Article Contents
- 1. Background
- 1.1. PBA participant suggestions
- 1.2. The Webber Worldwide incident
- 1.3. Event official suggestions
- 1.4. Third-party working group suggestions
- 2. The USBC’s areas of concern
- 2.1. Lane sample integrity
- 2.2. Participant growth considerations
- 2.3. Governance and integrity challenges
- 3. Breaking down the ban
- 3.1. Gradual oil-absorbing high-performance balls
- 3.2. Gradual oil-absorbing non-high-performance balls
- 4. Responses from the IBF/EBF, the PBA, and Hammer
- 4.1. Worldwide Bowling Federation (IBF)/European Bowling Federation (EBF)
- 4.2. PBA
- 4.3. Hammer/Brunswick
- 5. Sensible issues and shutting ideas
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Thought we had seen the final of the urethane controversy? Assume once more, pricey readers! This time, nonetheless, issues have taken a determined left flip, focusing not completely on urethane floor hardness (beforehand addressed by each the USBC and the PBA, and mentioned in my prior article on the matter), however on the interplay between urethane balls and reactive resin balls when each are getting used on the identical lanes and patterns.
Background
In mid-2025, the USBC acknowledged on its web site that it had obtained “quite a few complaints about urethane,” citing the next sources of these complaints.
PBA participant suggestions
On the PBA Tour, urethane use is prevalent, particularly on sure oil patterns. Whereas the USBC didn’t point out which PBA bowlers complained, Sean Rash is one instance of a bowler who has been exceptionally vocal and outspoken about urethane use on the PBA Tour, notably in the course of the 2022 PBA Gamers Championship Midwest Area stepladder finals. Whereas Rash was fined and suspended for his feedback and use of profanity, the PBA subsequently adopted a urethane hardness normal of a minimal of 78D, eliminating using each the Purple Hammer and the Storm Pitch Black. Brunswick and Storm responded with the Hammer Black Pearl Urethane and the Storm IQ Tour 78/U, each manufactured at 78D+ hardness and subsequently permitted in PBA competitors.
Since then, the PBA has remained silent relating to urethane, which leads me to query why the USBC even cited “PBA participant considerations” as one among its motivational sources to reawaken this matter.
The Webber Worldwide incident
In its report entitled USBC Completes Investigation of Webber International, the USBC acknowledged that on February 17, 2025, the USBC Guidelines committee had obtained a criticism, based mostly on a screenshot of a Reddit put up, written by a member of the Webber Worldwide collegiate bowling workforce, stating that “we actually drill 16 pound purples for greater diffs, and soften them so we will push the boundaries and throw them extra.”
In March of 2025, the USBC launched the above-referenced report and its findings. The brief model is that, as an experiment condoned by the unnamed (within the USBC report) Affiliate Head Coach of the Webber workforce, a number of Webber bowlers and an unnamed Kegel Coaching Middle (the place the …
