Mike Fagan (pictured) of Dallas, Texas, has been unanimously named the January 2012 Kegel Bowler of the Month by the Bowling Writers Association of America. Fagan won the Alka Seltzer Plus Liquid Gels United States Bowling Congress Masters defeating top-seeded Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 246-213. After no strikes and a 30-pin deficit in the first four frames, Fagan threw seven straight strikes to wrap up his third career and first major PBA title.
Swedish international Mikael Kanold (pictured) rolled a 1361 series in Squad 13 Friday afternoon at bowling center Galeria Rozrywki Miraz in Wroclaw, Poland, to overtake the qualifying lead in the 6th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer. Former Danish international Bettina Lund led Squad 14 with 1237 including 48 pins women's handicap to move into 16th place. Lund, who led the European Bowling Tour women's point ranking in the
2001 and 2002 season, is the best of just seven women in the 91-player
field from 15 countries. 
Tommy Jones (l.), United States, Cherie Tan (r.), Singapore, captured the men's and women's titles in the International Bowling Championship 2012 Saturday in Hakata, Japan en route to earn the 6 million Yen (approx. $77,500) top prize. 13-time PBA champion Jones, seeded first, flew past reigning PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, 290-204, to wrap up the men's title. No. 2 seed Tan defeated women's top seed Dayang Khairuniza, Malaysia, 218-179, for the biggest payday in her career.
Jason Belmonte (pictured left) and Osku Palermaa (right9 aren't the only two-handed bowlers to make waves in bowling, but the fact that they have risen to the top of the game at virtually the same age, but half a world apart, is too ironic to ignore. And while their stories are similar in many aspects, they remain worlds apart as competitors and bowling stylists.
Tommy Jones (l.), United States, and Malaysia's Dayang Khairuniza (r.) finished the six-game semifinal round of the International Bowling Championship 2012 atop the men's and women's leaderboard to earn the No. 1 seed for the stepladder finals Saturday at Hakata Star Lanes in Hakata, Japan. The top three players in each division advanced to the TV finals. Missy Parkin, United States, earned the No. 4 seed for the women's stepladder finals in a single-game shoot-out match. 
The Wichita State women dominated the match-play portion of the McKendree Baker Challenge, earning them a fourth consecutive title and a fifth win for the season. This year the tournament took place in two locations – St. Clair Bowl in Fairview Heights, Ill., where the men competed and Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville, Ill., where the women competed. This was the eighth tournament of the season for the Shocker men and women.
Immediately following the USBC Masters at Sunset Station in Las Vegas, Liz Johnson (l.), Chris Barnes (r.) and Walter Ray Williams Jr. earned berths in the stepladder finals of the inaugural World Tenpin Bowling Association International Open, which will be held in conjunction with the Brunswick Euro Challenge in suburban Paris in March. Former PBA exempt player DJ Archer and Canadian citizen Dan MacLelland cashed $10,000 and $30,000, resp., in other events at Sunset Station.
Choi Bok-Eum (r.) of Korea and Missy Parkin (l.), United States, won the qualifying of the International Bowling Championship 2012 en route to lead the top 24 men and the top 24 women into Friday's semifinals at Hakata Star Lanes in Hakata, Japan. Those 24 will bowl another two three-game blocks on Friday with the
pinfall from the qualifying being carried forward. The top 9 men and the
top 9 women with the highest 15-game total will proceed to TV Finals. 
Choi Bok-Eum (l.) of Korea and Malaysia's Siti Shazwani (r.) moved to the top of the men's and women's leaderboard after the second qualifying block in the International Bowling Championship 2012 supported by DHC Friday morning at Hakata Star Lanes in Hakata, Japan. Bok-Eum added a 712 three-game series to the 706 from Thursday to leap from third to first place with 1418. Shazwani topped the women's field with 1423 six-game total and an average of 237.17.
South Point Bowling Center in Las Vegas will host the fourth annual PBA World Series of Bowling, a multi-event international competition, Nov. 2-11, that will kick off the 2012-13 PBA Tour season, PBA Commissioner Tom Clark announced Thursday. The 2012 World Series of Bowling will feature four PBA "animal pattern" championships and conclude with the PBA World Championship. The package also will include the 2012 WTBA World Bowling Tour Finals presented by the PBA. 
