking points and 4th overall in total pinfall.

Missy is extremely excited to be a part of the prestigious Team USA program again and looks forward to Team USA training camp as well as the possibility of representing Team USA in international competitions this year!

For more information, visit www.bowl.com