A record total of almost 300 bowlers will flood AMF Euless Lanes starting today for a chance to reach the finals of the U.S. Women’s Open.

But only five will advance to Thursday’s event at Cowboys Stadium.

The qualifying rounds include competitors from Columbia, South Korea, Denmark, England, Finland and the Philippines.

New Jersey’s Kelly Kulick won the event in 2010. She was the first woman to win a Professional Bowling Association Tour title when she won the 45th Tournament of Champions in January 2010.

“I’m ecstatic about how big this tournament has grown,” she said. “There are over 280 entries. And the fact that it is being held at Cowboys Stadium will make it even more exciting and energetic for the crowd to watch.

“This event is taking place in a venue that is unprecedented in bowling. We’ve never bowled outside of a bowling center or an arena. So this is new for everyone. All I can do is hope for the best and hopefully be in the top five that get to bowl for the show.”

There will be three blocks of qualifying. Once the field is cut to 16, bowlers will compete in a round-robin format to determine the top five.

“We have a record number of participants with the strongest ladies from all around the world,” said Grand Prairie’s Stefanie Nation, one of the sport’s young stars. “It will be no easy feat to be one of the top five finalists, but you just have to take it one game at a time and hope for the best.”

By William Wilkerson – wwilkerson@star-telegram.com

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/23/3176116/qualifying-starts-today-for-five.html#ixzz1QDAbIJKh

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Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – For the next 88 days, Syracuse will be home to thousands of female bowlers taking part in the U.S. Bowling Congress Women’s Championships. The event got underway Thursday with a simultaneous roll down each of the 48 lanes specially built in the Oncenter.

The event is expected to bring about 30,000 total bowlers to the area through July. It is also expected to inject $40 million to the local economy.

With so many people stopping by during the tournament, the squeeze is on at hotels.

Vicki Larson, for example, just rolled into town with a team of six for the weekend. She says she’s learned to book hotel rooms far in advance, after all her years of traveling to tournaments. “I usally book in September,” she said.

Over the next three months, the bowlers are expected to spend 54,000 nights in hotel rooms that might have otherwise been empty.

“We’ll have at least 5,000 just at our hotel alone. It’s huge,” said Sandy Baker of the Crowne Plaza hotel. “We are the closest hotel to the Oncenter and we are so excited.”

Hotels outside the City are also picking up some extra business. The brand new Staybridge Suites in Liverpool opened Thursday, just in time for the tournament.

“Most of the time you open up a new hotel and you don’t have any business for a couple of weeks, but we started out well and the bowling tournament has been a big help to us,” said Jim Gallagher.

The rooms are going to be even more difficult to grab during graduation weekend.

“Graduation weekend is always a big weekend for the entire community but on top of the bowling tournament. It’s probably going to be one of the best weeks we ever had here,” Gallagher said.

The transformation of the Oncenter into a world-class bowling center took about a month and cost about $2 million. In addition to 48 meticulously leveled lanes, a video screen was built that spans the entire length of the setup.

In all, there is enough wood used for the lanes, stands and other structures to build five, three-bedroom homes. Underneath runs six miles of wiring.

Each day until July 3, pins will topple from about 7:00 a.m. through midnight. In late April, ESPN will be in Syracuse to televise the finals for the professionals who will be competing.

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Reese Witherspoon has officially become a married woman once again. Representative for the “Water for Elephants” actress confirmed that she has tied the knot with her entertainment agent fiance, Jim Toth, on Saturday evening, March 26 in a 20-minute private ceremony at her ranch estate in Ojai, California.

35-year-old Reese walked down the aisle to “Here Comes the Bride”, while 40-year-old Jim arrived to the processional music of “Tennessee Waltz”. The nuptials, which saw the couple exchanging wedding bands designed by jeweler William Goldberg, was officiated by Reverend Jimmy Bartz, Us Magazine reported.

People Magazine additionally detailed that the ceremony started a bit late and was preceded with a pre-wedding cocktail hour. Reese and Jim swapped vows in front of her children, Ava and Deacon, as well as about 100 guests, that included Renee Zellweger, Alyssa Milano, Tobey Maguire, Salma Hayek and Robert Downey Jr. with his wife Susan.

Meanwhile, Reese’s ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal spent his Saturday evening bowling. The “Love and Other Drugs” actor was spotted with Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and a group of friends at the Spare Room in Los Angeles. A witness told Us Magazine “They looked really into it and seemed really relaxed. As the game progressed, the guys started high-fiving each other; at one point Jake did what looked like a little dance after bowling a spare.”

During the outing, the 30-year-old was also seen chatting up a few ladies. After being spotted joking with a brunette, he reportedly spent time with Swedish model Mini Anden at around 1 A.M. “He put his hand on her back, trying to convince her to bowl with them and being really sweet,” spilled the witness. “He looked like he was trying to give her a lesson on bowling. He seemed to want to show off a little bit.”

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00039294.html

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