In his eighth season on the Lumber Liquidators Professional Bowlers Association Tour, Mike Fagan of Patchogue, N.Y., finally won his first individual Tour title in the PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open Sunday at Fountain Bowl.

It will be an especially memorable win for Fagan as he defeated PBA Hall of Famer and all-time win leader Walter Ray Williams Jr. 241-213 in the championship match to earn the $25,000 first prize.

It was just a year ago that Fagan finished second in the Dick Weber Open after losing to another bowling great, Hall of Famer Norm Duke 278-168 in the championship match.

“I think I learned a lot from that experience last year,” the 29-year-old Fagan said. “The key for me was just to bowl the way I know I can and the results will take care of themselves.”

Fagan’s only other Tour title was the PBA Exempt Doubles with partner Danny Wiseman in the 2007-08 season.

“I’ve had a lot of experience bowling on TV so I knew it would be just a matter of time before I got another win,” Fagan said. “If I have a weakness bowling on TV, it’s probably selecting the right equipment, but I made the right decisions today.”

For Williams, who was trying for his 47^th title, it was a matter of pin carry. He earned $13,000 for second.

“I just didn’t have the carry and Mike did,” said the 50-year-old Williams, “but he had a better angle to the pocket and he bowled a great game—it would have been tough to beat that.”

In the semifinal match Williams defeated Hall of Famer Pete Weber 234-178 to advance to the championship match. Weber, who ranks in a tie for third in all-time Tour wins with 34, finished third for the second consecutive year in the tournament named after his legendary father.

In the second match Weber defeated fourth-place finisher Bill O’Neill of Southampton, Pa., 214-202, and in the opening match O’Neill defeated four-time Tour titlist Ryan Shafer 226-200 who finished fifth.

The Dick Weber Open featured the traditional open qualifying format used in the PBA’s early years with 15 games of qualifying determining the top 24 advancing to three eight-game blocks of round-robin match play. The top five players after match play advanced to the stepladder finals.

PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open

Fountain Bowl, Fountain Valley, Calif.

Jan. 31, 2010

Final Standings

1, Mike Fagan, Patchogue, N.Y. 241 (one game) $25,000

2, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla. 447 (two games)$13,000

3, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo. 392 (two games) $9,000

4, Bill O’Neill, Southampton, Pa. 428 (two games) $7,000

5, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y. 200 (one game) $6,000

Stepladder Results

Match One – O’Neill def. Shafer, 226-200

Match Two – Weber def. O’Neill, 214-202

Semifinal Match – Williams Jr. def. Weber, 234-178

Championship – Fagan def., Williams, 241-213

# # #

The World of Professional Bowling was forever changed on Jan. 24 in Las Vegas. IAt the Red Rock bowling center, Kelly Kulick defeated Chris Barnes 265-195 to win the PBA Tournament of Champions and become the first female champion on the PBA Tour.

A city championship title was in reach, but there was no margin for error for Joe Hoskins.

A win in the 2010 PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open this Sunday at Fountain Bowl would have special meaning for Pete Weber.

Pete, who finished third in last season’s Dick Weber Open and qualified third for Sunday’s live ESPN2 telecast at 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific), will be looking for his 35^th Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title, which would put him third alone on the all-time list. He is currently tied for third with another bowling great, Mark Roth, with 34 titles.

The Dick Weber Open is named after Pete’s legendary father who passed away in 2005. Dick is also in the PBA and United States Bowling Congress Halls of Fame, and for Pete, winning this tournament would be as significant as any major title.

“If I couldn’t win this tournament in St. Louis (the Weber’s hometown), this is where I would want to win it,” Pete said about competing in Southern California and Fountain Bowl.

Dick was ranked No. 3 on the PBA’s 50 Greatest list behind only Earl Anthony and Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Pete is ranked No. 4. Dick’s 30 PBA Tour titles ranks seventh all-time and he was the only bowler to win a PBA title in six different decades.

Pete will have his work cut out for him, however, as Sunday’s finals will include Williams, the Tour’s all-time win leader with 46 titles who qualified second. The top qualifier is Mike Fagan of Patchogue, N.Y., who is seeking his first individual Tour title.

Opening up the Sunday’s stepladder final will be No. 4 qualifier and four-time Tour titlist Ryan Shafer and No. 5 qualifier Bill O’Neill, who won his first Tour title earlier this season.

