First Impressions
The Redemption Solid is an absolutely huge rolly beast. Play it more direct. The Redemption Pearl is just as rolly with a later motion but same characteristics.

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James Kasee (Righty)
Style: Power Player
RPM: 425 rpm
PAP 4 1/2 & 1/4 down
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: 19 degrees
Axis rotation: 60 degrees
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Redemption Solid: 35 x 5.25 x 40
Redemption Pearl: 70 x 4.5 x 30

“Keep in mind that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core creates the dynamic shape of the reaction. Your driller will alter the shape to suit your game.”

Pattern
THS: 40ft, 23ml
Sport: 2019 Don Johnson 40ft, 30.7 ml, 2.4:1 ratio

Specs
The Hammer Redemption Solid uses the Aggression Core (symmetrical) core inside the Aggression NE Solid coverstock.

The Hammer Redemption Solid uses the Aggression Core (symmetrical) core inside the Aggression NE Pearl coverstock.

15 pound = RG of 2.498, diff of .053, mb of .015
14 pound = RG of 2.515, diff of .053, mb of .015
Coverstock finish SOLID: 360, 500, 2000 Siaair Micro Pad
Coverstock finish PEARL: 500 Siaair / Crown Factory Compound

Overall
Let’s start with the Redemption Solid. This is a huge piece. It’s a heavy forward roll. The core seems to really want to roll forward and that’s somewhat defining characteristic of the Redemption balls. They kind of remind me of the RipD line. The Solid doesn’t really seem to like open angles. The cover is very aggressive and this is a strong ball. It really tumbles heavily. It definitely felt too strong for this house shot so more direct and it’s through the face. The thing is as James moves in, the ball just loses axis and doesn’t drive continuously. So he works a bunch of light hits that seem to carry. But it was a little tricky to manage. When it is played more direct, the Redemption Solid really drives heavily and continuously through the pins. I can see down and in bowlers with lower rev rates or lower axis rotation really be able to take advantage of that heavy roll. The ball was a very different story on the sport shot and totally syncs up with what we saw Bill O’Neill do with it at the Players Championship. We’ll talk about that later.

Now onto the Redemption Pearl. I can say that it has the same forward rolling characteristic. While the Solid looked like it was losing axis due to earlier roll, the pearl looked long and a bit late. I personally usually like the Crown Factory compound but for some reason the ball felt like it wouldn’t pick up. Easily solved with a scuff using an old 1000 pad. The ball started to shape more nicely. It really started to pick up some angularity because it was picking up period. It was probably still a touch over/under for the house shot for James. Ultimately he saw a hugely better match up on the sport pattern which we will discuss separately.

Sport Shot
James tested on the 2019 40ft PBA Don Johnson pattern, what was used on the TOC this year. As mentioned Bill O’Neill used the Redemption Solid very effectively at the Players Championships. What I can say is that James had just as good a look. While some balls were leaving corners, this ball just seemed to have the right roll and strength to snap out the corner. You can see the strength of the ball now and the clean backends meant that heavy roll would drive harder through the pins. Here pocket control and carry looked phenomenal. With the Redemption Pearl, it was more of the same. This time, with the pearl there was actually push from in to hold. At the same time there was reasonable response from out to carry light hits. The Redemption shape was very conducive to the sport shot pattern.

Final Thoughts
With the Brunswick acquisition of the Ebonite International brands, this is the first releases from their own factory under the Hammer label. The Redemptions remind me a lot of the RipD balls with their stand up forward rolling characteristics. That ultimately slots them into a B value. For down and in low rev or low axis rotation, they will slot into the B to B+ score range. For medium or higher rev bowlers, I feel it will be somewhere in the C to C+ range for house. On the flip side they were easily A scores for sport to counterbalance. That’s what we have for you on the Redemption Solid and Pearl.

I know people are interested to see if the balls will all start to roll the same. What I can say is that it appears at first glance Brunswick is still trying to maintain the brand characteristics. Hammer is an important brand I believe.