Sure am glad we got some reading material.Was getting tired of only reading about Storm And Roto Grip stuff.

But on another note, has anyone EVER seen someone drilling a hole deeper in the ball during competition? I didn't even know that was a thing... 

I didn't even know that was a thing either! The closest I ever saw to that was years ago when I went to my first nationals.

A team mate at check in before we ever bowled had a ball they said had too much finger weight and they told him take it over to one of the booths and they'd drill it out, So He took it over to the Hammer booth.

They took a bit barely bigger than a pencil and ran it down through the hole in both grips. I thought the bit would come out the other side they ran it in so far.

The ball passed then, But it wouldn't hook for nothing after that though even after he came back home it went straight as arrow.

So in 2020 you are allowed to have up to 3oz of finger/side/thumb weight.  If I drilled a ball to have 0 finger and 0 thumb weight, then used lead tape in either my fingers or thumb, I could effectively change the reaction of my ball during competition by adding or removing the tape.  You could go from 3oz finger one frame to 3oz thumb the next...awesome!

It would be illegal, lead is a metal and you can't put metal in a ball.

So all my equipment with balance holes drilled to conform with the stupid rules regarding static weights, will now have to be plugged to conform with the new static rules?

Hey USBC --- F&CK @FF !

I don't see me plugging all my weight holes on $200 + dollar equipment that was INTENTIONALLY drilled with a weight hole to MAKE IT LEGAL. 

Oil absorbtion rule .. Awesome. 

Use all the gripping holes .. people that take a finger out of the ball to shoot spares (shotmaking anyone ??) will be penalized AND THE 2 HANDERS get to keep doing their thing .  Seems counterintuitive.

No Balance Holes?  STUPID !

I'm glad I play golf.

Are vent holes for thumb hole illegal now.

#noholesmatter #throwitnib

One thing that seems to be not so evident here is that no one should have to plug their whole ball, unless they want to. 

Assuming it's legal now, they just need to plug the balance hole and the ball would be way under the new 3 oz static weight rule.  Currently the ball should have less than 1 oz static weight...

Having said that, do I think USBC is opening a huge can of worms?  Yes, I do.

Where will this ever end?  These changes, along with not cleaning your ball with an APPROVED by USBC cleaner, are probably the tip of the iceberg of USBC meddling and trying to fix things that may not be broken in order to justify their existence.

The only thing that will really change, is pro shops will learn to use the pin placement to create flare, instead of trying to use a balance hole to alter the shape of the core, after a too weak of pin placement. Any good ball driller already knows this.

Oil absorption rate is a big ado about nothing. You can create traction with peaks and valleys, you don't necessarily need a highly porous cover material.

again, the USBC has scratched their "knee" when it is the elbow that itches.

The only possible conflict I can see, is if a shop tries to get close to the limits of 3oz because of a ball with a lot of top weight, you don't have a remedy to fix it with an X hole. Probably want to stay closer to 2.5 to be safe, because sometimes things just happen when you start drilling into these cores, that you don't necessarily expect.

They could've allowed a longer time period like say a full year to allow the 3oz rule to be in place before no X holes. Anyone who has worked in the pro shop knows bowlers will be showing up on Thursday night to get their ball fixed for Friday.