In last Sunday’s ESPN-televised finals of the PBA Tournament of Champions, Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., made sports history by becoming the first woman to win a PBA Tour event.

The Professional Bowlers Association is the home to the best bowlers in the World. Last Sunday, Kelly Kulick broke a barrier for women in professional sports by winning a PBA Tour tournament. We should all be celebrating this monumental occasion.

However, it’s become apparent that some people just can’t come to grips with the fact that an extremely talented female bowler like Kelly Kulick won a PBA Tour event. How much have we really evolved in equality if we still have to read about how women cannot compete with men in professional sports?

David Whitley of www.fanhouse.com apparently gets paid to write about it. You can read his article here.

At least he clearly identifies himself as a male chauvinist pig. Whitley lacks any understanding of what it takes to win a professional bowling tournament, let alone the PBA Tournament of Champions and therefore loses all of his credibility in evaluating bowling as a sport. His flawed logic begins early in his article when he reduces the unofficial best bowler in the world to Bobby Riggs in goofy shoes. It continues as he compares Kulick’s one match against Barnes as rivaling achievements of Earl Anthony and Dick Weber. Really?

Then he makes an ignorant generalization. According to Whitley, rule No. 1 in determining whether an activity is a sport: If the best female in the world can beat the best male in the world, it doesn’t qualify.

This kind of arrogance and broad generalization of gender is the same kind of arrogance that got Al Campanis fired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1987 when he made his broad generalization. In an interview with Ted Koppel in 1987 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s Major League Baseball debut, Campanis was asked why, at the time, there had been so few black managers and no black general managers in Major League Baseball. Campanis replied that blacks “may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager.” He also said that blacks are often poor swimmers “because they don’t have the buoyancy.”

There are three notable differences between the two statements by Campanis and Whitley. One, its 2010, not 1987 so we’ve progressed 23 years since Campanis’ statement and instead of celebrating a racial barrier being broken, we’re trying to celebrate a gender barrier being broken. Two, Whitley is talking about inherent gender inequality while Campanis was talking about inherent racial inequality. And three, Campanis made his comments in a live interview while Whitley had plenty of time to think about the comments before he sent it out to print.

It’s not so much how he’s trying to define bowling as an activity that bothers me. It’s more or less how he uses gender and the inherent inability of women to compete with men as his basis for that definition. No matter which way you swing it, it’s sexist and degrading to women.

Kulick has been competing against the men since 2006 so this isn’t her first time in the big show. Women in general have only been permitted to compete on the PBA Tour for seven years once the Women’s PBA Tour ceased operations in 2003. She throws a 15 pound ball upwards of 18 miles per hour and puts about 300 revolutions on it...comparable to many of the top touring men.

Kelly Kulick’s victory is not meant to take any credibility from the sport of bowling. In fact, it should elevate it in the world of sports. You don’t have to bench-press 300 pounds, or have a 40-inch vertical. You don’t have to run the 40-yard dash in under five seconds or be able to crush a baseball 450 feet into the upper deck. Brute strength and sheer athletic ability does not define sport.

The perceived belief that a woman can’t compete with a man is a belief that has passed its time; It’s a belief that resides alongside the belief that women should be stay-at-home-moms and stick to cooking and cleaning for their husband; A belief that women have no business running a business or running for political office; A belief that men are inherently better than women overall.

Women have been participating in most sports for far less time than men, which may in some way describe why there have not been more breakthrough performances like Kelly’s up to this point. No doubt, that in years to come, whether it’s 10, 20, or 50 years, women will catch up. And hopefully, they will look back on Kelly’s performance and define it as a breakthrough moment for women in sports.

Just curious Whitley, but how do you define fast pitch softball? According to you, it’s not a sport if women are better than men.


