GREEN BAY, Wis. – What started with 186 bowlers at the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Queens has been dwindled down to only five after Monday’s final rounds of match play at the Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay, Wisconsin,
2023 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour Rookie of the Year Hope Gramly out of Aubrey, Texas, defeated USBC Hall of Famer Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey, to claim the No. 1 seed on the TV show and only needs one win to take home her first PWBA Tour title. Kulick will be the No. 2 seed and await her opponent.
This will be Gramly’s second Queens telecast in three years, as she was a part of the 2022 event as an amateur, placing fifth.
Gramly had a slow start to the 2024 tournament and was out of the cut heading into Round 3 of qualifying. A change to a short pin ball for the round propelled her up the standings and she entered match play as the No. 25 seed, with another change in mind.
“Not the start I wanted for the event, and I switched to urethane for match play for a better look,” said Gramly. “We put a lot of surface on it, got it super chalky, and I’m thankful for my team to help me with that because I had never thrown urethane in competition other than once for four frames in college.”
She quickly proved to be the one to watch out for, shooting series’ of 628, 701, 717, 740, 731 and 699 for an average of 234.22 for 18 games, a top 10 tournament record for match play, to grab the top seed.
The previous experience on a major show two years ago is boosting the confidence heading into Tuesday’s TV show.
“I’m feeling a lot more confident that I thought I would be and I think that has a lot to do with making the show two years ago, going from the inexperience of the professional tour and being kind of a Cinderella story, to now being here knowing I worked hard and executed hard to be in this position.”
Kulick will have to bowl an extra game to bowl for her third Queens title, which would tie her with Millie Ignizio and Wendy Macpherson for most all-time, and sixth overall major.
Joining Gramly and Kulick in the stepladder will be defending champion Lindsay Boomershine of Brigham City, Utah; Canada’s Felicia Wong and Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio, after they made it through the Elimination Bracket and were the final three standing in the final round of the bracket. Sin Li Jane, looking for her second straight PWBA title after winning the PWBA Bowlers Journal Rockford Open on May 11, was the final one to bow out after all was said and done.
Martin will be the No. 3 seed, while Wong and Boomershine are No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, and will kick off the stepladder. Boomershine looks to be the first repeat champion since Japan’s Katsuko Sugimoto accomplished the feat in 1981 and 1982.
Martin will be trying for her second PWBA win as an amateur, she won the 2021 PWBA BowlTV Classic, while Wong will go for her first title along with Gramly.
The stepladder finals will be contested on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network, with the champion taking home a spot in the tournament’s storied history, a major title on the PWBA Tour and the tiara to go along with the $60,000 top prize. All competition leading up to the televised finals was streamed live only on BowlTV.
