During the 1999 AMF World Cup Championship held late last year at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas, two things became apparent to me:
1. The United States can no longer assert its dominance in international amateur bowling competition.
First of all, our greatest players turn professional and are ineligible to compete. Moreover, those who remain amateur cannot take the required time to attend the various training sessions necessitated by USA Bowling. Consequently, we are not utilizing the best players possible.
Inasmuch as American pros are prohibited from competing in the World Cup, American amateurs, who must qualify on a yearly basis, face veteran players who have competed in these games for a number of years.
2. The United States is not turning out the best female players—pro or amateur.
In the 1999 AMF World Cup Championships, Australia’s Amanda Brad- ley ran off with the women’s division. It was no fluke: She came into the 80-nation event with the highest league average of 220, and history has shown that Australian women are producing some of the world’s most elite players, amateur or pro—Cara Honeychurch, Maxine Nable, Jeanette Baker, and Carol Gianotti-Block to name a few. In fact, Aussie women have won three of the last four World Cup Championships.
Gianotti-Block, who has shown she can compete with America’s best pros, was named the 1998 Woman Bowler of the Year.
Honeychurch almost won the 1999 U.S. Open, then stuck around the states to engage in three pro tournaments, where she bowled 300 on national TV, cashed the following week, and then closed with a victory in her final tournament. Her total U.S. earnings exceeded $100,000.
In the men’s division, foreign players continued their dominance over Americans. Ahmed Shaheen, a 30-year-old entrepreneur from Doha, Qatar, defeated Frank Boerner of Germany 224-184 in the title contest. Shaheen rolled a perfect game in the 1997 AMF World Cup in Egypt, while Boerner had hoped to make it two German victories in three years in the men’s division (Christian Nokel won in Egypt in 1997). Shaheen is the third Arabic bowler to win the AMF World Cup. Mohamed Al-Qubaisi of the United Arab Emirates was the first in 1988. Shaheen’s countryman, Salem Al-Monsouri, won in 1989.
America’s amateurs actually are competing
against professionals guised as amateurs.
The 1999 AMF World Cup produced record-shattering scores. Bradley demolished the women’s 48-game record, averaging 223.4 and bettering the previous mark of 220.3 set in 1997 by Su-Fen Tseng, the helicopter-style player from Chinese Taipei.
Frank Boerner’s 229.8 average exceeded the 227.7 mark set in 1997 by another helicopter-style player from Chinese Taipei, Yung-Nein Peng.
Mike Mullen and Debbie Kuhn, America’s representatives in the World Cup, both placed fourth in their divisions. No American man has won since Patrick Healy captured the crown in 1995. No American female has won since Linda Graham in 1990.
Having spent a few sessions coaching foreign teams, I conclude that America’s failure to dominate in amateur competition around the world can be traced to several factors:
The majority of foreign teams hire full-time coaches. Asian countries have raided American and Canadian coaches, usually offering contracts that include a free home, an automobile, all expenses, and several paid round trips to their home countries.
In most foreign countries, particularly in Asian areas, bowling is a major sport. Bowling stars are accorded the dignity and respect we confer on our sports heroes.
Although foreign countries select their best players through a process of elimination in tournaments, the demands and restrictions are not as prohibitive as those of the USA.
Asians are not as involved in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, racing, golf, tennis, and other athletics that dominate America’s sports pages. This is due to the limited sports activities of foreign countries where soccer is usually the predominant sport.
America’s amateurs actually are competing against professionals guised as amateurs. A great majority of Asian and European players often compete in tournaments that offer prizes from $20,000 to $50,000. Furthermore, a great majority of European and Asian teams have bowled together for many years and most of the players bowl on a professional level.
Last, but not least, foreign players have not been weaned on soft conditions. Blocking has not become a common practice on foreign soil. These players learn the basic fundamentals of the game from the ground up and have been taught to execute properly.
Moreover, they take the game very seriously, have a great thirst for information, and apply themselves accordingly.
In defense of USA male bowlers, there is little doubt that American professional men bowlers are heads and shoulders above the rest of the world.
Despite the fact that most European and Asian male bowlers perform on a professional level, many are cataloged as "amateur" simply because they are not registered professionals.
For example, Swedish star Tomas Leandersson, performing in European and various other areas, earned in excess of $200,000 in 1998. Leandersson’s total was exceeded only by Walter Ray Williams Jr.’s $238,225 tournament prize earnings. Walter Ray added $77,000 in incentives to increase his total earnings to $315,225. Parker Bohn III, with $191,780 in prize money and incentive money of $58,000, swelled his total to $249,780. Steve Hoskins garnered $154,105 in tournament money, plus an additional $56,750 in incentives for a grand total of $210,855. Since there are no registered earnings of world non-professionals’ incentives, Leandersson’s total winnings would have placed him in fourth place.
The AMF World Cup Tournament was replete with class, featuring an opening cocktail party, several banquets, and professional tournament officials.
AMF officials announced the site of the World Cup of the new millennium. It will be held at the Bowling Internacional de Lisboa center in Lisbon, Portugal October 15-22, located in Nation’s Park, the site of Lisbon’s 1998 World Expo, on the East side of Portugal’s capital city.
PBA Hall of Famer John Jowdy is a past president of the Bowling Writers Association of America.