THE BIG FOUR

• I could compile a list of links here for all the stories that ran on Kelly Kulick, but that would be too time-consuming. You can find most stories, including the one that ran in our rinky-dink local paper’s sports section by searching “Kelly Kulick” on Google.
• Don’t underestimate the value of that two-year exemption for Kulick who already has one year of exempt status on her resume’. Just ask John Nolen who got his two-year exemption last year at the Masters. Nolen is learning the curves of the PBA Tour sitting in 54th place on the points list. Think that will be the case next year for Nolen with a year’s worth of additional experience?
• Interesting stat of the week for me. Chris Barnes is now 2-7 when bowling from the top seed on television. At some point, I’m wondering if we’re going to realize that it’s almost punishment to be the #1 seed at the end of the tournament. Percentage isn’t much better for #1 seeds not named Chris Barnes.
• Was it just me or was there no reference to the Hambone this week? I know there were some four-baggers thrown.

MY TOP TEN: (Most recent Tournament finish in Parenthesis. Last tournament completed was the Earl Anthony Memorial.)

1.) Chris Barnes (2nd ) He earned the #1 seed for the Tournament of Champions and ran into a 265 game. One-game roll-offs for titles will do that to you.

2.) Rhino Page (4th) Led most of the tournament only to stumble towards the end to a 4th place finish. Back to back shows at the TOC.

3.) Sean Rash (11th) I remember when Rash blew up on the PBA scene in 2006 and when Rhino took over in 2007. It’s fascinating that with all the shows the two have made in the last 3 seasons, they’ve not yet faced each other on TV.

4.) Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (12th) Might finally be starting to slow down a bit. Hasn’t won yet in 2010. (That was a joke). Could get one this Sunday after qualifying second at the Dick Weber Open.

5.) Wes Malott (7th) Wes is starting to look more like the Wes of 2008-2009 fame. 5 of his last 6 tournaments have ended in top 7 finishes. Just looking to find the winner’s circle this year.

6.) Tommy Jones (8th ) Another top 10 finish and creeping closer to ending that 32 event winless streak over the last two seasons.

7.) Bill O’Neill (27th ) If you don’t count his 3 shows, Bill is averaging a 41st place finish in his other 7 events. But another show this Sunday will likely move him up on the list next week.

8.) Tom Smallwood (37th ) OK Tom, your story of going from hard luck to PBA Tour star has been shelved for a little bit while the media works the Kelly Kulick angle. Time to bowl and shake off the last three tournaments.

9.) Mike Scroggins (25th ) Just missed match play by four pins in T of C and again at the Dick Weber.

10.) Jason Belmonte (45th ) Belmonte after two rounds of qualifying at the T of C was in 17th at +308. After the 8 more games, he was in 45th at +235. The 8th worst 8-game block of the tournament.


QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Kelly Kulick's win today at the PBA Tour's Tournament of Champions is not only historic, it serves as a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world.”

Billie Jean King, Women’s Sports Foundation founder and tennis superstar quoted after Kelly Kulick won the TOC. Not only is this historic, but Billie Jean King is often the first person brought into the discussion when debating men verse women in sports. And she beat a 55-year old in an exhibition. Kelly just beat a guy in the prime of his career and 62 other bowling champions over a grueling 48-game tournament.

“I believe this can only mean bigger and better things for the sport. If in any way this can be a boost for women sports and bowling, I’m willing to do my part.”

Kelly Kulick after winning the TOC.

"When it comes down to one game, a combination of factors have to come together and they just didn't for me."

Chris Barnes commenting after being defeated by Kelly Kulick at the TOC.


FANTASY BOWLING CORNER

Through 16 games last week I was looking great with four out of my five players well within the cut. After 24 games, two more dropped out of the cut. Oh well.

This week I’m going with Wes Malott, Ryan Shafer, Tommy Jones, Brian Kretzer, and Stevie Weber.

Best of luck to everyone.

Mike Fagan of Patchogue, N.Y., earned top-qualifier honors Friday for Sunday’s stepladder finals of the Professional Bowlers Association One A Day Dick Weber Open at Fountain Bowl.

Fagan posted a 17-7 overall match play record and was 8-0 after Friday night’s final match play round. His 9,136 39-game overall pinfall was 172 pins ahead of PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. who qualified second for the finals.

Fagan will be hoping to avenge his 278-168 championship match loss to Norm Duke in last season’s Dick Weber Open.

“Well I can’t do any worse than last year,” said the 29-year-old Fagan. “I’m going to be thinking about a game plan for Sunday so I’ll be as prepared as I can be for the championship match and hopefully the results will be different this year.”

Fagan is trying for his first individual PBA Tour title. He has one Tour win which came in the 2007-08 season in the PBA Exempt Doubles Classic with Danny Wiseman.

