WATERLOO, Iowa – Jordan Richard of Tipton, Michigan, averaged 237.75 and posted a 6-2 match-play record to lead the field Sunday night at the 2023 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour Championship.
Richard, who is the tournament’s top seed largely due to the fact that she’s the only bowler to have won three times on the PWBA Tour this season, finished her day at Cadillac Xtreme Bowling Center with a 2,082 total, which included 30 bonus pins for each victory in the round-robin format for the third and final major of the 2023 season.
Liz Kuhlkin of Schenectady, New York, who earned the 24th and final berth into the Tour Championship field, went 5-3 and recorded a 2,063 total to finish Round 1 in second place.
Defending champion Stephanie Zavala of Downey, California (1,981); Dasha Kovalova of Muskegon, Michigan (1,980); and Erin McCarthy of Elkhorn, Nebraska (1,968), also are in the top five after the opening round.
All competitors will return to Cadillac Xtreme Bowling Center for two more eight-game blocks of matches on Monday with rounds starting at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern.
At the conclusion of the final eight-game block, the top five bowlers, based on total pinfall and bonus pins, will advance to Tuesday’s stepladder finals and compete for the $50,000 top prize.
BowlTV.com will broadcast the final two match-play rounds, and the stepladder finals will air Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern live on CBS Sports Network.
Richard was happy with her opening-round performance, especially since it didn’t get off to the smoothest of starts.
“I struggled early on during the first game because I wasn’t seeing the picture clearly, but once I saw it, I dialed in and got to stay where I was comfortable,” Richard said. “From that point forward, even when I changed pairs, I got to stay in the same part of the lane and didn’t have to move very much.”
That level of comfort allowed Richard to win her first four matches of the night with the streak only coming to an end when Ashly Galante of Palm Harbor, Florida, defeated Richard 300-222 in Game 5.
Richard rebounded quickly, however, picking up wins during each of the next two games before falling to Colombia’s Maria Jose Rodriguez, 231-209, to end the night.
The loss in Game 8 didn’t dampen Richard’s spirits, however, as she knows that a 6-2 match-play record is more than respectable and that the 180 bonus pins she earned while authoring it are sure to come in handy as the race for the top five heats up on Monday.
“Winning matches is usually what ends up making the difference as the tournament goes on,” Richard said. “When this many bonus pins are available, one extra win here or there can be huge, so I just want to keep trying win as many matches as I can to try to stay on top.”
The Tour Championship is the final event of PWBA Championship Week – Waterloo, which included three events, the PWBA Waterloo Open, PWBA Pepsi Open and Tour Championship.
Latvia’s Diana Zavjalova won the Waterloo Open on Thursday for her fifth PWBA Tour title, and Caitlyn Johnson of Beaumont, Texas, reached the winner’s circle two days later, topping Zavjalova by a score of 197-181 on Saturday night to win the Pepsi Open.
