Urethane bowling balls have been a hot topic in the bowling world over the last few years. Many bowlers have benefited from the earlier traction and smoother motion at the breakpoint of urethane, but these balls have recently fallen under the microscope, literally, as the PBA and USBC have studied the hardness and performance of urethane covers. While there are various reports that offer different findings, the PBA has new rules in place for their upcoming season that raise the minimum hardness of urethane coverstocks to 78D. In response, Hammer has designed and released the NU (Not Urethane) Blue Hammer to mimic a urethane shape on the lane with a non-urethane coverstock. It uses the symmetrical LED core design, with the same RG and differential as the Purple Solid Reactive. The new Not Urethane coverstock is finished at 500/1000 SiaAir. While this ball could be used with some success on our medium oil test pattern, it really excelled for our testers on the dry pattern.

Cranker is the only bowler out of our three testers who owns Hammer Purple Pearl Urethanes, as he bowls in more tournaments and comes across a wider spectrum of conditions outside of our testing parameters. He was able to drill a fresh purple pin Purple Pearl Urethane to compare to the NU Blue. On our fresh dry test pattern, he saw the Purple Pearl Urethane do what urethane typically does for the first several shots of a fresh cover: instantly grab the lane and miss the headpin left. As oil started to get on the cover, it started to ...