In this video, I take you guys with me to Elanes for a tournament and I put urethane to the test—specifically my Purple Hammer—because the bowling community has been buzzing after USBC shared concerns about urethane affecting lane play integrity, fairness, and pattern transition. Coming off a week of storms here in the Philippines (we even had to cancel some First Strike Academy coaching sessions), I wanted to see for myself: is urethane really “that good” that it should be banned? My game plan was simple: use the Purple Hammer as much as I can on the fresh, then switch when it stops being usable. I started decent—after two games with the Purple Hammer I averaged 183.5, but it started reading too early as the lanes transitioned. I moved into my favorite reactive right now, the Storm The Road (hybrid), and games three and four jumped to a 205.5 average (211 and 199). Once the lanes got really burnt in the last set, I didn’t adjust well enough and we averaged 150—tried The Road, tried the Storm Lock It, and even tried my urethane spare ball, but it wasn’t the answer. My takeaway: for how I throw it today, the Purple Hammer didn’t give me an advantage. Reactive actually scored better for me, and the real difference came down to transition, adjustments, and having the right “ball down” option. Still, I want to hear from you—comment down below if urethane gives you an advantage in your game.