Hammer Zero Mercy Pearl Bowling Ball Review

Hammer’s Zero Mercy Pearl is the glossy and pearlized companion to the Zero Mercy Solid. Both balls use the asymmetrical Super Offset core shape with new coverstocks. The Zero Mercy Pearl features the new HK22C2 Pearl formulation, and it comes out of the box with final finishing steps of 1500 SiaAir and Factory Compound. While providing more length and more back end motion than the Zero Mercy Solid, we found this new pearl cover to start up a bit earlier and be a little smoother compared to previous pearl versions of HK22, like HK22 – Cohesion Pearl, which was used on the Black Widow Mania. We had our best looks with this ball while there was still a good amount of oil in the front of the lane, as that helped prevent it from getting too forward at the breakpoint and the back end.

Stroker

Stroker had the best reaction with the Zero Mercy Pearl on the fresh medium oil pattern. He played a small swing from board 12 off his hand out to eight at the breakpoint. He liked being able to start straighter and see a strong midlane read from the shiny coverstock. This ball picked up earlier than both his Effect and his shiny Black Widows, providing a smoother motion off the breakpoint. He really found this motion beneficial as the pattern started going through transition. When other balls started to hit some carrydown and forced him to make big moves, he could stay in the same part of the lane with the Zero Mercy Pearl. He started increasing his speed as the session progressed, and he also started changing his release to keep the ball from hooking early. He didn’t need to make any surface changes on this pattern, as he was instead able