A: While we are happy to see how many Junior Gold qualifying tournaments are held around the country every year, the sheer number of them means girl bowlers and their parents often have to go “hunting” for qualifiers where there are enough girls to guarantee that they will not be combined with boys. Ideally, girls should not have to compete against boys for qualifying spots since they do not compete against boys at the Junior Gold Championships.

At the 2025 Junior Gold Championships, the average score in the qualifying rounds for U15 girls and U18 girls were closer to each other than the U15 girls were to the U15 boys or the U18 girls were to the U18 boys. This means it is far more likely (though of course, not always) for girls to be negatively impacted when combined with boys at a qualifier than the other way around. 

We believe that by guaranteeing that girls will not have to compete against boys at our qualifiers, our tournaments will be a destination for girl bowlers and they may even be willing to travel further to compete in our events. We also believe these events will get more girls interested in trying for Junior Gold and not giving up after one qualifier where most of the field they are competing against are boys. 

As for “boys-only qualifiers,” if someone wants to hold those, we think they should go for it! 

A: Annual GOAL memberships can be ordered for $20. Membership benefits include:

• Entry fees for our Junior Gold qualifiers that are $10 less than for non-members. If you enter two of our qualifiers, you will have broken even!

• GOAL members accumulate points via their participation and achievement in our Junior Gold qualifiers. The GOAL member with the highest point total in each age division at the end of the season will receive a SMART scholarship in the amount of $20 x the number of members in their age division. 

• Priority registration for our GOAL Bowling Scholarship Open in June.

• For more information on memberships and the points system, click here.

A: We are using a 1:4 qualifying ratio for every age division, the most generous ratio allowed by Junior Gold rules. Each age division must have at least four entries or it will be combined with another age division. Any age division with a number of entries not divisible by four will offer an additional Junior Gold qualifying spot via a “partially-paid” Junior Gold Championships entry fee. Bowlers offered a partially-paid spot must decide on the spot whether or not to accept it. For more on partially-paid spots, please see our questions about partially-paid spots.  

Since we are using a 1:4 qualifying ratio, each bowler’s entry fee for our tournament includes one-quarter of the cost of one Junior Gold Championships entry fee. Because the Junior Gold Championships entry fees vary by age divisions, so do ours. More than half of each entry fee for our tournaments is going toward Junior Gold Championships entry fees.

A: Yes.

For all of our Junior Gold qualifiers other than our "Last Chance"  qualifier:
We will be awarding SMART scholarship money three different ways. Make no mistake, the big scratch prizes of our tournaments will be qualifying for Junior Gold - especially with those fully-paid spots - but we feel these scholarships will enhance the experience of our tournaments for a greater number of bowlers.

A “runner-up” scholarship prize will be awarded to the bowler with the highest scratch score across all four games in each division who does not qualify for the 2027 Junior Gold Championships at the tournament in question. This gives the top finishing non-qualifying bowler the opportunity (at minimum) to exceed, in scholarship, the amount of money from their entry fee that went into the scratch and handicap prize funds. If an age division has more than 10 bowlers entered, the top “runner-up” is guaranteed to receive a scholarship prize matching or exceeding the entirety of her tournament entry fee. If a division has more than 15 bowlers, a second “runner-up” scholarship will be added. If a division reaches 20 bowlers, the amount of the second “runner-up” scholarship is guaranteed to match or exceed the entirety of the tournament entry fee.

Bowlers who have already previously qualified for the 2027 Junior Gold Championships prior to this tournament are eligible for “runner-up” scholarship prizes. Bowlers who qualify during the first tournament of a double-header event are eligible to compete for “runner-up” scholarship prizes during the second tournament of the event. Previously qualified bowlers who finish in a spot normally given a Junior Gold entry fee will instead receive the top available “runner-up” scholarship and the Junior Gold entries will be adjusted down the standings accordingly. 

