Titles and more on the line in Detroit for PWBA Tour Championship Week
ARLINGTON, Texas- The 2024 Professional Women’s Bowling Association National Tour season is coming to a close, and there’s nowhere better for the season to end than at historic Thunderbowl Lanes in suburban Detroit.
Three titles are up for grabs this week: the PWBA Greater Detroit Open and PWBA Pepsi Open are the final two standard events before the season-ending PWBA Tour Championship, which is the final major on the 2024 PWBA Tour schedule.
This will be the first time since 2017 that the PWBA Tour will be in the Detroit area and first time since the 1977 AMF Grand Prix that Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Michigan, has hosted a PWBA event.
The week in Detroit kicks off Tuesday when 80 competitors will bowl the official practice session from 2-4 p.m. Eastern. The always-popular “Bowl with the Pros” session takes place at 6 p.m. Eastern, giving local bowlers the opportunity to bowl alongside their favorite PWBA players in a relaxed and fun environment.
Competition begins Wednesday with the first of two rounds of qualifying for the PWBA Greater Detroit Open. Competitors will bowl two six-game blocks starting at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern, with the top 12 making the cut to match play.
The top 12 will return on Thursday and bowl two six-game rounds of round-robin match play starting at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern. After the second round of match play is completed, the top five players will advance to the stepladder finals.
The stepladder finals will start at 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and determine which player wins the 2024 PWBA Greater Detroit Open. The finals will be broadcast live on BowlTV.com.
The same format will be followed for the PWBA Pepsi Open, which begins with qualifying on Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern and concludes with the stepladder finals on BowlTV Sunday starting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
Winners from this season have automatic spots in the PWBA Tour Championship, with the remainder of the field being filled out based on points after the PWBA Pepsi Open. The format for the major will be three rounds of eight-game round-robin match play, which begins Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. Eastern. Additional eight-game blocks of matches will be contested on Monday, Aug. 12, at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern to determine the top five for the live stepladder finals on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
Not only will champions be crowned this week, but PWBA Player-of-the-Year and Rookie-of-the-Year honors will also be determined during the week. Malaysia’s Sin Li Jane currently holds the POY lead while Crystal Elliott of Palm Bay, Florida, holds the ROY lead. Sin’s lead is slim with multiple players not far behind her in points. She’ll need to continue her torrid pace to become the first international player to win POY.
Elliott has a comfortable lead for ROY but won’t be resting on her laurels as she looks to add another accomplishment to her impressive 2024 resume. She won the United States National Amateur Bowling Championships in January to earn a spot on Team USA and was part of Jacksonville State’s NCAA National Championship team in April.
BowlTV will live stream qualifying and match play for all three events as well as the stepladder finals for the Greater Detroit and Pepsi Opens.
