Kelly Kulick

American professional ten pin bowler

Kelly Kulick (born March 16, 1977) is an American professional bowler, bowling coach and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors), one PBA Tour title (a major) and a professional mixed doubles title. Kulick is the first woman ever to win a regular Professional Bowlers Association tour title and the only woman to win a major PBA Tour tournament. She is a 16 time member of Team USA (1998–2001, 2008, 2010–2020). Kulick is currently a pro staff member for Storm Bowling, Vise grips and High 5 gear. In 2019, Kulick was inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame, Superior Performance category. She has won four medals at The World Games, including two golds. Kulick is currently the head coach for Junior Team USA.

Kulick attended and bowled competitively at Morehead State University, where she was a two time Collegiate Bowler of the Year and two time All American. She graduated from Morehead State with a degree in Physical and Health Education. Kulick has been a 16 time member of Team USA (1998–2001, 2008, and 2010–2020) and was on Junior Team USA in 1998 and 2000. She was part of the 2011 team that took home the United States' first gold medal in the team event of the World Tenpin Bowling Championships since 1987. Kulick won two medals each at The World Games 2013 in Cali, Colombia and The World Games 2017 in Wrocław, Poland. In December 2015, Kulick and Team USA teammate Danielle McEwan won the Gold Medal in the doubles competition at the World Bowling Women's Championship in Abu Dhabi, and she was on the Team USA squad that won the Gold Medal in the team( of five) competition. Overall, Kulick has won 40 medals in international competition. In this event, which took place in January 2010, Kulick soundly defeated the field of male bowlers to become the first woman to win any PBA Tour event that was also open to men. She also locked up a two year PBA Tour exemption. Kulick's amazing 2010 continued when she won her second USBC Queens crown on April 28, 2010, then won the U. S. Women's Open on May 12, 2010. She also won the 33rd Malaysian Open in 2010. For her efforts, she was presented with three awards at the PBA Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on January 22, 2011: the 2010 Bowlers Journal Person of the Year, the 2010 World Bowling Writers International Bowler of the Year, and the 2010 Glenn Allison Hero Award. On June 4, 2011, Kelly won the 44th Singapore International Open. On June 30, 2011, Kelly had the chance to be the first woman in 32 years to successfully defend a U. S. Women's Open title, when she averaged over 241 during qualifying to capture the #1 seed for the event in Arlington, Texas. But Kulick rolled her lowest game of the entire tournament in the televised finals, getting upset by Leanne Hulsenberg, 218–183. Kelly rebounded by winning the 2012 U. S. Women's Open, in the process becoming only the third woman (besides Marion Ladewig and Patty Costello) to win the event at least three times. Liz Johnson joined that exclusive group the following year, with her third U. S. Women's Open win. Kulick has won back to back World Bowling Tour (WBT) Women's Finals at the World Series of Bowling in Las Vegas, NV. She defeated Missy Parkin in 2013 and Liz Johnson in 2014. The WBT Finals is a non title tournament, with finalists based on a rolling points list from WBT tournaments over the previous two years. In 2015, Kulick won the BPAA's Dick Weber Bowling Ambassador Award, an honor given annually to the "bowling athlete who has consistently shown grace on and off the lanes by promoting the sport of bowling in a positive manner."

Following the rebirth of the PWBA Tour in 2015, Kulick won the title at the PWBA Fountain Valley Open (Fountain Valley, CA) on May 23, 2017. With her previous women's major wins being counted as PWBA titles, Kulick was credited with her sixth PWBA Tour championship. Kulick finished runner up to Shannon O'Keefe in the final major of the 2017 season (The Smithfield PWBA Tour Championship), while also finishing runner up to Liz Johnson in PWBA Player of the Year points. She also finished runner up in the last two majors of the 2018 season, the PWBA Players Championship and PWBA Tour Championship. On June 5, 2021 Kulick won the PWBA Albany Open for her seventh PWBA Tour title and 12th professional title overall.

Kelly Kulick was featured as a supporting character in Spider Man's cast, as friend and former girlfriend of Flash Thompson, starting with Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man #20. She was written into the comic after bowling a pro am event with the daughter of one of the Spider Man writers. Her main goal was to have an actual role in the movie, such as Parker's girlfriend. However, it did not happen due to Kulick's objection to a wet shirt make out scene in Spiderman. Kulick has also endorsed several clothing lines, including many bathing suit lines, following her win at the Tournament of Champions. Kulick posed nude (with strategically placed shadows) for ESPN The Magazine's annual "Bodies We Want" issue in October, 2011. The issue featured Kulick along with 19 other professional athletes, both male and female. Kulick is the first bowler to ever appear in this issue. Kulick appears in an ESPN Bridgestone commercial, also including sports reporter Michelle Beadle, in which she rolls a bowling ball made of special rubber down a long lane through three separate sets of ten pins, knocking down all of them along the way. At the end of the commercial, she is seen with the Bridgestone scientist trying to pry the prototype away from him. From 2016 to the present, Kulick has provided color commentary for CBS Sports Network broadcasts of the PWBA Tour, except in tournaments where she qualified for the televised finals.

Outside of bowling, Kulick enjoys cooking, country music and line dancing. She is a USBC silver certified bowling coach. In December 2021, Kulick was named head coach of Junior Team USA.