Women’s Series Showdown

Six of the nation’s top women bowlers will return to television in April, competing in a radically different bowling format for a $25,000 first prize in the Professional Bowlers Association’s (PBA) inaugural Women’s Series Showdown presented by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC).

The special event, to be hosted by Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Fla., will result in a back-to-back one-hour shows which will air on ESPN on Sunday, April 12, from 1-3 p.m. Eastern.

The field includes five winners of PBA Women’s Series events held earlier in the 2008-09 season, plus Missy Bellinder of Fullerton, Calif., who finished second to two-time titlist Michelle Feldman of Auburn, N.Y., in the CLR Carmen Salvino Scorpion Championship. Other contestants are Feldman, who won the Chameleon and Scorpion Championships; Stefanie Nation of Arlington, Texas, winner of the Pepsi Viper Championship; Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Keller, Texas, winner of the Cheetah Championship; Jodi Woessner, Oregon, Ohio, winner of the Lumber Liquidators Shark Championship, and Wendy Macpherson of Henderson, Nev., winner of the Bayer Earl Anthony Medford Classic.

The PBA Women’s Series Showdown presented by USBC will feature a “Showdown” elimination round, followed by a championship round – all using a unique scoring format created by PBA and newly-elected USBC Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia (The Petraglia Scoring System).

“An event as unique as the Women’s Series Showdown deserves a unique format that will showcase the competitive skills of these great players,” said PBA COO and Vice President Tom Clark.

The Petraglia Scoring System ignores pinfall, but counts the number of balls thrown to clear the deck in each frame. A strike thus equals a “1” and a typical spare would result in a “2” for the frame. A 7-10 split, however, might require three balls for a “3” and a miss could escalate the score for the frame.

Under the Petraglia system, the lowest score wins. Players will bowl their entire game on one lane. The 10th frame will be treated like a normal frame. A perfect Petraglia game would be a “10” for 10 strikes. Any ties will be broken by a one-ball sudden-death roll-off.

The opening “Showdown” elimination round will feature Dorin-Ballard, Woessner and Macpherson bowling the first game, and Feldman, Nation and Bellinder in the second. The winner of each game will advance to the championship round. The highest Petraglia total among the remaining four players will be eliminated. The other three will advance to the championship round’s wild card match.

The championship round will feature a three-player wild card game with the winner advancing to bowl with the two “Showdown” round winners in the title match where the lowest Petraglia Scoring System total will claim a $25,000 share of the $50,000 prize fund.

“USBC is doing its best to create as much public awareness for women’s bowling as possible,” said USBC Vice President-Media Pete Tredwell. “By adding this unique, colorful event to our continued support of the PBA Women’s Series, USBC is providing America’s bowling fans with another opportunity to appreciate the talents of some of our sport’s best women athletes.”