Cherie Tan (l.) of Singapore and PBA champions Michael Fagan (r.) and Sean Rash took the early lead in the International Bowling Championship 2012 supported by DHC after the first of the three three-game qualifying blocks at Hakata Star Lanes in Hakata, Japan. Tan topped all 168 players with 715 total and an average of 238.33, while PBA champions Fagan and Rash, United States, were tied for first place in the men's division at 710 (236.67). All players return on Friday for another six qualifying games. 
Tish Johnson of Colorado Springs, CO won the first National Women's Bowling Alliance (WBA) event hosted by the Amateur Bowlers Tour (ABT) Winter Nationals at South Point Lanes in Las Vegas by topping 90 entries of the best women bowlers in the U.S. for a $10,000 payday. Johnson, a 25-time PWBA champion and two-time Player of the Year, averaged 247 in the semi-finals and match play finals with a record of 3-1 for the title.
Delegates will vote on 13 proposals involving changes to USBC bylaws, league rules and tournament rules at the USBC Annual Meeting on April 27 in Arlington. The amendments include a series of changes to USBC bylaws called the Financial Freedom and Flexibility Proposals. The Financial Freedom and Flexibility Proposals will allow associations at all levels to better manage their financial future by removing dues cap restrictions from USBC bylaws.
The 69th U.S. Open, one of professional bowling's most demanding tournaments, will return to Brunswick Zone-Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J., in 2012 for a record seventh time. Defending champion Norm Duke (pictured right) of Clermont, Fla., will be on hand to try to win his eighth career major title, his third U.S. Open crown and the $60,000 first prize. 
Kegel Training Center has announced that Del Warren, the current Vice President of the training center, will be the new Webber International men's head coach effective immediately. Warren is a USBC Gold level coach and has been the head of the Webber bowling program since its inception in 2008. Last season, the men finished as a finalist at the USBC Intercollegiate
Team Championships and are currently ranked 7th in the power rankings. 
For the fourth consecutive year it's the people who will have the power to choose the next inductee into the Celebrity Bowling Hall of Fame with the launch of an American Idol-style competition that will be sheer "Madness." The excitement and anticipation will heighten with a new basketball tournament-inspired bracket that will pit some of the most popular celebrities against each other in head-to-head voting competition from March 12 - April 10, 2012
Sean Rash (pictured) of Montgomery, Ill., was the lone U.S. professional in the finals of the Chameleon Open, which will air Sunday, Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Chameleaon Open was the second of four PBA "animal pattern" championships conducted during the PBA World Series of Bowling Nov. 6-19, 2011 at South Point Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. Rash meets two-handed rivals Jason Belmonte of Australia and Osku Palermaa of Finland and Venezuelan Ildemaro Ruiz.
DV8 Bowling has added its first female bowler, Team USA member Shannon "Shan-O-Mac" O'Keefe, to its pro staff. The 2007 World Champion in Singles, who lives in Arlington, Texas, has been a member of Team USA for eight consecutive years. In addition O'Keefe (pictured) brought home the gold medals in the Trio's and Team event at the 2011 Women's World Championships in Hong Kong. O'Keefe also finished first in the 2009 PBA Women's Series Tour Trials and has 22 perfect games.
Liz Johnson, Chris Barnes and Walter Ray Williams Jr. advanced to the stepladder finals of the WTBA International Open, which will be held in suburban Paris, France in March. Each finalist earned an expenses-paid trips to the stepladder finals, which will be held in conjunction with the Brunswick Euro Challenge, the seventh stop of the 2012 World Bowling Tour, which takes place at Plaza Saint Maximin from March 16-25. Bowlingdigital will cover the BEC live from Plaza Bowl. 
The World Bowling Tour is heading into its second season featuring 14 events in 10 countries - five in the United States and one each in Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Kuwait and Thailand. The top 50 men and the top 50 women earn points based on how they finish in each event. The current points system is based on a continuous two-year cycle (2011-12). The top 3 men and top 3 women in the WBT rankings will qualify for the World Bowling Tour finals at the end of 2012.