Bowling With The Fef!

What is it like to bowl the Petersen Classic? It ends up a little bit different for each bowler...or a lot different. You never really know until you're experiencing it. After his time inside the "Golden Gates," Steve Brinkman of Sussex, WI eventually stood alone as the 2025 Singles Major Champion. He fired an eight-game score of 1,681, which was 11 pins ahead of the runner-up. Results: https://do...

There are some interesting parallels for the content creator and livestreamer behind ZVL Bowling when you look at his success on social media and on the lanes. Zak Lutemer got a relatively late start in both, trying out some other sports before settling into bowling, and another niche before focusing his content on bowling. He’s more than made up for lost time in both. He even accurately predicted...

Confidence in bowling is kind of a funny thing.  It can be easy to tell exactly who has too much of it or even not enough, but not with every bowler out there. If you follow college bowling, you may already know about Viterbo University’s Emily Newbauer. She appeared in the Intercollegiate Singles Championship in her freshman year and put up incredible numbers at the biggest events in her sophomor...

After decades in Madison, Marc McDowell has found a new home in Black River Falls, WI and a new bowling home at Strike Time Lanes. McDowell won five times on the PBA Tour, including the 1992 Firestone Tournament of Champions. Yet, when he first went to Strike Time with his father, the others in the Neillsville, WI center did not recognize him.  The anonymity didn't last long. Several seasons later...

Chetek Lanes in Chetek, WI has a tournament that draws nearly 3,000 entries every bowling season, and this season, those bowlers will compete on USBC certified string pinsetters for the first time. Chetek Lanes Proprietor John Law recently ditched his free-fall AMF pinspotters in favor of AMF Qubica Edge String Pinspotters for his six-lane center.  He discussed the conversion, the ways that it has...

When Scott Olson came up to me at the Midwest Senior Classic event in April and told me I NEED to have Gene Arentz on the show, I’ll admit, I didn’t really know what to expect.  What I found in "Geno" was one of the all-time greats from La Crosse, Wisconsin’s USBC association.  As you’ll hear, along with his hall of fame bowling resume, recognized as such three years ago, he is a hunter, a softbal...

An off the sheet challenge from Joey Dayer led to this episode with New York’s Frank Goebel. He had just driven across a good chunk of the country, and had arrived in Nebraska for the Great Plains Paralyzed Veterans of America ( https://pva.org/ ) National tournament. He and his twin brother Rich ended up winning a doubles championship and taking fourth place in the team event. But as we discussed...

This past weekend, Ryan McDaniel and his wife, PWBA Touring pro Melanie McDaniel took to the lanes at Bowlero Mount Prospect near Chicago for the PBA LBC National Championship. They were part of a team that must have been an absolute blast to bowl on. Ryan may be even more notorious for his grilling than he is for his bowling, but he is now a coach as well as a player on the lanes. Much like in th...

Nearly everyone who becomes immersed in competitive or even social bowling for a long time ends up hearing about the “Varipapa 300.” It was even mentioned on the telecast of the 2025 PBA Tour Finals. A strike string at the end of one game and another at the beginning of the following game that add up to twelve total strikes: thats a "Varipapa 300." Dig deeper into the eponym, and you may discover...

The Madison Area Scratch Tour ( madisonareascratchtour.com ) brings in bowlers from all over Wisconsin for its events.  And those who have competed for titles in the past few decades have likely run into Jeff Richgels, the tour’s career championship leader. But it may not be that way going forward, as Richgels mentioned when i stopped at the year end event in April.  Jeff owns and runs 11thframe.c...

When Jason Belmonte shoes up for the 2025 PBA Tour Finals this weekend, he’ll do so as the number three seed. It’s the last national tour event he plans to bowl this season. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Belmo while he was at home in Australia.  He discussed a noticeable change in his demeanor on television over the years, winning a title with Bill O’Neill and witnessing his PBA Ha...

The 2025 PWBA Tour is off and running with three events in the rearview mirror and a crop of young stars emerging before our eyes. A Wisconsin native is among those rising stars, and she's received a boost from Bowl Forward to help her along the way! Kelly Whipple of Sheboygan was recently named Bowl Forward's Future Stars Award winner to the tune of $1,500, the richest prize of the three awarded...