Williams, the all-time leader in career PBA Tour titles, will be looking to win his 47^th title and second of the season. He had a 12-12 match play record and 8,964 pinfall.

“It’s just a matter of finding the right line and getting a good ball reaction,” said the 50-year-old Williams. “I’ve won from every position in the finals so I like my chances for Sunday.”

Qualifying No. 3 for the finals was Hall of Famer Pete Weber with a 8,941 39-game pinfall and 14-9-1 overall match play record.

Weber, who finished third in last season’s Dick Weber Open, is hoping to win his 35^th Tour title which is named after his legendary father and would put him in third place all alone on the all-time list.

“I love this house,” Weber said. “I always bowl well here but I just haven’t been able to put it all together for TV. Hopefully, it will be a different story on Sunday.”

Qualifying fourth was last year’s fourth-place finisher and four-time Tour titlist Ryan Shafer. Bill O’Neill, who won the Chameleon Championship for his first career title, defeated Eugene McCune in the position round match 278-227 to qualify for the fifth stepladder spot.

The tournament featured the “traditional” qualifying and match play format used in the PBA’s early years with three rounds of qualifying determining the top 24 advancing to three eight-game blocks of round-robin match play. The top five players after match play advance to the stepladder finals.

Sunday’s live ESPN2 finals will get underway at 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific).

PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open

Fountain Bowl, Fountain Valley, Calif.

Jan. 29, 2010

Sixth Round (after 39 games including match play record and pinfall including bonus)

Top five advance to Sunday’s stepladder finals at 1 p.m. Eastern

1, Mike Fagan, Patchogue, N.Y., 17-7, 9,136.
2, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 12-12, 8,964.
3, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 14-9-1, 8,941.
4, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 17-6-1, 8,919.
5, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., 14-10, 8,814.
6, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., 12-12, 8,789, $5,000.
7, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 14-10-0, 8,720, $4,500.
8, Jack Jurek, Lackawanna, N.Y., 14-10-0, 8,640, $4,000.
9, Lonnie Waliczek, Wichita, Kan., 14-10-0, 8,597, $3,800.
10, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 10-14-0, 8,556, $3,600.
11, Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, 10-13-1, 8,514, $3,400.
12, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 10-14-0, 8,507, $3,200.
13, Robert Smith, Columbus, Ohio, 12-12-0, 8,501, $3,000.
14, Christopher Collins, Savannah, Ga., 10-13-1, 8,484, $2,800.
15, Mike DeVaney, San Diego, 13-10-1, 8,466, $2,700.
16, Mike Wolfe, New Albany, Ind., 7-14-3, 8,389, $2,600.
17, Bryon Smith, Roseburg, Ore., 12-12-0, 8,383, $2,500.
18, Steve Harman, Indianapolis, 14-10-0, 8,345, $2,400.
19, Joe Ciccone, Buffalo, N.Y., 12-12-0, 8,330, $2,350.
20, Troy Wollenbecker, Miami, Fla., 9-15-0, 8,317, $2,300.
21, Stevie Weber, Chalmette, La., 8-15-1, 8,263, $2,250.
22, Ronnie Russell, Camby, Ind., 8-15-1, 8,225, $2,200.
23, Michael Machuga, Erie, Pa., 10-14-0, 8,200, $2,150.
24, Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 10-14-0, 8,160, $2,100.

Kelly Kulick's victory in the PBA Tour's Tournament of Champions made the big news of the week in bowling and it may go down as the bowling story of 2010.

As the 2010 PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open heads down the homestretch with the last eight-game match play round scheduled for this evening at Fountain Bowl, two of bowling’s greatest are poised to qualify for Sunday’s ESPN2 finals that will be aired live at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Right behind tournament leader Mike Fagan are Hall of Famers Pete Weber in second, and Walter Ray Williams Jr. in third.

Weber is hoping to win the tournament named after his Hall of Famer father who passed away in 2005. It would be his 35th title, which would put him in third place all alone on the all-time list.

He likes his chances in a long-format event such as this.

“In the long format tournaments I often feel stronger as I go especially when I get into match play,” Weber said. “In match play nobody has an advantage and harder for a bowler to get line up.

