The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women
ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling.
The PWBA was formed in 1960 but ceased operations in 2003. The PWBA Tour was re-launched in
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
by the
United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and
Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA) with a three-year funding commitment. In addition, through a new partnership with the
Professional Bowlers Association
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and currently owned by the Lucky Strike Entertainment Corpor ...
(PBA), the PBA began conducting PWBA Regional (women-only) events and PWBA members are now allowed to bowl all PBA events.
History

The PWBA was formed in 1960 by a group of professional women bowlers. After the organization struggled, some of the players left the PWBA in 1974 to form the
Ladies' Professional Bowlers Association (LPBA). The two merged again in 1978, forming the
Women's Professional Bowlers Association (WPBA). When the WPBA dissolved in 1981, bowling center proprietor
John Sommer of Rockford, Illinois, started the
Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour (LPBT), a private company, to continue the women's tour. The LPBT adopted the PWBA name and a new logo in 1998. In the fall of 2003, the PWBA Tour ceased operations before the completion of its 2003 season, primarily due to dwindling interest in sponsoring women's bowling.
The
Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) then acquired the rights and assets of the PWBA. This gave the WIBC control of the PWBA name, trademark, logo, website domain (pwba.com), as well as the PWBA's historical records. The
United States Bowling Congress (USBC) acquired the PWBA when the WIBC merged with the
American Bowling Congress
The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States of America, United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress—the original codifier ...
(ABC),
Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) and
USA Bowling in 2005.
Without a PWBA Tour, women either retired from professional bowling, competed in the remaining women-only tournaments in the United States, or moved on to other bowling tournaments outside of the United States.
Wendy Macpherson started competing in the
Japan Professional Bowling Association (JPBA) in 2004, going on to earn ten JPBA titles. In 2007, the
Japan Bowling Congress (JBC) started the
DHC Cup Girls Bowling International - at the time the third largest women's tournament in the world in prize money, just behind the
U.S. Women's Open (bowling) and the
USBC Queens.
Some women chose to bowl in professional men's tournaments. The
Professional Bowlers Association
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and currently owned by the Lucky Strike Entertainment Corpor ...
(PBA) opened its membership to women in April 2004. PWBA members such as
Kim Adler,
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard,
Liz Johnson, and
Kelly Kulick
Kelly Kulick (born March 16, 1977) is an American professional bowler, bowling coach and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors), one PBA Tour title (a major) and a professional mixed doubles tit ...
became members of the PBA, with Kulick becoming the first female to earn an exemption on the PBA Tour (
2005–06 season).
Women have had limited success in PBA events.
Missy Parkin was the first female PBA member and now holds three PBA Regional Titles. Johnson was the first woman to make a televised appearance on the PBA Tour, at the
2005 PBA Banquet Open, and the first to defeat a male bowler in a PBA Tour event when she beat
Wes Malott in the semifinal match. She would lose to
Tommy Jones in the championship final to finish runner-up. Kulick became the first woman to win a national PBA tournament major with her defeat of
Chris Barnes in the
2010 Tournament of Champions. Johnson became the second woman to win a national PBA tournament with her defeat of
Anthony Pepe in the
PBA Chameleon Championship at the 2017 World Series of Bowling.
The USBC sponsored the
PBA Women's Series starting with the 2007–08 season, allowing women PBA members to compete in a small number of events without their male counterparts. The final head-to-head match for that week's women's tournament would air in the same telecast as the PBA men's final round. The PBA Women's Series was discontinued after the 2009–10 season.
The PBA created the PBA Women's Regional Tour program in 2014, in which women bowl with and against their male counterparts, but there are specific prizes and benefits for women only.
In the media before 2015
Many PWBA events were nationally televised on the TVS Television Network (as the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour) under a five-year contract in the 1980s. When TVS could not maintain payments, it worked with Tom Ficara of the Cable Sports Network to continue coverage. After that agreement expired, Ficara acquired the TVS Network but did not renew the LPBT deal. LPBT final rounds were then televised on
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
and
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially ...
from the late 1980s up until 2003, when the association folded. From 2004-2006, the WIBC Queens event (renamed
USBC Queens in 2005) was the only scheduled event for female bowlers that received TV coverage.
For the autumn of 2007, the
USBC acquired rights to the
U.S. Women's Open. The event was televised for five Sundays on ESPN, with the action being called by PBA legends
Nelson Burton Jr. and
Marshall Holman. This event also served as the qualifier for the
PBA Women's Series, a special four-stop mini-tour for the top 16 females. The finals for the mini-tour events were televised along with the regular PBA broadcasts for four Sundays on ESPN in November–December, 2007.
The U.S. Women's Open returned for five weeks in September–October, 2008. The PBA Women's Series was expanded to eight events in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons but was then discontinued.
