The Tuff is not enough. If 250 No-tap is good then the kid needs to get a thumb anyway. Those are the scores one should be looking for in "real" scoring situations. I feel like I sucked at life if I walk away from the lanes without a 600 series at minimum. Most 600s turn into low 800s for me on no tap situations. No tap is a way to make an average bowler look better than they are. In this day in age knocking down 9 with a decent ball on a THS consists of touching the head pin. Think of the combonations to leave one pin, you hit at a poor angle, 10pin. Come in heavy 4 pin, get high and tight might leave a 7. Get a ton of angle and you have a 9 pin. Hit sloppy and light might get a 2 pin. Go brooklyn and all the same applies with a 5 pin thrown in there. Its not a good judge. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I was averaging 160 in my highschool league and pounding out high 200's in no tap. Then I actually learned to bowl and I lead my league in average, had league high series and knocked off the guy that had held the league by the balls for 3 years running. There is much more to be gained by learning to bowl correctly. One can learn to rotate the ball hard and have a thumb in the ball to guide the trajectory and control the axis tilt if they are willing to try.
In short I'm sorry to rant, but until he learns to bowl you are throwing your money away on equipment. If he feels he wants to bowl that way then tell him to earn the money for a new ball. I know, I'm not in your shoes, but there is no sense is wasting the time or money for it.