WATERLOO, Iowa – Colombia’s Maria Jose Rodriguez knows what it takes to be successful at the PWBA Tour Championship.
After all, the 34-year-old right-hander won the event in 2018 to collect her second career PWBA Tour title and major – Rodriguez’s first title came at the 2014 United States Bowling Congress Queens – and she finished third at last year’s tournament at USA Bowl in Dallas.
As such, it should come as no surprise to learn that Rodriguez bested the 24-player field and worked her way to the top of the standings to earn the No. 1 seed for the stepladder finals at the 2023 Tour Championship at Cadillac Xtreme Bowling Center.
What may turn heads, however, is just how she did it.
Rodriguez went 4-4 and sat 12th after Sunday night’s opening eight-game block of round-robin matches, but she flipped the script in a big way on Monday, going an incredible 14-2 to vault to the top of the leaderboard with a 24-game total of 6,055, which included 30 bonus for each match victory.
The victories came early and often on Monday, which was bound to happen given the fact that Rodriguez averaged 236.25 for her 16 games on the day. She broke 240 six times (254, 256, 244, 279, 247 and 245) and had a low game of 200.
She will be joined in the stepladder by Dasha Kovalova of Muskegon, Michigan (6,011); Jordan Richard of Tipton, Michigan (5,959); Erin McCarthy of Elkhorn, Nebraska (5,758); and England’s Verity Crawley (5,717).
All qualifiers for the Tour Championship bowled three eight-game rounds of match play Sunday and Monday at Cadillac Xtreme Bowling Center. Total pinfall for 24 games, including bonus pins for each victory in match play, determined the five finalists.
The stepladder finals will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern and broadcast live on CBS Sports Network. The winner will take home the $50,000 top prize and third major of the 2023 season.
For as a dominant as Rodriguez’s 14-2 match-play mark was on Monday, she had her sights set even higher.
“I wanted to win 16,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not like I really had that in mind, but you always want to win matches. It’s hard because things are different pair to pair, and it’s a matter of whether you catch the other person when they’re bowling well or not. Still, I always want to win.”
And she did plenty of that on Monday, going 7-1 during each of the eight-game blocks and collecting 420 out of a possible 480 bonus pins available on the day.
Rodriguez was understandably pleased with Monday’s performance as it demonstrated what can happen when a good game plan and terrific execution come together.
“You come with a mission, and you always want to lead the tournament,” Rodriguez said. “You plan for your ball selection to work, and it’s pretty cool when it does. The hardest part is over, and I’m happy so far; however, it’s not over yet.”
That’s what the other four stepladder finalists will be telling themselves as well, and what a talented group of four it is that will try to unseat Rodriguez.
Kovalova led after two rounds of Tour Championship match play and is looking for her sixth title overall and second major; her first came back in 2019 when she defeated Malaysia’s Li Jane Sin, 226-216, to win the USBC Queens.
Richard’s stepladder finals appearance at the Tour Championship will be her sixth of the season, which is tops on the 2023 PWBA Tour. She’s already won three times this year to run her career title count to five; however, she’s yet to win a major, which is precisely what she’ll be looking to change on Tuesday night.
McCarthy, on the other hand, has won a major as she was the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open champion. She hasn’t reached the winner’s circle yet this season, but she’s been close, finishing second to Richard at the 2023 PWBA GoBowling! Spokane Open on May 13.
Crawley has had an up-and-down season, missing the cut at four tour stops but balancing it out by winning the PWBA Grand Rapids Classic – her second career PWBA Tour title – and making three additional stepladder finals appearances, including the Tour Championship.
Hope Gramly of Aubrey, Texas, failed to make it to the Tour Championship stepladder finals, finishing 21st, but just by earning her way into the tournament, she locked up 2023 PWBA Rookie of the Year honors.
Richard took home Player of the Year after leading the 2023 PWBA Tour in wins (3), championship-round appearances (6) and PWBA Tour points. This marks Richard’s first time earning the award; however, she was the 2018 PWBA Rookie of the Year.
The Tour Championship was the third event of PWBA Championship Week - Waterloo. Latvia’s Diana Zavjalova won the PWBA Waterloo Open on Thursday for her fifth PWBA Tour title, and Caitlyn Johnson of Beaumont, Texas, won the Pepsi Open on Saturday night to capture her first PWBA Tour tournament victory.
In order to qualify for the Tour Championship, a player must have been a current PWBA member in good standing and have won a National Tour title during the 2023 season. The remainder of the field was filled from the PWBA season points list through the most recent tournament preceding the Tour Championship, which was the Pepsi Open.
All Tour Championship competitors were seeded into the round-robin match play schedule according to their position on the season points list after the Pepsi Open.
Those 24 players bowled three eight-game rounds of round-robin matches on Sunday and Monday to determine the top five for the stepladder finals.
All rounds leading up to the CBS Sports Network broadcast were livestreamed at BowlTV.com.