In a part of New York that's a lot closer to Canada than it is to Manhattan, a teenage bowler often turns heads. The thing is, it's not just for what he does on the lanes, but back behind the masking units as well! Joey Dayer, the fedora-wearing, Buffalo area YouTuber who has grown a huge following on his youtube.com/@Joethepro181  channel, doesn't just fix out-of-range calls and continuous cycles...

After working in some of the highest profile positions in the bowling industry and having one of the most successful college careers as a bowler…ever, Roger Dalkin has taken his rightful places in the sport.   First, in the USBC hall of fame, and last month in the USBC Collegiate Hall of Fame.   You’ll hear me discuss a giveaway in this episode, which was only available to live viewers and won by...

Just before starting this interview at Wagner's Lanes in Eau Claire, WI, Payton Schwetz announced on his Instagram page that he has committed to UW-Whitewater. The Eau Claire native and North High School senior goes on to thank his family, friends and others who have helped to get him this far in bowling. Several of them were at Wagner's during the interview and put in their two cents about this b...

The latest of more than 2,200 videos to be uploaded to the Irishpogi YouTube channel was originally recorded in January 1982. Despite not including the end of the championship match, it has a lot of traction, like many others on the channel.  At the time of this recording, it had north of 900 views.  That’s the kind of thing that keeps John McLaughlin of Staten Island, New York posting classic PBA...

As he said before starting up the show and proved in the middle of it, John Knight of New Hartford, New York does not have much to say about his own bowling. His USBC member stats show a high average of 192. They don’t show a record of him bowling in a sanctioned league in several years . But you don’t have to throw 'em really well to drill 'em really well. Ten years ago, Knight founded John Knigh...

Seriously, what would the Wisconsin Vintage Alleys Tour be without Yvonne Bennett?   Fortunately, nobody has to find out just yet. The retired Executive Director of the Bowling Centers Association of Wisconsin who created the tour will be leading it. BCAW has taken her on in a consultant role for the event, as well as another vintage alleys tour in Wisconsin later in 2025.   WI Vintage Alleys Tour...

After the PWBA made some changes that impacted the players earlier this year, BowlForward made some changes too. BowlForward is an organization led by Chris Pulliam of Las Vegas. It will award cash to certain PWBA athletes that apply, meet certain criteria and are selected by a volunteer committee.  Chris recently joined the livestream to explain how BowlForward will look moving forward. BowlForwa...

It won't be a long road trip to Intercollegiate Sectionals for this coach and her relatively new women's program next month. Melanie McDaniel of Joliet, IL and her Governors State University Jaguars learned they are headed to Addison, IL on Feb. 19, as their watch party was featured on the USBC's 2025 Sectionals Assignment Show. The school's bowling program is finishing up its first full season of...

The last time we caught up with Patrick Martinez, we were literally talking about South Point hot dogs. Back then, and I say that in air quotes because it wasn’t even a year ago, Patrick may have been best known for his Patty Cam on BowlTV. At the beginning of 2025 he announced that he was starting a video production company. The Cloud Media Productions Inc. took a lot of time and a lot of thought...

The 2025 PBA Tour has lots of talented stars and players looking to make their mark for the first time. What it doesn't have is Joe Grondin. The San Pedro, CA native who is now living near Lansing, MI announced at the end of last year that he was trading tour life for the working world...and mentioned some great personal things that have him excited for A New Path Forward! You may remember Grondin...

At the time this is distributed to your favorite podcast platform, Eau Claire area USBC adult members have a little more than a week to register for their association tournament. And they should! There are incentives upon incentives to bowl this tournament in Eau Claire, WI, and you don’t have to bowl like a champion to walk away a winner.  Go to bit.ly/2025ecusbc (all lower case letters...it is c...

Sometimes things just come into our lives for whatever reason and have a big, honkin' impact.   For Brian Hirsch of Salem, WI that was bowling.   Nowadays, he’s passing on all his knowledge to his son, who is a regular at youth tournaments across Wisconsin.    It’s Masen and me…the bowling story of Brian Hirsch. ---------------------------------------- What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!...

It goes without saying that EJ Tackett is leading Team MOTIV at the upcoming PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands.   In a social media prank that was well executed, MOTIV guys Ronnie Russell and Brett Spangler claimed that Ronnie’s brother in law would be replacing EJ on the team.   EJ took that joke like a champ, and a discussion about the real Team MOTIV is where we started the episode Top of...