The tenth season since the relaunch of the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour will draw to a close on August 12 following a final week of events at ABC Gates Bowl in Rochester, including the season’s final major, the 2025 PWBA Tour Championship.
ABC Gates Bowl is no stranger to PWBA Tour competition, hosting three stops prior to this year, including the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open where Bryanna Coté of Tucson, Arizona, won her first major. Coté will come to New York with some momentum after she partnered with Chris Via of Blacklick, Ohio, to win the Professional Bowlers Association/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles in Houston July 27.
It’s not just titles on the line in New York though, as PWBA Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors will be determined during the week as well.
The Rookie of the Year race is straightforward in that Malaysia’s Gillian Lim has all but locked up the award before she competes, barring a huge effort from those behind her like Kirsten Moore of Tallmadge, Ohio, or Brystal Beyer out of Ogdensburg, Wisconsin. A Lim Rookie of the Year win would make her the first Malaysian to win the award and first international player to win since Canada’s Valerie Bercier in 2019.
Over in the Player of the Year race, Singapore’s New Hui Fen and Jordan Snodgrass of Adrian, Michigan, have separated themselves over the course of the season as the ones to beat and are less than 1,500 points apart in first and second. New has three wins compared to Snodgrass’ one, but Snodgrass has had better consistency with five top-12 finishes and cashes in all eight eligible events.
That’s not to say others don’t have an outside shot, but those will require their own Herculean feats to jump New and Snodgrass as third-place Stephanie Zavala of Long Beach, California, is over 23,000 points behind Snodgrass. New is looking for her first Player of the Year award while Snodgrass seeks her second (2023). A New victory would mark the second straight year an international player has won the award and third international player overall after Malaysia’s Sin Li Jane in 2024 and Australia’s Carol Gianotti in 1998.
The final week of the 2025 PWBA Tour season began August 5 with practice sessions for the first two standard events – PWBA Rochester Open and PWBA Pepsi Open, which were held August 6 through 9. At their conclusion, just 24 players will remain in contention for the season’s final major title as the 2025 PWBA Tour Championship field will be made up of winners from this season and those with the highest season point totals after the PWBA Pepsi Open.
Those 24 competitors will head to the practice session on Sunday at 9 a.m. before their first of three match-play rounds at 5 p.m. All 24 athletes will then come back Monday at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to finish match play. The top five after match play will head to the stepladder finals, which will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network on Tuesday, August 12 at 7 p.m.
All three events are live-streaming qualifying and match play on BowlTV, as well as the stepladder finals for the Rochester Open and Pepsi Open.
For more information on PWBA Tour Championship Week, visit PWBA.com/national-tour/2025-pwba-tour-championship-week.
Provided information
