ARLINGTON, Texas – World-class athletes deserve world-class venues to compete in, and that is precisely what the competitors on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour will get once again next season.
The 2024 PWBA Tour season will run from May to August and feature 12 tournaments hosted by several bowling centers that have proven track records of conducting successful events at the sport’s highest level.
United States Bowling Congress President Melissa McDaniel is pleased by the schedule as she recognizes the important role the PWBA Tour’s visibility has in ensuring bowling’s future.
“The PWBA Tour spotlights the best female athletes in the world. The importance of being able to watch those athletes compete week in and week out across the country cannot be understated because by watching those bowlers perform, the next generation of young women have something to aspire to,” McDaniel said. “We’re very pleased that the 2024 PWBA Tour schedule will give young women across the country so many opportunities to watch their idols compete.”
Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America President Kevin Krauss agrees, and he’s also encouraged by the continuation of these relationships as he knows that they benefit the PWBA Tour, the proprietors and the sport of bowling as a whole.
“PWBA bowling continues to thrill fans all over the world, so we’re happy to be able to bring that exciting action to so many great cities and bowling centers again during the 2024 season,” Krauss said. “The PWBA is good for bowling and its proprietors, and the support shown by those proprietors is good for bowling fans, the tour and its players; it’s truly a situation where everybody wins.”
The season will get underway May 2-5 with the PWBA Twin Cities Open at Cedarvale Lanes in Eagan, Minnesota. One week later, from May 9-12, The Cherry Bowl in Rockford, Illinois, will host the PWBA Rockford Open.
Both centers have been very welcoming to PWBA bowlers over the years with Cedarvale Lanes having hosted four national tour stops and The Cherry Bowl, the former headquarters of the PWBA Tour, conducting more than 30.
The national tour last visited each center in 2022, but both will host PWBA Regional events later this season, The Cherry Bowl on Aug. 27, and Cedarvale Lanes on Sept. 24.
The first major of the 2024 PWBA Tour season will come along in Week 3 when bowlers travel to The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to battle for the coveted tiara at the 2024 USBC Queens, which will take place May 15-21.
Ashwaubenon is no stranger to conducting major championships as it played host to the 2016 and 2017 PWBA Players Championship as well as the 2015 Queens.
After leaving Green Bay, the tour will head to Smyrna, Tennessee, where Smyrna Bowl will be the site of the first Classic Series event of the 2024 season, the PWBA Classic Series - Nashville.
Smyrna Bowl last hosted PWBA Tour action in 2021 when England’s Verity Crawley topped Poland’s Daria Pajak to win the PWBA Greater Nashville Open for her first career title.
As exciting as that tournament was, fans in Smyrna are in for an even bigger treat in 2024 as by attending the PWBA Classic Series – Nashville, they will have the opportunity to see the best women’s bowlers in the world compete for three separate tournament titles between May 28 – June 3.
The first two events will be stand-alone tournaments while the third will welcome the top 24 competitors based on the combined qualifying totals (24 games) from the first two events. The 24 advancers will bowl three eight-game rounds of round-robin match play to determine the top five for the stepladder finals.
Once all three titles have been handed out in Smyrna, the tour will head to Clarksville, Indiana, where Blackston Bowl will have the opportunity to begin writing its own legacy as a PWBA Tour host center by conducting its very first national tour event, the PWBA Southern Indiana Open, which will take place June 6-9.
When it comes to legacy, few centers can compete with Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis and Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Michigan, so it’s fitting that those venues will host four of the last five events on the 2024 PWBA Tour schedule, including the season’s final two majors.
The U.S. Women’s Open will take place at Royal Pin Woodland from June 11-18, marking the first time the venue has hosted the prestigious event since 1996.
Nevertheless, Woodland has always been a featured center for bowling’s major competitions, having hosted countless Professional Bowlers Association Tour stops and previous editions of the USBC Masters and Junior Gold Championships.
The same can be said for Thunderbowl Lanes, which will host PWBA Tour Championship Week from Aug. 6-13 to close out the 2024 PWBA Tour season.
Just like the PWBA Classic Series – Nashville, PWBA Tour Championship Week will feature three tournaments in a seven-day span.
The first two will be stand-alone events, and the third will be the PWBA Tour Championship, the final major of the 2024 season.
The PWBA Tour Championship will feature a 24-player field. In order to qualify for the Tour Championship, a player must be a PWBA member in good standing and have won a National Tour title during the 2024 season.
The remainder of the field will be filled from the 2024 PWBA season points list through the most recent tournament preceding the Tour Championship.
In addition to the events noted above, players from the PWBA and PBA Tours will once again combine to compete in the PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles at Copperfield Bowl in Houston. That event, which counts as a title on both tours, takes place from July 25-28 in between the U.S. Women’s Open and PWBA Tour Championship Week.
2024 PWBA TOUR SCHEDULE
With dates, event, center, location and broadcast channel (subject to change):
• May 2-5, PWBA Twin Cities Open, Cedarvale Lanes, Eagan, Minn.
• May 9-12, PWBA Rockford Open, The Cherry Bowl, Rockford, Ill.
• May 15-21, USBC Queens, The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley, Green Bay, Wis.
• May 28-June 3, PWBA Classic Series – Nashville, Smyrna Bowl, Smyrna, Tenn.
• June 6-9, PWBA Southern Indiana Open, Blackston Bowl, Clarksville, Ind.
• June 11-18, U.S. Women’s Open, Royal Pin Woodland, Indianapolis
• July 25-28, PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles, Copperfield Bowl, Houston
• Aug. 6-13, PWBA Tour Championship Week, Thunderbowl Lanes, Allen Park, Mich.
To learn more about the PWBA Tour, visit PWBA.com.
