Lincoln to play host to top professional women's bowling event

Lincoln is playing host over the next week to one of the top professional women’s bowling events in the world.

The U.S. Women’s Open starts Tuesday at Sun Valley Lanes. It will be the sixth Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour Event Sun Valley has hosted, but the first one in a decade. the first time the bowling alley has hosted the U.S. Women’s Open. It previously hosted the men’s U.S. Open in 2020.

There will be 108 bowlers competing for the title of U.S. Women’s Champion, as well as a $60,000 cash prize. The bowlers will be coming from around the nation, as well as the world. One bowler, who now lives in Chicago, is a University of Nebraska alum.

“To be able to go back to Lincoln to compete, but also to compete alongside bowlers that I had, you know, had seen grow, and I'm sort of a part of their story, that is special to me,” said Asbaty, a U.S. Bowling Congress Hall of Famer and former member of the UNL bowling team who will be coming back this October to be inducted into the Nebraska Athletic Hall of Fame.

Asbaty started a youth bowling tour called the Elite Youth Tour and will be competing at the 2025 Women’s Open against some of the girls she mentored.

“To be able to go back to Lincoln to compete, but also to compete alongside bowlers that I had, you know, had seen grow, and I'm sort of a part of their story, that is special to me,” Asbaty said.

According to Asbaty, the Women’s Open is a tough tournament, not just because it is invite only, but also because who you are competing against, and how.

“Every day we bowl on a different lane pattern that's always very difficult,” Asbaty said. “The way that they put the oil on the lane is not like your typical league that you would see the league bowler. There's a lot less room for error… The best of the best come out. It's for a lot of money. The prestige of the U.S. Women’s Open is, you know, maybe there's not a bigger event on our tour. So it's very special.”

The field has a number of other bowlers with Nebraska ties, including former Huskers Shannon Pluhowsky, Liz Kuhlkin, Julia Bond and Elise Bolton, and Nebraska residents Karina Capron of Fremont and Erin McCarthy of Omaha.

The tournament kicks off Tuesday morning with an eight-game qualifier to fill remaining spots. There is a pro-am Tuesday night allowing community members to bowl with the pros.

The Open starts in earnest Thursday morning with qualifying rounds, which will continue through Saturday. All bowlers will complete eight games, with the top one-third of finishers making it to a final qualifying round Sunday morning.

The top 24 bowlers to come out of qualifying will advance to round robin match play, with the first round Sunday and the remaining two rounds on Monday. The top five players move on to the stepladder finals at 6 p.m. Tuesday, which will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.