Final stop of 2025 PWBA Tour season in New York promises excitement and intrigue
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The 10th season since the relaunch of the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour will draw to a close early next week, but not before ABC Gates Bowl in Rochester, New York, awards three more titles, including the season’s final major, the 2025 PWBA Tour Championship.
It's not just titles on the line in New York though, as PWBA Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors will be determined during the week as well.
The Rookie of the Year race is straightforward in that Malaysia’s Gillian Lim has all but locked up the award before she competes this week, barring a huge effort from those behind her like Kirsten Moore of Tallmadge, Ohio, or Brystal Beyer out of Ogdensburg, Wisconsin. A Lim Rookie of the Year win would make her the first Malaysian to win the award and first international player to win since Canada’s Valerie Bercier in 2019.
Over in the Player of the Year race, Singapore’s New Hui Fen and Jordan Snodgrass of Adrian, Michigan, have separated themselves over the course of the season as the ones to beat and are less than 1,500 points apart in first and second. New has three wins compared to Snodgrass’ one, but Snodgrass has had better consistency with five top-12 finishes and cashes in all eight eligible events.
That’s not to say others don’t have an outside shot, but those will require their own Herculean feats to jump New and Snodgrass as third-place Stephanie Zavala of Long Beach, California, is over 23,000 points behind Snodgrass. New is looking for her first Player of the Year award while Snodgrass seeks her second (2023). A New victory would mark the second straight year an international player has won the award and third international player overall after Malaysia’s Sin Li Jane in 2024 and Australia’s Carol Gianotti in 1998.
The final week of the 2025 PWBA Tour season begins with the official practice session for the first two standard events (PWBA Rochester Open and PWBA Pepsi Open) on Tuesday at noon Eastern before the Bowl with the Pros event at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Competitors will begin the PWBA Rochester Open with two six-game qualifying blocks on Wednesday at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern, where the top 12 players move on to round-robin match play on Thursday. Match-play rounds will start at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern, and the top five after match play will head to the stepladder finals that evening at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
The PWBA Pepsi Open will start Friday. Similar to the Rochester Open, competition will begin with two six-game qualifying blocks, the first at 10 a.m. Eastern and the second at 5 p.m. Eastern. The format will change from there, however, as the top 16 bowlers will advance to a match-play bracket on Saturday, where matches in the first two rounds will be best of five. The Round of 16 and Round of 8 start at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern, respectively, before the Championship Round at 6:30 p.m. Eastern where one-game matches will be contested for the semifinal and final rounds.
After the conclusion of the Rochester Open and Pepsi Open, just 24 players will remain in contention for the season’s final major title as the 2025 PWBA Tour Championship field will be made up of winners from this season and those with the highest season point totals after the PWBA Pepsi Open.
Those 24 competitors will head to the practice session on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern before their first of three match-play rounds at 5 p.m. Eastern. All 24 athletes will then come back Monday at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern to finish match play. The top five after match play will head to the stepladder finals, which will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern.
The pieces are in place for an exciting end to the 2025 PWBA Tour season, where all three events will livestream qualifying and match play on BowlTV, as well as the stepladder finals for the Rochester Open and Pepsi Open.
