Hammer "The Sauce" review
by Chris Freemesser, 12/16/08
updated 3/14/09


The sport of bowling can be very trying at times.  Some bowling centers offer up a very easy house shot.  Others put up PBA patterns to challenge bowlers.  Some have wood lanes, others have synthetic.

Then there's my home center.  

8 lanes.  No air conditioning. Old wood lanes.  Hand-dressed.  And depending on the weather, sometimes a WHOLE LOT OF OIL.

After a particularly brutal evening of league bowling where my sanded Brunswick Wizard wouldn't move more than a board on the 60 feet of heavy oil that coated the inside 37 boards of the lanes, I felt that perhaps a new ball would be in order.  Something with LOTS of hook potential.  Something that might move in these conditions.  Something that would keep me from going insane.

I visited my local pro shop, and after a lot of discussion with its most excellent owner Brad, a Hammer "The Sauce" ball was decided upon.  It supposedly has the highest hook potential of any ball on the market.  If anything would hook for my on Thursday nights, this ball should.

Now keep in mind that I'm an old school bowler...a relatively low-rev stroker who loves playing the down-and-in shot around the 3rd-5th board.  As such, my Sauce was drilled to hook smoothly and pretty early so it'll get to the pocket in time.

With Sauce in hand, I ambled to my league on Thursday night, ready to conquer whatever oil lay in front of me.  The lanes come on, we start practicing, and.......the Sauce does NOTHING.  Skids in the oil like a plastic ball, and maybe hooks 2 boards.  To say that I was somewhat disillusioned with my expensive new toy would be quite the understatement.

The next day, I'm back at the pro shop, and we sand the Sauce down to 1000 grit Abralon.  As it turns out, it really doesn't really do me any good....the promised massive hook just ain't there.  My Wizard, sanded down to 400 grit wet/dry, out-hooks the Sauce big time.

I ventured out to another center (synthetic lanes, basic house shot), and the Sauce sprang to life.  Still not hooking a massive amount, but performing very nicely.  What my Sauce lacks in overall hooking ability is compensated by how hard this things hits the pins.  It blows the rack to pieces, even if you aren't a power player.

So how do I sum up the Sauce?  For use in my home center, it was a waste of money...a heavily sanded "lesser" ball works better.  In a more "normal" setting it works pretty well, but it's still not the hook monster it's supposed to be.  Maybe you need to be a high-rev power player to fully realize its potential, but for a stroker like me, I could have gotten the same results for much less money.

Update 3/14/09:  I took it upon myself to sand the Sauce to 320 grit to see what would happen.  Now the ball works pretty well at my home center...probably a little more hook than the Wizard, and it hits harder.  It does occasionally struggle when the oil is heavy, but at least it's usable now.

Here are a few short videos of me throwing the Sauce (a few shots are with my Lane #1 Liberator urethane):

Video 1 shows me at my home center with my Liberator (black ball), sanded Wizard (blue/black ball), and the Sauce (gold/purple ball).  Lane conditions were actually pretty reasonable for this place, but the oil would still be considered quite heavy by modern standards.

Video 2 shows me at another center with synthetics and a standard house shot with fairly decent oil. The Liberator is also shown for comparison.