SINGAPORE – A month after being named Singapore’s Bowler of the Year, Cherie Tan showed why she deserved that title by winning the Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA)’s season-opening Stockton Open in California.
The 35-year-old defeated American No. 2 seed Jordan Richard 237-205 in Saturday’s step-ladder final to collect her fourth career PWBA trophy and a winner’s cheque of US$20,000 (S$26,500).
Tan put up a dominant performance and led the 73-strong field from start to finish, recording a 12-game total of 2,985 pinfalls to open up a commanding advantage of over 100 pinfalls on Friday.
But, after the field was whittled down to 24 on Saturday, she withstood a slight dip in performance to reach the step-ladder final as the top seed with a 5,774 total.
She then regained her composure to beat Richard in the final.
Tan told The Straits Times: “It was great bowling for the past two days... I was pretty glad I managed to hold on to the lead, as I was losing my ball reaction and carry for the second block of the day (on Saturday).
“It is always awesome to be able to win a title, especially since we don’t compete in every stop, so we definitely treasure each and every opportunity we get to compete in the PWBA.”
The Stockton Open, the first of eight stops on the PWBA’s 2023 schedule, was the 100th tournament since the Tour’s relaunch in 2015.
Tan described winning the milestone event as “pretty awesome”, having competed on it since 2015.
Compatriots New Hui Fen, Shayna Ng and Bernice Lim finished 18th, 31st and 47th respectively while Tan’s sister Daphne was 58th. For finishing inside the top 24, New also won US$2,650.
Tan’s win comes after she bagged four gold medals at the Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships in January. Her last PWBA victory came at the BowlTV Classic in 2022.
Pleased that she has learnt from past experience, Tan added: “For the BowlTV Classic, I was not matched up right from the beginning, so it was more of finding information throughout the whole time.
“This time around, I managed to find the right reaction from the beginning and it was pretty nice to hold on to the lead throughout.”
She will continue competing with her compatriots in the next two PWBA events in May – the Spokane Open in Washington and USBC Queens tournament in Las Vegas – before returning for the May 27-June 10 Singapore Open.