As a way to recognize the added expense of the bowler being responsible for paying the remainder of a partially-paid Junior Gold entry, GOAL Bowling will provide a small SMART scholarship to bowlers who earn and accept partially-paid entry to the 2027 Junior Gold Championships at all but our last chance qualifier. The amounts for these scholarships are dependent upon age division, amount of the partially-paid entry, and number of bowlers entered in their age division. A bowler who declines her partially-paid Junior Gold entry will have her scholarship amount increased, as applicable, to match the amount of the highest “runner-up” scholarship being awarded in her age division. Any remaining unused funds from her declined partially-paid entry fee will be carried over into the handicap scholarship fund for this tournament.

To encourage bowlers to continue improving on challenging oil patterns, the bowler with the top handicap score over all games across all divisions will receive a SMART Scholarship. The size of that award as well as any runner-up handicap awards will be determined by the size of the tournament field and any additional fundraised scholarship money at the discretion of the tournament director. Any and all scholarship money fundraised outside of the entry fees for this tournament (e.g. via a ball raffle) will be added to the handicap scholarship prize fund. Handicap scholarship prizes are open to ALL bowlers participating in the tournament, including those who earn full- or partially-paid entry fees to the 2027 Junior Gold Championships and those who earn “runner-up” scholarship awards.

For our "Last Chance" Junior Gold qualifier:
We will be awarding SMART scholarship money two different ways. We will award a scholarship prize to the bowler with the top scrach score over all games across all divisions and a scholarship prize to the bowler with the top handicap score over all games across all divisions. The size of those awards and any runner-up awards for those categories will be determined by the remaining money from the prize pool after the Junior Gold Championship entry fees for qualifying bowlers are accounted for. Any and all scholarship money fundraised outside of the entry fees for this tournament (e.g. via a ball raffle) will be split evenly between the scratch and handicap prize pools. Handicap and scratch scholarship prizes are open to ALL bowlers participating in the tournament, including those who earn full- or partially-paid entry fees to the 2027 Junior Gold Championships.

A: Yes, we hold an annual Scholarship tournament in June that is open to all female youth USBC members. It is bowled on a sport oil pattern and bowlers compete for SMART scholarships via scratch scores within their age divisions and via scores with handicap against the entire tournament field.

A: No, it's not about that. We want to qualify as many girls as possible and have at least one additional bowler in each division walk away with a little something because …

1) Belief. We want bowlers to stay engaged. If they don't qualify on the first try, we want them to keep pushing and go for it again. Getting more girls qualified out of the gate opens up additional opportunities as the season goes on. This provides motivation to continue. Finishing sixth in a field of nine bowlers and seeing only one spot awarded can be despiriting. Sixth with three spots (two fulls, one partial) awarded and a fourth getting a scholarship changes the perspective.

2) Value. We know attending a tournament is often expensive and we know there are added fixed expenses beyond the entry fee (gas, meals ... even a bowler's and a bowler's family's time has inherent value). Having a slightly higher entry fee so more bowlers can qualify and additional bowlers get a little something (or more) back in the form of scholarship money means that there is a return value for entering the tournament to a higher percentage of bowlers and families. 

We also believe in the value of attending the Junior Gold Championships (where, incidentally, there is also a 1:3 prize ratio). It can be an incredible experience and lead bowlers to commit to the sport for the long term. And that's a win for all of bowling.

A: Yes, the Junior Gold Championships are a scratch competition. However, we believe in awarding a handicap scholarship prize as a motivation for our bowlers, regardless of their scratch scores, to continue to improve on difficult oil patterns. For bowlers who may not be in qualification contention at the start of the season, the handicap prize also offers an incentive to come to early events as other bowlers qualify and will hopefully keep them engaged and keep pursuing qualification later in the season as more of the top bowlers have already gotten their spots.

