South Korea’s Kim and
Hammer Taboo Earn Place
in PBA Tour History

Despite finishing second in the PBA World Series of Bowling Scorpion Championship, South Korea’s Jun-Yung Kim earned a place in professional bowling history with his Hammer Taboos.Kim earned top qualifier honors, averaging 223.3 for the historic ESPN TV finals where he and fellow countryman Yung-Jin Gu became the first South Koreans ever to compete in a championship for a Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title outside of the Japan Cup.Gu (pronounced “coo”) defeated Kim in the hard fought, back-and-forth championship match, 236-224. Both Gu and Kim experienced shocking misfortunes toward the end of the match. Gu missed a 7 pin to allow Kim to take command of the match, but Kim then left a pocket 7-10 split in the 10th frame which ended his hopes of winning the title.“I was very honored and happy to be the top seed,” said Kim, a Korean Hammer Pro Staff member. “I used two Taboos – one for the right lane and one for the left lane – which worked very well. The Taboo I used on the left lane had a weaker pin and mass bias with more surface. With the right lane hooking more, I used a polished Taboo with the weight hole down.“I just threw the ball two boards too far right in the 10th frame and I didn’t get the pin carry,” he said of his disappointing 7-10 shot.Gu and Kim were part of a telecast that featured four international players, the most ever to appear on a PBA Tour telecast in the United States. Dan MacLelland (Canada) and Jason Belmonte (Australia) were the other finalists.Hammer Pro Staffer Bill O’Neill was the only U.S. player to make the telecast, but he was out-gunned by Gu in the second match, 256-208, when the South Korean lefthander put together a string of six strikes late in the game to race away with the victory.— Hammer Bowling Balls & Bowling Equipment -Based in Hopkinsville, Kent., Ebonite International is a privately-owned company that currently services bowling centers, distributors and retail outlets both domestically and internationally. In addition to Hammer, the company’s consumer product brands include Track, Robby’s, Columbia 300, Ebonite and Powerhouse™; its commercial product brand is Ebonite Bowling Center Direct.
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