“Basically, you pick up where you left off in the previous match and make the necessary adjustments. Whoever does that the best is going to have the most success.”

Williams, the all-time leader in career Tour titles, will be looking to win his 47^th title and second of the season after winning the season-opening Motor City Open.

“I don’t know if I get stronger as the tournament goes on,” Williams said, “but you kind of weather the storm and hope you get the breaks. I’m not throwing the ball great right now and I need to improve that in the last round.”

Fagan continues to lead the 24-player match play field with a 7,110 31-game pinfall. He’s looking to avenge his loss to defending champion Norm Duke in the championship match of last year’s Dick Weber Open to win his first individual Tour title.

Rounding out the top five going into the final round are Bill O’Neill, who won his first Tour title earlier this season in the Chameleon Championship, and last year’s fourth-place finisher and four-time titlist Ryan Shafer in fifth.

A member of the PBA and United States Bowling Congress Halls of Fame, Dick Weber amassed one of the greatest careers in the sport. He was ranked No. 3 on the PBA’s 50 Greatest list behind only Earl Anthony and Williams. Weber’s 30 PBA Tour titles ranks sixth all-time and he was the only bowler to win a PBA title in six different decades.

Standings After Fifth Round (31 games including bonus pins and match play records)

1, Mike Fagan, Patchogue, N.Y., 9-7-0, 7,110.
2, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 10-5-1, 7,076.
3, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 7-9-0, 7,033.
4, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., 11-5-0, 7,010.
5, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 10-5-1, 6,982.
6, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 9-7-0, 6,968.
7, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., 8-8-0, 6,935.
8, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 8-8-0, 6,891.
9, Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, 7-8-1, 6,822.
10, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 6-10-0, 6,812.
11, Christopher Collins, Savannah, Ga., 8-8-0, 6,795.
12, Lonnie Waliczek, Wichita, Kan., 8-8-0, 6,793.
13, Jack Jurek, Lackawanna, N.Y., 8-8-0, 6,731.
14, Robert Smith, Columbus, Ohio, 7-9-0, 6,683.
15, Mike DeVaney, San Diego, 8-7-1, 6,675.
16, Troy Wollenbecker, Miami, Fla., 6-10-0, 6,660.
17, Stevie Weber, Chalmette, La., 7-8-1, 6,641.
18, Joe Ciccone, Buffalo, N.Y., 8-8-0, 6,632.
19, Steve Harman, Indianapolis, 10-6-0, 6,605.
20, Bryon Smith, Roseburg, Ore., 8-8-0, 6,593.
21, Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 7-9-0, 6,583.
22, Michael Machuga, Erie, Pa., 7-9-0, 6,571.
23, Ronnie Russell, Camby, Ind., 6-9-1, 6,564.
24, Mike Wolfe, New Albany, Ind., 5-9-2, 6,537.

Kelly Kulick’s news media express continues to race along in the wake of her historic victory in the Professional Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions last Sunday at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas.

Since her victory, Kulick has conducted a steady stream of newspaper, television and radio interviews in addition to a national teleconference which is now available in its entirety by clicking on the link below.

In addition to live interviews on CBS’s Early Show, ESPN’s First Take, SportsCenter and Pardon the Interuption, as well as Fox Business, Kulick appeared on a segment on ABC Evening News and was recognized on NBC’s Jay Leno Show. Her historic moment also earned a half-page in the Feb. 1 issue of Sports Illustrated, and coverage on National Public Radio’s “Only a Game” program (heard on 200 stations across the nation), Sirius Satellite Radio 98 and CNN. The latest newspapers to join the more than 300 which have covered the Kulick story include the New York Daily News, Los Angeles Daily News and St. Petersburg Times.

The PBA Tournament of Champions earned a 1.52 Nielsen rating – the highest for a PBA telecast in five years – which means more than 1.7 million viewers watched Kulick’s performance.

To listen to Kulick’s national teleconference, click here:

KellyKulick_teleconference

The Final Day of Match Play takes place today at the One A Day Dick Weber Open from Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley, Calif. For current standings click here. You can also follow our live stream exclusively on Xtra Frame. Click here to become a subscriber.

Here is the schedule of today's events:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM / Match Play Round 2 (8 Games)

6:00 PM - 10:00 PM / Match Play Round 3 (8 Games)