Sunday, April 26, 2009, 10:41 AM PST [Equipment]
Columbia 300 Wrath Dead Flush - 15 lbs
Pin to CG Distance - 2.5"
Topweight - 3oz
Layout - #3 (pin under bridge - straight down)
Ball Reaction - late midlane and smooth backend
Comments:
I bought this ball slightly after my ball driller at the time went to the hospital for complications due to diabetes. I decided to give the other guy a chance, and this was the ball and layout that I chose. What I was looking for was a earlier, smoother rolling version of the first Wrath DF that I drilled, but what I ended up with is another extremely "condition specific" ball. The one thing I did like about this ball was how smooth it was off of the friction and if there was a really nastly bounce spot, it would smooth it out a little bit. The drawback was that it didn't like carrydown at all, it needed some head oil and you had to play it close to the oil line. It worked OK from straighter angles, but if you had to open it up to much, it would hit like a marshmellow. When it worked, it was good and I shot a few good games with it. The look just wasn't good very often. I think that it would work well on a "China" shot where you need to blend out the pattern and stay close to the friction, but it couldn't handle opening up the angles and hated carrydown. I ended up selling it back to the pro shop for trade in credit.
In hindsight, I think it was a bad layout choice, you don't drill a ball designed to skid/flip to roll that smooth. I have a second one that rolls much better, which I'll be reviewing once I've thrown it on some other lane conditions.