A: By the time April rolls around, many bowlers seeking Junior Gold qualification have already qualified and "last chance" qualifiers are often sparsely attended because of this and bowlers seeking qualification are often competing for just one or two overall spots in combined divisions. In order to encourage previously qualified bowlers to enter our "Last Chance" qualifier to fill out the age divisions, we have redirected scratch scholarship money to an overall scratch prize(s) at the tournament. In addition, GOAL members participating in our "Last Chance" qualifier will received double the usual points for participation and placement at our "Last Chance" event. 

A: Junior Gold rules dictate that there must be at least four bowlers entered in an age division in order to award a Junior Gold Championships spot. If, for some reason, one or more of our age divisions ends up with fewer than four bowlers entered, we will combine age divisions. There are a few things you need to know about that:

An age division with fewer than four bowlers may be combined with the age division immediately above them in any circumstance. In other words, if there are only three bowlers entered in U14, they will be combined with U16 whether U16 has one bowler entered or 15 bowlers entered. If two age divisions being combined were to somehow result in there still being fewer than four bowlers, they would both be combined into the next division up. 

An age division with at least four bowlers entered will not be combined with the age division immediately above them, except at our "Last Chance" Qualifier in April. In other words, if U12 has four bowlers entered, U14 has three, and U16 has 12, all three U14 bowlers will be combined into U16. In the unlikely event that there are fewer than four U18 bowlers entered and U16 has at least four bowlers entered, we would offer the U18 bowlers who are entered a full refund (or they can choose to remain in the tournament and compete for handicap scholarship(s)). At our "Last Chance" Qualifier, bowlers entered in age division with fewer than four bowlers may be combined into a lower age division even if the lower age division has four or more bowlers already entered.

Junior Gold rules dictate that the Junior Gold Championships entry fee for someone qualifying from a combined age division match that of the highest age division involved in the combination. Thus, a combined U12/U14 age division would carry with it the U14 championship entry fee, even if the qualifying bowler is U12. Because of that, if we have to combine divisions, it may result in an increase in your entry fee for our tournament. We would run the combined age division with all of the scholarship payouts designed for the older age division as well. If a bowler wishes to withdraw from the tournament because of the combined divisions, she may do so and receive a full refund. 

Any bowler who qualifies in a combined age division will compete at the Junior Gold Championships in her own age division. 

A: Our entry list will be public once registration opens. In addition, once we are within one week of the tournament, every effort will be made to individually notify bowlers of the possibility of combined divisions. 

A: All of our patterns will be sport patterns. At the Junior Gold Championships, none of the oil patterns are released in advance and the bowlers' only opportunities to practice on them come in the form of a 30 minute practice session and the standard 10 minute practice before competition.

While we do not anticipate withholding our patterns for a variety of reasons (chiefly that most of our volunteers will have girls competing in these tournaments and we do not want to give even the suggestion that our daughters will have access to information other bowlers do not), we do want to make sure they are challenging. We want to make sure GOAL bowlers are prepared for the kind of challenges they will face at the Junior Gold Championships.

A: Yes, you can and yes there certainly is! On an individual level, you can still compete for the “runner-up” scratch scholarship(s) in your age division as it is awarded to the highest finisher(s) in the age division who does not qualify at the tournament in question. Previously qualified bowlers fit that description. You can also compete for our overall handicap scholarship(s) and, of course, you will gain valuable experience bowling on sport patterns against your peers in a competitive environment. At our "Last Chance" qualifier, you can also compete for an overall scratch scholarship prize rather than smaller "runner-up" prizes.

Beyond that, please know that a previously-qualified bowler who enters one of our qualifiers is guaranteed to help another bowler. Because of how we are handling partially-paid qualifiers the addition of just one bowler to an age division is guaranteed to do one of three things: a) create an additional fully-paid qualification spot, b) create a partially-paid qualification spot in a division that would otherwise have none, or c) reduce the amount of money a partially-paid qualifier will have to contribute to complete her Junior Gold Championships entry fee. 

