Sterner had a plugged ball as well . Of course it was legal.

Although this is labeled a PBA Major tournament, this tournament is a USBC run tournament, so all USBC rules still apply, meaning, as long as bowling balls are USBC approved and meet all regulations, they can be used in competition.  Hence, Butturff used an old plugged Columbia U2 earlier in the week.

It was a great show, congrats to all who made the show. 

Although this is labeled a PBA Major tournament, this tournament is a USBC run tournament, so all USBC rules still apply, meaning, as long as bowling balls are USBC approved and meet all regulations, they can be used in competition.  Hence, Butturff used an old plugged Columbia U2 earlier in the week.

It was a great show, congrats to all who made the show.

This brings up an interesting question. As this is a USBC tournament, and USBC-approved balls can be used. This means that international balls that are USBC approved could be used, including, for example, any overseas Black Widows (like BW Purple Pearl Urethane), overseas IQ Tours, etc.

Does the PBA have a different approved ball list? and if so, would balls sold overseas that are still USBC approved still be allowed, or would they be sin binned?

BL.

Quote from: bradl on April 12, 2021, 02:37:40 PM

Quote from: slhohnstein on April 11, 2021, 06:14:26 PM

Although this is labeled a PBA Major tournament, this tournament is a USBC run tournament, so all USBC rules still apply, meaning, as long as bowling balls are USBC approved and meet all regulations, they can be used in competition.  Hence, Butturff used an old plugged Columbia U2 earlier in the week.

It was a great show, congrats to all who made the show.

This brings up an interesting question. As this is a USBC tournament, and USBC-approved balls can be used. This means that international balls that are USBC approved could be used, including, for example, any overseas Black Widows (like BW Purple Pearl Urethane), overseas IQ Tours, etc.

Does the PBA have a different approved ball list? and if so, would balls sold overseas that are still USBC approved still be allowed, or would they be sin binned?

BL.

As far as I'm aware they are not allowed.

The only exception applies to Non-US residents and the overseas ball must have an equivalent here in the US.
There's an additional written approval exception but I'm not sure what would qualify for that

Thanks for this. All very interesting.

I'd love to see if the arsenals for Yon-Jin Gu and Jun-Yung Kim are still available. They were the two in the title match of the 2010 Scorpion Championship, and both were from South Korea.

BL.

Here you go.  Jason Belmonte in this video clearly states he gets to use this overseas ball at the Masters and US Open. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryO0DN7NG5s

Ugh.  Just an ad for a Belmonte "signature" ball.  "Go there now, use this coupon code, and pick one up!"  It's so good he brought his from home to use...when the site he is promoting probably would have just given him a couple of them in exchange for recording the video.  Please.

The Masters and the Open are USBC events, so any USBC approved ball can be used regardless of where it was released. 

Just once I would like to see both a Masters and Open final with all non-PBA players.  It would make it seem that much more accessible/attainable.  Looking at the top 63 of this year's Masters standings after three rounds of qualifying, only 12% were amateurs.  Not very inspiring.  They should have an amateur division and a pro division.

Overseas balls shouldn't be a thing in the first place. Sell them full production or limited release.

Overseas balls shouldn't be a thing in the first place. Sell them full production or limited release.

So when a distributor in Asia wants to order 1000 balls but wants them a different color the ball manufacturer should tell them no? 

There is zero R&D that goes into those balls beyond color and name changes.  Pour a couple test balls, throw them, do a production run.  Ball companies aren't in the position to say no because they might wrinkle the feathers of the few people in the U.S. that give a crap, most of which wouldn't buy the ball anyway.

And the last thing distributors here want is more balls.