The United States Bowling Congress and Storm Products have agreed on a national tournament exclusion rule and ball exchange program for six Storm-manufactured ball models.
The agreement comes after USBC identified the models having a percentage of balls produced below USBC’s minimum 73D hardness specification. Storm collaborated with USBC after being notified of the testing.
The affected models are Storm Phaze 4, Storm Electrify Solid, Storm Trend 2, 900 Global Altered Reality, 900 Global Wolverine and Roto Grip UFO Alert.
Effective March 30, those balls models were prohibited from use in USBC national tournaments, including but not limited to the USBC Masters, U.S. Open, USBC Open Championships, USBC Women’s Championships, PWBA Tour events, USBC Junior Gold and Youth Open Championships, USBC Intercollegiate Championships, USBC Team USA Trials, USBC Senior Masters and USBC Senior Queens.
These ball models remain USBC approved. Each USBC competition, whether tournament or league, has the option to adopt USBC’s national tournament rule prohibiting use of these balls or to continue to allow their use.
Storm said it would offer owners of the affected balls the option to exchange them for a new product.
“USBC thanks Storm for the collaboration and for working together on a solution for our members,” USBC Executive Director Chad Murphy said. “There is no perfect solution to this type of problem, but this agreement strikes a balance in protecting the integrity of USBC national tournaments, while giving members a choice to do what is best for them locally.”
As part of the agreement, Storm Products will discontinue sales of the affected balls. USBC has concluded its investigation and will not be taking action on additional balls related to this production issue.
“Storm appreciates USBC working with us on this agreement, so we can put the issue behind us and focus on our customers,” Storm Products President Dave Symes said. “Customer satisfaction has always been our top priority, and we will take care of our customers.”
The agreement does not change the status of the Storm Spectre, which remains non-approved and on USBC’s non-conforming ball list.
USBC also has revoked approval of Purple Hammer bowling balls manufactured in 2016 and 2017. These model years were removed from the list of balls approved for USBC competition effective March 21. Purple Hammer balls manufactured during 2016 or 2017 are identified by serial numbers that start with either a “6” or “7.”
Brunswick is offering owners of 2016 or 2017 Purple Hammers the option to exchange their balls for a new Purple Hammer or a product of their choice.
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