Ultimately, since both the number of bowlers who make the advancers round and the number of scholarship payouts at the Junior Gold Championships are based on the number of bowlers in a given age division competing there, a larger field at the championships still benefits the top bowlers.

A: It *is* confusing! But we’ll try to explain. 

Junior Gold qualifying tournaments (like GOAL) are responsible for submitting the entry fees for the Junior Gold Championships for the bowlers who qualify at their tournaments. Qualifying tournaments typically build the cost of the Junior Gold Championships entry fees into the entry fees for the qualifying tournament. This cost is divvied up among entrants using the same ratio as the qualifying ratio being used at the tournament. In other words, if one in four bowlers is receiving a Junior Gold qualification, each bowler is paying in 1/4th of a Junior Gold entry fee as part of their entry fee at a qualifying tournament.

So, if a tournament is using a qualifying ratio of one in four and there are 4, 8, 12, 16, etc., bowlers in an age division, the math works perfectly. There is enough money set aside to fully pay for 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., Junior Gold Championship entry fees. But what happens if there is a 1:4 qualifying ratio and the number of bowlers in an age division isn’t divisible by four? What happens to the “leftover” money? Well, the Junior Gold rules give tournament directors some options.

One of those options - the one we are using - is to offer a “partially-paid” Junior Gold Championships qualifying spot to the bowler who finishes one spot behind the last bowler who earns a fully-paid qualification spot. If the bowler accepts, she is responsible for paying the difference between the leftover money from the qualifying tournament entry fee and the entry fee for the Junior Gold Championships. (She is not required to accept and may choose to continue competing for a fully-paid spot at future qualifying tournaments instead.) The amount of money the bowler would be required to pay to make up the difference is based on the amount of the Junior Gold Championships entry fee for her division and how many bowlers “over the ratio” were entered in her age division at the qualifying tournament. Let’s walk through an example:

The Junior Gold Championships entry fee differs by age division. For 2026, the entry fees are $150 for U12, $200 for U14, and $250 for both U16 and U18. To make the math easy, let’s use U14 with a qualifying tournament using a qualifying ratio of 1:4. In that case, each U14 bowler’s entry fee into the qualifying tournament would include $50 to pay for one-quarter of one $200 U14 Junior Gold Championships entry fee. If there are the following numbers of U14 entrants in the qualifying tournament, there would be these corresponding amounts of “leftover” Junior Gold Championships entry fee money: 

5, 9, 13, 17, etc. entrants: $50
6, 10, 14, 18, etc. entrants: $100
7, 11, 15, 19, etc. entrants: $150

The second-place finisher in a field of five U14 entrants would thus have the option to pay the qualifying  tournament the remaining $150 for a Junior Gold Championships entry fee. A second-place finisher in a field of six would have the option to pay $100, while a second-place finisher in a field of seven would have the option to pay $50.

As mentioned before, a bowler does not have to accept a partially-paid spot. But we think she should. It’s better to have your qualifying spot for the Junior Gold Championships wrapped up and the entry fee difference pales in comparison to the costs of travel, lodging, etc., to attend the championships anyway.

But if she chooses not to accept, what happens to the remaining money? Junior Gold rules dictate that the money be returned to competing bowlers  as scholarship money in some fashion, whether directly through scholarship awards at the tournament in question or in a future event of a series of qualifiers.

At GOAL, for all but our "Last Chance" qualifier, we will take any unused partial Junior Gold Championships entry fee funds and: 1) raise the bowler’s small SMART scholarship we’re already going to attach to “partial” qualifiers to match that of our top “runner-up” scholarship for her division and 2) move any remaining funds after the  “runner-up” scholarship match into our handicap scholarship fund which all bowlers competing in our qualifiers will also be competing for. For our "Last Chance" qualifier, those unused funds will be split evenly between the scratch and handicap prize pools. 

