The Comeback Kid is what they are calling her on the women's Pro Bowler Association Tour after Tammy Boomershine, who lives in North Ogden, won the 2009 U.S. Women's Open this summer in Las Vegas.
More than 170 competitors battled through 40 grueling games of qualifying before the field was pared down to the top 12, who were then placed in a single-elimination bracket and taped for ESPN. This head-to-head competition resulted in Boomershine emerging on top to claim the first prize of $25,000.
In the final match, Boomershine defeated PBA Hall of Famer, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, who has 21 pro titles to her credit.
"I am really not a kid," said Boomershine, who is 39. "But when I started the tour, I was supposed to be one of the very best. I came out and did very well for three years. I won four tournaments. But when I came back from my back surgery, I never bowled well again. My career went down the tubes and I never reached my full potential.
"That is why they are now calling me the Comeback Kid."
In college, Boomershine bowled at West Texas A&M with Dorin and they won a national championship. In 1993, she bowled with the U.S. Bowling Team, traveling to several countries around the world.
She was named to the team in 1994, but relinquished her spot in favor of joining the PBA Tour, where she won four tournaments in the next three years.
The United States Bowling Congress named her an All-American and the player of the year in 1996. Then an old back injury flared up and she had to have surgery in 1997.
"I sat out for a year and a half," she said.
In 2003 she retired but decided to make another comeback in 2007 — again to little success.
This year everything fell into place and after winning the Open, she regained eligibility for the women's PBA Tour, which goes through January.
Currently Boomershine works in Layton as a financial administrator and she says, "90 percent of the girls who bowl have (day) jobs."
Her husband is vice president of sales for Storm Products in Brigham City. They produce high-performance bowling balls and it was his job that brought them to Utah in 2001.
"My husband and I very much enjoy living here," said Boomershine. "It is beautiful. We have met a new group of people here and they have become great friends."
Boomershine is originally from West Palm Beach, Fla.
"My parents were bowlers," she said, "and they started me at nine years-old in a Saturday morning junior league."
In high school, her bowling team won the Florida State Championship after which she ended up in West Texas.
In September, she bowled in a PBA tournament and she said, "I just drove 1,700 miles from here to Detroit and let me tell you something. There is only one drive that is worse and that is West Texas. It is barren, There ain't nothin' there."
She was disappointed in her showing in Detroit. "I didn't make it on to TV," she said. "I did finish in two top 8s and one top 4."
Boomershine still has injuries that keep from a regular training routine. But back before her surgery she bowled five or six days a week and some 75 to 100 games per week. She lifted weights and did cardio.
She said conditioning is just as important in bowling as any other sport.
"You look at other sports," she says. "I'll take any of those guys and let them try to bowl. Fifty games in three days and I'll tell you what, he isn't gonna make it. Their hand would be mush and they would have pains in places they never thought they would have pains.
"Would it take them very long to get up to speed? No. But initially they're not going to make it."
Although she had won a few tournaments before her surgery, Boomershine had never won the U.S. Open. "I finished second in 1998," she said, "In fact I have finished second in all of the majors.
"But Winning the U.S. Open was the highlight of my career. Mainly because of the circumstances that led up to it."
e-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com