Having a Ball

From the time she was big enough to lift a bowling ball, Melissa “Missy” Bellinder knew what she wanted to do with her life: She wanted to be a professional bowler.

“I’m sure my teachers were stunned to hear this odd idea coming from such a young girl,” Bellinder recalls, “but that’s been my dream since the age of four or so.” Today Bellinder is living her dream as a professional and an emissary for the sport. She had been looking forward to competing in the PBA women’s tour, but that folded by the time she became a professional. In 2004 she became the first woman to join the Men’s Professional Bowlers Association.

Having first joined leagues at the age of seven, Bellinder’s career began in earnest a few years later. At age 14, she rolled her first 300 game at a scratch junior tournament club while on the Junior Amateur Bowling Tour. At 20, she was voted Most Valuable Player on Cal State Fullerton’s men’s bowling team (there wasn’t a women’s team).

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