A: Yes. Tournament directors are responsible for submitting the Junior Gold Championships entry fees so all decisions on whether or not to accept the spot must be made immediately when it is offered at the conclusion of one of our events. In addition, the remaining money owed for the spot must be paid to us before leaving the tournament site. Once our tournament director submits the entry fees, there is no refund. Even if the bowler later decides not to attend (or is unable to attend) the Junior Gold Championships, the entry fee money has already been submitted and cannot be recovered. Please be aware of this and prepare for the possibility of being offered a “partially-paid” spot before entering our tournaments.

A: At most qualifiers, nothing. You turn it down and you walk away empty-handed but with the ability to continue attempting to earn a fully-paid spot at other tournaments.

For all but our "Last Chance" Qualifier, however, we are already offering all of our partially-paid qualifiers a small SMART scholarship as recognition of the additional financial cost of accepting a “partially-paid” spot. If you still choose to turn down the “partially-paid” spot, we will raise your SMART scholarship amount to match that of the “runner-up” scholarship received by the bowler in your age division with the highest non-qualifying score. The remainder of the money intended for the partially-paid spot (if any) will then be placed in our handicap scholarship fund for the tournament.    

At our "Last Chance" qualifier, turning down a partially-paid spot results in that money being split evenly into our scratch and handicap scholarship funds. You would not receive any scholarship money attached to accepting the spot nor any additional money attached to turning it down. 

A: No. This is not allowed by Junior Gold rules. You will still receive your “runner-up” scholarship that we award our highest non-qualifying bowler in each age division, but the money intended for the partially-paid spot will be placed in our handicap scholarship fund for the tournament. 

A: Yes, please! The Junior Gold Championships are an “opt-out” event once you have qualified and your name has been submitted. This means that unless you officially withdraw from the event, they assume you are coming! (They will even assign you a squad if you do not choose one yourself.) Because alternates are named at every Junior Gold qualifying event, it is up to you to withdraw in order for one of the alternates to be offered a spot in your place. If you have qualified but are not going to attend the Junior Gold Championships, please contact IBC Youth IMMEDIATELY at youth@ibcyouth.com. You may contact us as well, but we do not play a role in Junior Gold Championships withdrawals or in contacting alternates. 

A: In order for us to give our competing bowlers the most accurate information on the size and composition of their age division, we are requiring payment in advance in order to avoid no-shows. Filling out our entry form reserves a spot in our tournament but registration is not final until payment is received. If a bowler wishes to withdraw from the tournament for any reason, she may do so by 12 p.m. the day before the tournament and receive a full refund. After that time, the tournament field will be considered final. This is to ensure that bowlers attending the tournament know how many Junior Gold spots are being offered in their age division prior to arriving at the tournament. 

Requiring payment in advance also allows for our check-in process to move along quickly, meaning bowlers need not show up as early for our events.

A: Electronic payments are the easiest way to financially protect both ourselves and our entering bowlers (and their families). It also allows for our check-in process to move along quickly, meaning bowlers need not show up as early for our events. 

A: A bowler may withdraw from the tournament up until 12 p.m. the day before the tournament for any reason and receive a full refund. After that time, the tournament field will be considered final. This is to ensure that bowlers attending the tournament know how many Junior Gold spots are being offered in their age division prior to arriving at the tournament.

Please note that these rules apply to our “double-header” qualifiers as well. If a bowler enters both qualifiers in a double-header and qualifies during the first one, she cannot receive a refund for the second one; in the second qualifier, she would be eligible to compete for the “runner-up” scholarship prize(s) in her age division as well as for the overall handicap scholarship(s). 

A: No. This is to ensure that bowlers attending the tournament know how many bowlers are competing in their age division prior to arriving at the tournament. 

Please note that this rule applies to our “double-header” qualifiers as well. If a bowler only enters the first qualifier ahead of time, she cannot enter the second one “on site.” 

A: Email us at goalbowling@gmail.com or message us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok!