Shooter McPowick
Head Pro
I was sent some titleist AVX balls to test from #teamtitleist. I haven’t bought these before although I’ve found a couple of mint ones on the course in the past and was generally impressed. These 2022 AVX have the <TEST> logo on the side but the box has a simple AVX logo.
First of all, durability. I managed 3 rounds with the same ball before pulling one left up 18 and it bounced off the road that leads to the driving range. Up until this point there were only a couple of tiny blemishes that were most likely caused by heather or bunker sand between the club and ball at impact and it was perfectly useable still. After the road impact, it was retired as obviously it scuffed up quite badly. 3 rounds and I was very impressed. Better than some other manufacturers.
Spin. I noticed a few wedge shots out on the course from around 75 yards, that’s a 3/4 50* wedge for me (titleist SM7). When looking for the pitch mark to repair I’d noticed the ball had zipped back about 4 feet. Obviously very dependant upon strike and quality of greens but if struck well they definitely deliver a decent amount of spin with the wedges.
Green side they do bite, it’s noticeable but I’d say not quite as much as the prov1x that I usually play. (I could be wrong but I believe it spins less than the prov1x due the the X being a higher compression ball?) Anyway, this actually works out better for me, my short pitches and chips are generally short so the tiny bit of extra roll out suits me perfectly.
Driver / wind. It was very windy this past weekend, gusting at about 35mph according to the met office. I definitely noticed that this AVX seemed to travel further into a head wind. I struck a drive up the 9th playing directly into the wind and it had my usual trajectory of being quite high, I find it difficult to lower the flight by decreasing attack angle as I tend to slice it when I try to do this. My playing partner who generally hits it a very similar distance to me managed to hit one nice and low keeping it out of the wind. Now I know this isn’t scientifically proven, who knows what the difference in wind speed, attack angle, launch, ball spin etc etc etc but I was a good 40 yards past him. We were both surprised that despite my ball flying much higher I was significantly further down the fairway. This occurred a few times during the round. I track my shots via my Garmin S62 so I can look back on the distances I hit on the day, downwind it was obviously longer than usual, but into the wind all my drives were not much shorter than my regular distances.
Irons. I can’t say I noticed any difference here when compared to the prov1x. While Hindhead has fantastic greens, it’s winter and they’re a little soft so balls don’t roll out much at the moment. Distance wise, the AVX travelled the distances I expected. The weekend before last the wind wasn’t as bad and all of my iron shots went the distance I expected.
Putter. It’s a very subjective topic but I prefer a ball that’s not too “clicky” off the face. The prov1x is a little bit clicky but it’s a sacrifice I’ve made in the past knowing I’m very happy with all other aspects of the ball. The AVX is definitely not as clicky, it’s not what I would describe as soft, just a nice sound and feel somewhere between a click and a thud.
Conclusion. I’ve found my ball for 2022, hand on heart couldn’t fault it and it suits my game very well indeed. It’s also the ball I shot my all time best score with ??
First of all, durability. I managed 3 rounds with the same ball before pulling one left up 18 and it bounced off the road that leads to the driving range. Up until this point there were only a couple of tiny blemishes that were most likely caused by heather or bunker sand between the club and ball at impact and it was perfectly useable still. After the road impact, it was retired as obviously it scuffed up quite badly. 3 rounds and I was very impressed. Better than some other manufacturers.
Spin. I noticed a few wedge shots out on the course from around 75 yards, that’s a 3/4 50* wedge for me (titleist SM7). When looking for the pitch mark to repair I’d noticed the ball had zipped back about 4 feet. Obviously very dependant upon strike and quality of greens but if struck well they definitely deliver a decent amount of spin with the wedges.
Green side they do bite, it’s noticeable but I’d say not quite as much as the prov1x that I usually play. (I could be wrong but I believe it spins less than the prov1x due the the X being a higher compression ball?) Anyway, this actually works out better for me, my short pitches and chips are generally short so the tiny bit of extra roll out suits me perfectly.
Driver / wind. It was very windy this past weekend, gusting at about 35mph according to the met office. I definitely noticed that this AVX seemed to travel further into a head wind. I struck a drive up the 9th playing directly into the wind and it had my usual trajectory of being quite high, I find it difficult to lower the flight by decreasing attack angle as I tend to slice it when I try to do this. My playing partner who generally hits it a very similar distance to me managed to hit one nice and low keeping it out of the wind. Now I know this isn’t scientifically proven, who knows what the difference in wind speed, attack angle, launch, ball spin etc etc etc but I was a good 40 yards past him. We were both surprised that despite my ball flying much higher I was significantly further down the fairway. This occurred a few times during the round. I track my shots via my Garmin S62 so I can look back on the distances I hit on the day, downwind it was obviously longer than usual, but into the wind all my drives were not much shorter than my regular distances.
Irons. I can’t say I noticed any difference here when compared to the prov1x. While Hindhead has fantastic greens, it’s winter and they’re a little soft so balls don’t roll out much at the moment. Distance wise, the AVX travelled the distances I expected. The weekend before last the wind wasn’t as bad and all of my iron shots went the distance I expected.
Putter. It’s a very subjective topic but I prefer a ball that’s not too “clicky” off the face. The prov1x is a little bit clicky but it’s a sacrifice I’ve made in the past knowing I’m very happy with all other aspects of the ball. The AVX is definitely not as clicky, it’s not what I would describe as soft, just a nice sound and feel somewhere between a click and a thud.
Conclusion. I’ve found my ball for 2022, hand on heart couldn’t fault it and it suits my game very well indeed. It’s also the ball I shot my all time best score with ??
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