Gideon crowned first-time champ
The Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour crowned a first-time champion Sunday at Abilene's Whitewood Lanes as Jennifer Gideon held off Carolyn Dorin-Ballard to win the Whitewood Southwest Open.
"I have been touring for almost a year now and I have made a lot of changes in my game in that time," Gideon said. "It says to me that all of the work is starting to pay off."
Gideon seized the overall lead early in the tournament and appeared to have smooth sailing to her first professional crown. In the end, however, Gideon found herself having to hold off the furious charges of several bowlers, most notably seven-time regional champion Carolyn Dorin-Ballard.
"I was about 180 points ahead of everyone with just three games to go when I just kind of lost it," Gideon said. "At that point I told myself to just take it one frame at a time and everything would be OK."
In the final match of the tournament, Dorin-Ballard defeated Gideon in a head-to-head match, 189-185. However, even with the four pin win and the thirty bonus points Dorin-Ballard received for the win, Gideon had amassed enough of a lead to win the overall title.
In the closest finish in the brief history of the Whitewood Southwest Open, Gideon defeated Dorin-Ballard by 37 points. Four other bowlers were within 150 points of Gideon at the end.
In the LPBT tournament format, each bowler rolls four rounds which consist of two games each. Points are awarded on a par scale. For every point above 200 a bowler rolls in each game, one point is awarded. In each game a bowler is pitted against an opponent, and the winner of the game is awarded thirty bonus points. In the final game of the tournamet, the bowlers are matched according to tournament standings, with the leader taking on the bowler in second place, the bowler in third challenging the bowler in fourth and so on.
The total points combine the pins-under-par total with the bonus points won to determine the tournament champion.
Final standings - 1. Jennifer Gideon, 465; 2. Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, 428; 3. Jean Cope, 397; 4. Karen Stroud, 362; 5. Shana Ray, 338; 6. Michelle Lee, 329; 7. Genie Cox, 298; 8. Joanne Harris, 267; 9. Esther Warner, 217; 10. Lea Anne Sikora, 196; 11. Traci Wilson, 108; 12. Janice Holt, 53.