Kelly Kulick
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| Born |
March 16, 1977 Union Township, New Jersey |
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| Occupation | Ten Pin Bowler | |||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2001–present | |||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Kelly Kulick (born March 16, 1977) is an American professional bowler from Union Township, New Jersey. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors) and one PBA Tour title (a major).
Kulick attended and bowled competitively at Morehead State University.
Kulick is the first woman ever to win a regular Professional Bowlers Association tour title, winning the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas on January 24, 2010. (See: PBA Bowling Tour: 2009-10 season.) After finishing the weekly qualifying as the #2 seed, she defeated #3 qualifier Mika Koivuniemi to advance to the final against 12-time titleist and 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year Chris Barnes. In the final, she threw 10 strikes in a dominating 265-195 win. This earned Kelly a 2-year exemption to compete on the PBA Tour.
(The previous high finish for a female in a regular PBA Tour event was second place, accomplished by Liz Johnson at the 2005 Banquet Open. The first woman to defeat a man in a televised championship bowling match was Lynda Barnes, who defeated Sean Rash in the finals of the 2008 USBC Clash of the Champions—a non-PBA made-for-TV event broadcast nationally in the U.S. on CBS-TV.)
Billie Jean King, former tennis superstar and head of the Women's Sports Foundation, summed up the impact of Kulick's TOC victory:
"Kelly Kulick's win at the PBA Tour's Tournament of Champions is not only historic, it serves as a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world."
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