Season-by-season breakdown
2015 PWBA rebirth
The PWBA Tour returned from a 12-year hiatus in 2015, thanks to a three-year funding commitment from the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA). The 2015 tour had ten stops (seven standard tournaments and three majors), running from May 13 to September 13.
2016 season
The PWBA Tour expanded to 13 events in 2016, with one additional major (GoBowling.com PWBA Players Championship).
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
aired the final round of all PWBA Tour events this season on a tape-delay basis, except for majors which aired the final round live.
2017 season
The 2017 PWBA Tour retains the format of 2016, with nine standard tournaments and four majors.
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
aired the final round of all PWBA Tour events this season on a tape-delay basis, except for majors which aired the final round live or same-day delay.
2018 season
Although the three-year funding commitment from the USBC and BPAA ended with the 2017 season, the PWBA announced in 2017 a 2018 season with two enhancements. The final three standard events are replaced with "elite format" events in which the top 24 players on the 2018 PWBA points list after eight events will earn automatic spots, and the remaining eight spots will be filled through an on-site eight-game qualifier each week, for a total field of 32 players. More significantly, the finals of each of the 13 events will take place in the same center where the event's other play took place, with the finals of the standard format events
live-streamed
Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...
, and the finals of the elite format events and majors televised live on
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
.
2019 season
The
2019 season continued the enhancements started in 2018 and added one event, for a total of 14 events.
2021 season
The 2020 PWBA Tour season was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
The
2021 PWBA Tour season features 20 title events (the most since 2001), plus a non-title made-for-TV event hosted by the
PBA Tour
The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for tenpin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Reg ...
called King of the Lanes: Empress Edition.
2022 season
The 2022 PWBA Tour season had a total of 12 title events scheduled in eight locations. These included 8 standard singles title events, three major title events, and one mixed doubles event. While the 2022 schedule had a reduced number of tournaments from 2021, there were more events televised and prize funds increased over previous seasons.
2023 season
The 2023 PWBA Tour season was similar to 2022, with a total of 12 title events in eight cities. However, only the three major events were televised.
Top 20 in professional titles
List includes singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles earned on the PWBA, WPBA, LPBA and LPBT tours. Includes major titles earned during the PWBA Tour hiatus (2004 through 2014), which were retroactively credited as PWBA titles. Excludes PBA Women's Series titles.
* *Most all-time titles in events officially recognized by the PWBA.
Televised perfect games
There have been five televised
300 games in title events over the history of the PWBA. Liz Johnson is the only player with multiple televised 300 games, accomplishing the feat in 2001 and 2021.
Notable members of the PWBA Tour
*
Donna Adamek
*
Kim Adler
*
Josie Barnes (Ernest)
*
Lynda Barnes (Norry)
*
Leanne Barrette
Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg (born August 18, 1967), from Roseville, California and currently of North Ogden, Utah, was one of the top female professional bowlers on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour. In a career that spanne ...
*
Patty Costello
*
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard
*
Michelle Feldman
*
Dotty Fothergill
*
Louise Fulton
*
Carol Gianotti
*
Clara Guerrero
*
Liz Johnson
*
Dasha Kovalova
*
Kelly Kulick
Kelly Kulick (born March 16, 1977) is an American professional bowler, bowling coach and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors), one PBA Tour title (a major) and a professional mixed doubles tit ...
*
Wendy Macpherson
*
Danielle McEwan
*
Shannon O'Keefe
*
Daria Pająk
*
Shannon Pluhowsky
*
Jordan Richard
*
Aleta Sill
*
Linda Kelly
*
Lisa Wagner
Lisa Wagner (born May 19, 1961) is a retired professional ten-pin bowler who competed on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour from 1980 through 2001. She is the all-time leader in officially recognized PWBA titles with 32. Amo ...
*
Stephanie Zavala
*
Diandra Asbaty
Hall of Fame
The PWBA hall of fame was founded in 1995 to recognize outstanding competitors on the professional women’s bowling tours and those who provided "outstanding support of professional women’s bowling off the lanes." , the hall of fame has a total of 49 members.
There are four categories of inductees, one of which has closed:
* Performance – Started in 1995, inductees of this category have attained a minimum of 10 qualifying PWBA tour titles, or a minimum of five with two titles being major. , this category has 29 members.
* Pioneer – Started in 1995, and ending in 1998, inductees of this category have played a pivotal role in the establishment of the PWBA tour. , this category has 10 members.
* Meritorious Service – Started in 1995, inductees of this category of this category advanced the PWBA organization in a substantial way. , this category has 9 members.
* Ambassador – Started in 2019, and only consisting of one member (Paula Carter
), inductees of this category recognize former PWBA members who had a major impact of the growth of the tour.
References
External links
Official website of the Professional Women's Bowling AssociationOfficial website of the Professional Bowlers AssociationWomen's professional bowling champions and awards 1949-present
{{Professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
Bowling organizations