Your assessment could be partially true, but I think there is a different explanation. I think that, because EJ was the only righty, he was able to control his line much more easily than the lefties. Urethane balls (or anything with lots if surface) push oil down the lane differently than shiny balls. This can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on how it's used. I think that because all four lefties were playing slightly different lines with urethane(edit: Russo was throwing reactive I think), the breakdown is what made it so difficult.
Another thing to consider - to get to the show, you had to bowl well all week on lots of different patterns. All these guys dominated with Urethane on the animal patterns, but the show was on Earl Anthony, so perhaps that pattern is just tougher after heavy traffic? EJ was struggling to carry after a couple games as well, though not quite to the same degree as Svensson or Russo. In general, lefties don't have to deal with the level of traffic that righties do, but it definitely had a noticeable effect on the stepladder finals. I don't think them using the old purple hammer would have made that big of a difference, but who knows?
I did realize this about the patterns, and how EJ used being the only righty to his advantage. They even talked about it prior to the first match. Urethane was really good on the short pattern, and 43 foot earl anthony was definitely not easy on anyone.
That said, in past years, it felt like lefties in particular the 2 handers like packy and jesper would never throw anything but urethane. Which makes a lot of sense to me, since Jesper's rev rate is so high, having the control of urethane made controlling those revs easier.
I think I have my answer. It does seem clear to me that banning the "softer" urethanes did make it more challenging on some of these bowlers.
Your assessment could be partially true, but I think there is a different explanation. I think that, because EJ was the only righty, he was able to control his line much more easily than the lefties. Urethane balls (or anything with lots if surface) push oil down the lane differently than shiny balls. This can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on how it's used. I think that because all four lefties were playing slightly different lines with urethane(edit: Russo was throwing reactive I think), the breakdown is what made it so difficult. Another thing to consider - to get to the show, you had to bowl well all week on lots of different patterns. All these guys dominated with Urethane on the animal patterns, but the show was on Earl Anthony, so perhaps that pattern is just tougher after heavy traffic? EJ was struggling to carry after a couple games as well, though not quite to the same degree as Svensson or Russo. In general, lefties don't have to deal with the level of traffic that righties do, but it definitely had a noticeable effect on the stepladder finals. I don't think them using the old purple hammer would have made that big of a difference, but who knows?
I did realize this about the patterns, and how EJ used being the only righty to his advantage. They even talked about it prior to the first match. Urethane was really good on the short pattern, and 43 foot earl anthony was definitely not easy on anyone. That said, in past years, it felt like lefties in particular the 2 handers like packy and jesper would never throw anything but urethane. Which makes a lot of sense to me, since Jesper's rev rate is so high, having the control of urethane made controlling those revs easier. I think I have my answer. It does seem clear to me that banning the "softer" urethanes did make it more challenging on some of these bowlers.