ROCKFORD, Ill. – With the completion of the first 2024 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour stop in Eagan, Minnesota, attention now turns to a storied location in the history of the tour: The Cherry Bowl in Rockford, Illinois.
The former headquarters of the PWBA, the Cherry Bowl plays host to the second stop of the 2024 season, the PWBA Bowlers Journal Rockford Open, where an action-packed week begins on Wednesday with a pre-tournament qualifier.
The PTQ is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Eastern with a field of 53 competitors bowling six games in the hopes of securing one of at least 10 advancing spots into the tournament proper.
Thursday will see the tournament’s official practice session conducted at 1 p.m. Eastern before two sessions of Bowl with the Pros events take place at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Bowl with the Pros events give local bowlers the opportunity to bowl alongside their favorite PWBA players in a fun and exciting environment.
Tournament competition starts Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern with the first of two six-game qualifying blocks. At the end of Friday’s 12 games of competition, a cut will be made to the top third of the field.
Bowlers who make the first cut will return to The Cherry Bowl on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern for a third six-game block. Cuts will be made after that round as well, this time to the top 12.
Those 12 players will compete in the fourth and final qualifying block, which will take place Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern. At the end of that round, the top five bowlers will advance to the stepladder finals, which are scheduled to begin Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
The Cherry Bowl last hosted PWBA action in 2023 with the PWBA Rockford Regional in August of that year. That event was won by Amber MacLeod of Conway, South Carolina. MacLeod will bowl the PTQ this week, seeking her second PWBA win in the building.
For the last PWBA National Tour stop conducted at The Cherry Bowl, you would have to go back to the opening event of the 2022 season, the PWBA Rockford Open, where Stefanie Johnson of McKinney, Texas, qualified as the No. 5 seed for the stepladder finals and climbed up to the championship match, eventually triumphing over Liz Kuhlkin of Schenectady, New York, by a final score of 228-203.
PWBA GoBowling! Twin Cities Open champion Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio, is the early frontrunner for Player of the Year, but with 12 more events still to come, including all three major championships, it’s anyone guess as to who will rise to the top by the end of the season.
Reigning Player of the Year Jordan Richard of Tipton, Michigan, placed third in Eagan, and England’s Verity Crawley climbed all the way to the stepladder finals before falling to Pluhowsky, 235-203. All three talented bowlers will be competing in Rockford this week.
On the rookie side of things, Crystal Elliott of Palm Bay, Florida, showed that the spotlight isn’t too bright for her as she placed fifth in Eagan during her first event as a PWBA member. She will look to improve her odds for Rookie of the Year in Rockford, hoping to add to her U.S Amateur and NCAA Team Championship titles that she has already captured in 2024.
All rounds of qualifying and the stepladder finals at the PWBA Bowlers Journal Rockford Open will be livestreamed on BowlTV.
