While Mika Koivuniemi and Chris Barnes probably wouldn’t agree, Kelly Kulick’s historic victory in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tournament of Champions Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas provided a needed shot-in-the-arm to the sport of bowling.
By becoming the first woman to win a Professional Bowlers Association Tour event, the Union, N.J. resident not only struck a chord for women’s athletics, but finally got the mainstream national media to pay attention to bowling.
The story of her stunning victory over Barnes in the championship match (which, by the way, was worth $40,000) was picked up by more than 300 major-market newspapers, including USA Today, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. If you don’t believe me, do a “Google” search of Kelly Kulick on the Internet.
Since then, she has been the guest on numerous TV and radio shows, including CBS Early Show, ABC News, Fox Business and a variety of ESPN programs.
Needless to say, her life will never be the same. Hopefully, the media’s perception of bowling has changed for the better as well.
For too long, bowling has stood in the shadows of golf and other sports where skill and technique are more important than physical strength. On Sunday, Kulick bowled games of 227 and 265 on a lane condition that demanded accuracy, proper ball speed, consistent timing and a flawless release.
The 32-year-old Kulick has the entire package. She dreamed of becoming a professional bowler at a young age, and put in the time and effort to make her dream come true. There’s nothing “fluky” about her victories over Koivuniemi and Barnes; in case you forgot, she was the first woman to earn a PBA Tour exemption, claiming a spot through the Tour Trials for the 2006-07 season.
It’s easy to focus on the “woman beats man” story, but in bowling, it’s more about how the ball enters the 1-3 (or for left-handers, 1-2) pocket. In today’s game, it’s about matching your game and equipment with the conditions, and on Sunday, Kulick matched up perfectly.
She clearly threw the best ball. Her body language exhibited confidence. She was the crowd favorite.
After knocking off Koivuniemi, 227-223, Kulick got locked in against Barnes. She started with four strikes, and then shook off a pocket 7-10 split to string six more strikes before leaving one pin on her final ball.
A solid 8-pin late in the game derailed any thought of a comeback by Barnes. Final score: Kulick 265, Barnes 195.
In the end, Barnes, who was criticized on PBA Internet forums by those in attendance at Red Rock Lanes on Friday night for not congratulating Kulick when she qualified for the TV finals, had no choice but to join the boisterous crowd in applauding Kulick.
The TV audience of 1.7 million viewers was the second-largest for bowling in 10 years. It took a woman to draw that number of spectators, but now it’s up to the PBA and its fans to capitalize on this accomplishment.
The PBA needs to market itself as the professional sport of the common man, woman, boy and girl; cultivate new and greater corporate sponsorship opportunities; scrap the taping of several shows at one site for telecast at later dates, and take the Tour on the road – where it belongs – at cities across the U.S. It also needs to seriously consider another time for the TV finals; Sunday afternoons belong to the NFL.
With high school and collegiate bowling on the rise, the time is right for a PBA comeback. I long for the day when newspapers and TV sportscasts once again cover the PBA Tour on a daily basis with round-by-round reports, feature stories on the exempt players, and interviews after the televised finals.
Maybe it’s pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. But, thanks to Kelly Kulick’s breakthrough performance, maybe not.
(Mike Pettinella’s Pin Points bowling column appears every Thursday during the bowling season in the print and online editions of The Daily News. If you have an item of interest for his column, contact him at mikepett2002@yahoo.com, at 343-3736 or by mail at 55 Edgewood Drive, Batavia).