One pro’s ‘thrill of a lifetime’

By Ron Kantowski

Friday, July 31, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Until this week, Henderson’s Wendy Macpherson had done virtually everything there is to do in bowling with the exception of rolling a friendly game against Ralph Kramden and representing her country against the best female bowlers from around the globe in the World Women’s Championships.

She’s much too young to have anchored the Raccoon Lodge bowling team on the old “Honeymooners” TV series. But when the World Championships opened the doors to professionals for the first time, she was profoundly honored to scratch that one off her bowling bucket list.

“What a thrill of a lifetime to be part of a World Championships,” she said after Tuesday’s raucous opening round of bowling at Cashman Center. “This is the biggie. Everyone’s here.”

The World Women’s Championships are the bowling equivalent of the Olympics, minus the torch and those up-close-and-personal profiles. The teams even wear uniforms like their Olympic counterparts, with traditional spellings and lots of umlauts: Nederland. Slovenija. Norge. Danmark.

The temporary bowling center was awash with national pride. Those crazy Ukrainians even brought air horns. Every time one of the Ukrainian women would roll a strike the air horns would wail, like when an Austrian skier comes flying down course in the downhill or a funnel cloud is spotted on the Oklahoma plain.

Macpherson did not bowl very well Tuesday, although she did find some rhythm during her last two games, putting up a 258 followed by a 221 in which she failed to mark in the 10th frame. Every pin that falls counts toward the final team score, which is the primary focus for the Americans as well as everybody else. Doubly that for the crazy Ukrainians.

“I was (upset), embarrassed — well, not embarrassed — but I had a little bit of confusion. But I pulled it out. I’m walking away happy,” Macpherson said after allowing that the mental part of playing for a gold medal on this stage is unlike anything she encountered during her two decades as a decorated touring professional at the Sam’s Town Invitational or the Greater Little Rock Classic.

“Absolutely. It’s 100 percent different from what I’m used to,” she said. “But it’s still no excuse for what in my opinion was a subpar performance.”

Maybe it was the Ukrainians and their air horns that threw her off.

“The last few days we’ve been practicing with the music on,” Macpherson said. “I like that (noise and enthusiasm) a lot. It doesn’t bother me.”

Macpherson need not apologize for missing a few pockets, not with what she has accomplished in a bowling alley, starting when she was 14. She once held the record for the youngest female to roll a 300 game and went on to win 14 titles on the women’s pro tour and six major titles, including the 2006 singles trophy at the prestigious USBC Open Championships while playing against men.

She is the only woman to have accomplished that feat in the 106-year history of the Open.

Outside of Chris Schenkel and former ABC sidekick Bo Burton, nobody in bowling has been on TV more than Macpherson, who holds the women’s record for TV finals appearances (106) as well as money earned on tour ($1.2 million).

At 41, she’s winding down a brilliant career but still has more than enough game to add to those tour records — if only there were a tour.

The women’s pro tour capitulated in 2003 because of lack of sponsorship. With the economy having gone into the gutter, the prospect of a comeback looks bleak.

From a personal standpoint, Macpherson says she was fortunate to spend almost 20 years on tour and sock some money away. But with women’s pro bowling having been reduced to a short made-for-ESPN series and a couple of specialty events such as the World Championships, one day soon there may not be enough women bowlers to form an American tour in the event somebody finds money for one.

“Sad,” said Macpherson, who still does a little coaching on the side and has bowled on the Japanese pro tour the past couple of years.

“I had 20 years on tour with ESPN TV, traveling 20-some weeks and meeting all kinds of people. I feel absolutely blessed.”

As for the rest of this tournament, the battle cry remains the same. All for one and one for all.

“This is not about me. This is about us, together,” Macpherson said. “Even if all six of us were to bowl great, two of us aren’t going to get a medal, because there’s only four medals.”

For Macpherson, it’s not about the medal. It’s about the team title. The Americans have never won it. The last time they held this championship, the Yanks lost by seven pins to Malaysia in Monterrey, Mexico. The time before that, they lost by 12 pins to Chinese Tapei in Aaborg, Denmark.

Close but no cigar (you can’t smoke in bowling alleys anymore). Close but no gold medal.

“Go Team USA,” Macpherson said as the temporary bowling center emptied out before the evening block of games.

It was suddenly eerily quiet, although there was a prevailing mood around Lanes 19 and 20 that the Ukrainians and their air horns would soon be back.