Liz Johnson Popular Books

Liz Johnson Biography & Facts

Elizabeth Ann Johnson (born May 2, 1974) is an American professional bowler. She first became known as an 11-time winner on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour, which included the first of her six U.S. Women's Open titles in 1996, before that organization suspended operations in 2003. Since the rebirth of the PWBA in 2015, Johnson has won eleven more PWBA Tour titles, including five more majors, for a total of 25 PWBA titles. This includes 22 titles on the PWBA Tour and three more major titles she won during the Tour's hiatus, which have retroactively been counted as PWBA titles. She won four additional professional titles during the PWBA Tour's hiatus, becoming a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) and the PBA Women's Series. Johnson was elected to the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in December 2014, and was officially inducted on April 29, 2015. At the 2005 PBA Banquet Open, Johnson became the first woman to defeat a man in a televised PBA Tour event, winning the semifinal match over Wes Malott. On November 18, 2017, Johnson became the second female bowler (after Kelly Kulick who won the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions) to win a national PBA Tour title, the third woman to defeat a man in a televised championship bowling match (the first was Lynda Barnes at the 2008 Clash of Champions, an event not hosted by the PBA Tour) and the first to win a non-major (standard) PBA Tour title. Johnson is currently a pro staff member for Storm, Turbo Grips, High 5 gear and Master bowling products. Personal life Born in Cheektowaga, New York, Johnson was a standout youth softball player, playing the sport from age eight through her high school graduation at Niagara-Wheatfield High School in Sanborn, New York. Primarily a pitcher, she won 60 games during her high school years. Shortly after high school, she won the 1992 Coca-Cola Youth Bowling Championships in the Girls' Scratch division. Johnson then bowled at Morehead State University, earning both Rookie of the Year and Collegiate Bowler of the Year honors in 1993, but stayed in college only one year, as she was determined to make bowling her career. She claims that bowling is the only job she's ever had. She worked in her local bowling center early on, and has held various pro shop and pro staff positions in addition to earning a living on the lanes. In 2018, she married her girlfriend Kasia Kaufman. She has resided in Palatine, Illinois, and now lives in Niagara Falls, New York. PWBA career (1995–2003) Johnson qualified for Team USA and joined the PWBA Tour shortly after leaving college. On the pro circuit, she started strong, capturing Rookie of the Year honors and a major tour victory at the U.S. Women's Open in 1996. She won a second PWBA major at the 2001 Hammer PWBA Players Championship. Another PWBA career highlight came in 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. In an emotional event held on September 14 — the first professional sporting event to resume after the attacks — Johnson bowled the third televised perfect 300 game in PWBA history to defeat Carolyn Dorin-Ballard in the final match of the Paula Carter Classic. Competing in the PBA Not to be denied the opportunity to bowl in professional competition, Johnson became a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) — generally regarded as the "men's tour" — in 2004. Early in the 2004–05 season, she made history by becoming the first woman to qualify for a standard PBA tour event, making the Round of 64 at the 2004 Uniroyal Tire Classic. Later that season, she raised the bar even higher by becoming the first woman to make the televised finals of a PBA event (2005 Banquet Open). In this event, she also became the first woman to ever defeat a man in a PBA Tour broadcast, winning her semifinal match over Wes Malott by a score of 235–228. She was unable to complete the quest for a title, falling 219–192 to eventual PBA Player of the Year Tommy Jones in the final match. Johnson posted another "first" in the summer of 2005 — becoming the first woman to win a PBA event, as she captured the title in a PBA Regional Tour stop (2005 East Region Kingpin Lanes Open). To win that tournament, she had to defeat four-time PBA titlist Ryan Shafer in the semifinal, and PBA tour veteran Mike Fagan in the finals. On November 18, 2017, Johnson won the PBA Chameleon Championship at the 2017 World Series of Bowling in Reno, Nevada, her first win on the national PBA Tour and the second victory ever recorded by a female on the Tour, following Kelly Kulick in 2010. Johnson is also the third woman to defeat a man in a televised bowling championship match. Lynda Barnes was the first woman to do so by defeating Sean Rash in the 2008 USBC Clash of Champions, but this event was not part of the PBA Tour. Kulick became the second woman to defeat a man in a televised title bowling match, but the first to do so in a PBA Tour event, that being the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions invitational. Johnson became the first woman to win an open, non-major PBA Tour title. Major Wins and PBA Women's Series (2004–14) Johnson won the 2007 U.S. Women's Open over close friend and tour roommate Shannon O'Keefe at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada. The event returned in 2007 from a three-year hiatus when its rights were acquired by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). Johnson also won the 2007 PBA Ladies and Legends tournament (with partner Roger Kossert), which was part of that season's PBA Senior Tour. Johnson's first PBA Women's Series title came in the Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles event, where she partnered with Norm Duke for the victory on January 6, 2009. In the Baker Doubles format, Johnson threw five of the ten frames in the final match, and had a strike in every frame. She won her first and only singles title in the PBA Women's Series on September 5, 2009, at the PBA Viper Championship. The PBA Women's Series would only last for three seasons, ending in April, 2010, again leaving Johnson and other female professionals without a national tour. Johnson won another major title at the 2009 USBC Queens tournament, which was not part of the PBA Women's Series, at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada. Johnson qualified as the top seed in the May 2010 U.S. Women's Open, but lost in the final match to Kelly Kulick. She avenged her loss in the 2013 U.S. Women's Open, with a convincing 257–195 win over Kulick in the final match to earn her third U.S. Open crown. With the victory, Johnson joined Marion Ladewig, Patty Costello and Kulick as the only players to win the U.S. Women's Open at least three times. Following the 2013 event, Johnson cashed an additional $10,000 by winning the "Battle of the Sexes" over men's U.S. Open champion Wes Malott, whom she had previously beaten on television in 2005. The PWBA has since credited Johnson's three major championships during the PWBA Tour's h.... Discover the Liz Johnson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Liz Johnson books.