To start, the Location of the Pin and the Mass Bias (Rg) may or may not be in an ideal location. In order to know for certain, I would need to know your friend's PAP. The best option would be to get the actual coordinates this ball was drilled on (Example, 4" x 4" with 1" Pin Buffer).
Without this information, I can't determine if the layout is the problem or if there is coverstock problem.
The major concern is the depth of the fingers in relation to the Pin. Does your friend have finger inserts? If he does have finger inserts and the holes are drilled extremely deep this close to the pin, there is a good chance that the shape of the weightblock has been drastically altered in a less than preferred way. Deep finger holes near the pin have the high tendency of dramatically reducing flare while creating a higher RG ball that has the tendency to lope down the lane instead of reading earlier enough to get into a good hook/roll phase.
The only easy option is to have the ball resurfaced to a 1000 grit abralon, no polish. This will get the ball to start up sooner, but it is still going to have less entry angle with a mild transition due to the location of the pin in relation to the deeper fingers.
Also, a balance hole in the positive thumb quadrant can offset some of the damage done by the fingers. The problem is I don’t know the statics weights so I can’t suggest where or how deep the balance hole can be. In this case, it would be better to have 1 oz of finger weight with a flare enhancing balance hole than zero static weight with a low flaring, late rolling layout (current).
