Macpherson blazes trail for women
There was never some grand plan. She never really thought about it. She didn’t line up her body with a set of dots one day decades ago and point her toes toward the target and straighten her back and lift her chin and smell pizza and hear the ringing of video games and realize her slippery shoes were probably made ugly so nobody would steal them and think it would all lead to becoming one of the best female bowlers in history.
Not at 7 and tagging along with an older sister to a junior league on Saturdays in Walnut Creek, Calif. Not at 14 and rolling a perfect game. Not at 18 and standing as the youngest female to win a U.S. Open title.
Not at 41 today with 14 standard pro titles, six majors and already an expert on delivering Hall of Fame speeches.
“Never in my life could I have imagined all of this,” Wendy Macpherson said. “Maybe because there is still too much I want to accomplish. … I’m not one to sit around and pat myself on the back.
“I was 15 and had a week off school and went to a tournament in Texas. And I knew right then this is what I wanted to do for the next 20 to 30 years. To this day, I love to bowl. I love to win. I hate to lose. It has been a fabulous adventure.”
Great ones survive and prosper. They endure the demise of a pro tour and discover other oily lanes in far away lands. They keep chasing pins to crush. They continue to believe in their sport when sponsorship dollars fade like old jeans.
Macpherson is the Henderson resident and Basic High School graduate who had it real good for real long. She played 17 years on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour until there wasn’t enough money to continue operating the venture. She thought the tour would be suspended for six month, tops. That was six years ago.
“I was 35 and rocking and rolling, and all of a sudden, there was no place to go,” she said. “Nowhere in my wildest dreams did I think the tour wouldn’t come back. I thought we’d be bigger and better than ever. It never happened.”
A machine collects fallen pins. It replaces them straight and steady. One tour dies. Another beckons. Macpherson for a few years now has played tournaments in Japan, where the passion is such that you rarely can find a seat during competition, and not because the places are over-booked with cosmic bowling birthday parties. They just love the game.
Her country has called and now allows professionals to compete in the World Championships, which Macpherson did last week for the United States at Cashman Center. This week, she will play in the U.S. Women’s Open at Sunset Station.
There still exists opportunities for the woman ranked No. 1 in all-time career earnings ($1.2 million), who has made the most TV appearances of any female bowler (106) and who in 2006 became the first woman to beat all the men in the United States Bowling Congress Open championship. She has been inducted into three Hall of Fames, most recently and prestigiously that of the USBC.
In other words, there always will be a working hand blow dryer in the ball sorter for Wendy Macpherson.
She’s just worried about those to come.
How do you sell women’s bowling to a public saturated in sport when there is no pro tour? A few years ago at Fashion Show Mall, the USBC and a promotional company tried it the way television prefers, where appearance often overrides talent.
In a place known for photo shoots, 16 female bowlers competed on a single-lane arena on ESPN2 and in the middle of the local shopping center for a top prize of $25,000. More than anything, the event was meant to present women’s bowling in a different manner.
A sexier one.
Macpherson, a Las Vegan and one of the greatest to ever toss a professional ball, wasn’t invited to compete.
“I wasn’t not happy about it,” she said. “They could do what they want. I don’t know if it was a hit against me or not. I watched a bit of it and was pleased not to be involved.
“You know, a lot of things have been tried to sell our sport more. But right now, there is still a big gap. Kids play in high school and college in really good programs and then it ends for most of them.
“We need to find a way to raise our numbers again. We all need to be on the same page as how best to get into that grassroots level. It really is a wonderful sport.”
She felt it at 7, at 15, at 18.
She feels it now at 41.
She never imagined being so good. There was never some grand plan.
There is now.
How long does she want to bowl?
“Forever.”
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on “The Sports Scribes” on KDWN (720 AM).
