IQ Tour Emerald

[six6guy]

I just purchased one and I'll get it from the pro shop Monday. I'm actually looking forward to this one.

I have the older IQ tour which is solid reactive (midnight blue) and I really like it but it tends to read too early for mixed league conditions (great for sport shots). This new one seems to be same except with a pearl reactive cover stock. And I do have a thing for pearls...

Anyway, I'm curious is anybody else has it already and if you like it? Any ball review info would be appreciated.


Brad

[RobLV1]

See the recent video posted by Bowl1820. What you will get is your "older IQ Tour" with a different surface.

[ALazySavage]

Don't know your ball maintenance routines, but assuming you keep your equipment close to the box finishes you should see the Emerald go longer and be more angular on the backend compared to the IQ Tour. In regards to other bowlers having it, my area is pretty dominant with Storm/Roto Grip/Hammer so I can say there are a lot of people excited about the release of the Emerald to add to their bag (granted as the hot topic on this site is - they could have purchased another IQ Tour and polished it if they wanted to fill the bag that way).


If you are looking for some good ball review information you can look at Bowlingthismonth.com, it is behind a paywall although typically they will give you a free article or two. Also, if you can find any reviews on the original IQ (the gold one) it is supposed to be the same ball and that could provide some insight as well. Another trick since you had the IQ Tour could of been to polish up this piece to the 1500 polish surface and throw it a bit to see what it would do, drill pattern is likely going to be different but it could give you some advance knowledge of what you should expect to see the ball to do.

[six6guy]

I do typically keep factory finish unless I really want something different, for example I polish my spare ball.

I rolled both the IQ Tour (mat finish) and the IQ Tour Emerald (pearl) in mixed league Monday night. I drove my teammates crazy switching back and forth every two frames. I don't have the gold color pearl version but suspect it would be the same as the emerald (considering age and use). Both of the IQ Tour balls that I have give the nice controlled transition in the back end. The mat finish read the lanes much earlier (as you would expect) and that forced me left for more oil, by 3rd game I had to shoot 25 board. The pearl version was cleaner through the mids but turned a bit sharper once it felt the dry, I finished 3rd game shooting 17 board. The mat finish is drilled for long with back end (full roller) and the pearl is drilled more aggressive (full roller).

Of the two I do prefer the pearl, but it's just a slight preference of two great balls.

Brad

Edit: I forgot to say that I rolled a 642 for the night. Slightly better than my normal, maybe switching kept me thinking about bowling and not my beer!