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Titleist AVX Ball Review Thread

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zbeekner4

zbeekner4

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The AVX is now a long-term staple in titleist’s premium golf ball market and we had a chance to put them to the test in our ball fitting at the Ultimate Testing weekend.

I was deemed an ideal candidate for the AVX and am excited to begin using this ball for the foreseeable future. I’ll be posting my reviews both short and long term in this thread. Let me know if you guys have tried this ball and what you think!

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Found and played one for a couple of rounds about a month ago and thought it was a solid all around ball. I don't recall thinking the ball gave me spectacular nor poor performance in any one aspect of the game, but thought it reacted as I would expect from tee to green. Would not hesitate to put one in play in any situation again.
 
I've been playing the AVX quite a bit the past couple of months. It seems to be a great fit for me; long and straight off the driver, and in contrast to the experiences of some others I've read about it spins/stops really well for me.

I also like its feel off the putter.

Trajectory may be a touch lower than 'normal' especially off the driver but I can live with it.

Like most I wish it was priced a little lower, but the cost difference isn't enough to stop me from playing it.

Right now I'm testing it against the MTB Red and Black and the '18 Chrome soft and CSX....all great balls and not sure where I will ultimately settle out. We played out first tournament of the year at my club yesterday though, and I put the AVX in play as I just have a lot of confidence in it.
 
Definitely will be following along with this thread. @golfinnut hooked me up with a sleeve last year late and I waiting for warmer weather to bust them out. Look forward to hearing what people think of it.


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In Florida now, might see if I can find a sleeve and give it a shot.
 
I bought a box when they were available as a limited release late last year. My thoughts are that it is a little longer on irons than most premium balls. It has a flatter trajectory. For me, it spins less than comparable premium balls, such as ChromeSoft. I particularly noted the difference with the short game. It is more difficult for me to hit those chips that hit and really bite. It is an EXTREMELY good wind ball. Off the putter, it feels soft, but a little different than say a ChromeSoft, sort of a rubbery feeling, but not in a bad way.

I would play this ball all day long on a windy round. I don’t know that I have ever played a more stable ball in the wind. Otherwise, in the mountain desert, thin air where I usually play, balls spin a little less and I would prefer a little more spin in a premium ball. If I were playing a coastal course, I might well choose this as my full time gamer.
 
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Played a couple of these on my trip down to Florida a couple months ago and noticed a little bit lower ball flight. It didn't grab as much as a ProV1. I played Taylormade TP5X at the time and it actually performed pretty similar for me. I tend to have a higher ball flight and would absolutely play these. I have a dozen sitting in my collection now but when these are more readily available up here in the Midwest, I'll definitely give these another go.
 
For me the AVX provides a good, more penetrating trajectory but still has plenty of greenside spin. It won’t hang with a V1x in the greenside spin department but it is very good. If short pitch spin for V1x is red, AVX would be the deepest shade of Orange.
 
i bought a few dozen of these last year before the titleist event and gave several away to the other participants. i played them a handful of times, but ultimately decided they weren't a great match for me. they felt like a slightly more premium nxt tour. nothing was bad at all, but they didn't do anything well enough to knock out my gamer.

can someone elaborate on where these are supposed to fit in their tour ball lineup? who is the player that is best served by the avx?
 
I'm one of the guys c.a.eleric gave AVXs to at the 2017 event. I can attest they are long, I had no issues with launching them. I believe they were longer for me than the pro v1. I was kind of surprised they are designed as low launch. I can't really comment on spin as the approach game wasn't the best that day. I did like the way the felt off the putter, a bit firmer than the pro V1. After reading all the ball fitting posts in the 2018 thread today I am going to book a fitting when available in my area. Overall I liked them and wouldn't have an issue putting them in play. I did see a stack of them in a pro shop in Methuen MA back in February so it may be a viable option for me. That is if the ball fits.
 
Interested, I will pick up a sleeve when available, How is it for slower swing speeds (>95) with high spin?
 
c.a.eleric said:
i bought a few dozen of these last year before the titleist event and gave several away to the other participants. i played them a handful of times, but ultimately decided they weren't a great match for me. they felt like a slightly more premium nxt tour. nothing was bad at all, but they didn't do anything well enough to knock out my gamer.

can someone elaborate on where these are supposed to fit in their tour ball lineup? who is the player that is best served by the avx?
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I think they fit for a guy with moderate swing speed who still has pretty high spin with the driver. I really do think they are a little longer than the Pro V and Pro VX balls.
 
c.a.eleric said:
can someone elaborate on where these are supposed to fit in their tour ball lineup? who is the player that is best served by the avx?
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I’ll expand more on these in my recap to come. But from what we were told this weekend, the AVX is essentially going to become to 3rd ball in Titleists line of premium golf balls - Prov1, Prov1X and AVX. Naturally all 3 will be priced the same which isn’t a shock after learning that the ball is a tour level golf ball.

And to answer your question, there are certain characteristics and factors that go into what a player needs to optimize their game. For me, it was the AVX.

Let’s say you hit the V and your spin #s with a 6 or 7iron are below average, then you might be more well suited to the X. Or maybe you’re like me, the X skyrocketed WAY too high and the spin #s were well above average on my 6iron. The V was pretty good and brought the spin numbers down closer to the average but still on the slightly higher side. For me, the AVX brought those #s down and hit the sweet spot. It also helped me gain a good bit of distance in my irons which im stoked about!


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Zbuechner4 said:
I’ll expand more on these in my recap to come. But from what we were told this weekend, the AVX is essentially going to become to 3rd ball in Titleists line of premium golf balls - Prov1, Prov1X and AVX. Naturally all 3 will be priced the same which isn’t a shock after learning that the ball is a tour level golf ball.

And to answer your question, there are certain characteristics and factors that go into what a player needs to optimize their game. For me, it was the AVX.

Let’s say you hit the V and your spin #s with a 6 or 7iron are below average, then you might be more well suited to the X. Or maybe you’re like me, the X skyrocketed WAY too high and the spin #s were well above average on my 6iron. The V was pretty good and brought the spin numbers down closer to the average but still on the slightly higher side. For me, the AVX brought those #s down and hit the sweet spot. It also helped me gain a good bit of distance in my irons which im stoked about!


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i just find this interesting. someone with your skill and speed does not fit who i thought the avx was for. i'm not saying you're wrong, but whatever (limited) marketing i've seen has led me to believe that.
 
c.a.eleric said:
i just find this interesting. someone with your skill and speed does not fit who i thought the avx was for. i'm not saying you're wrong, but whatever (limited) marketing i've seen has led me to believe that.
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I completely agree. But numbers don’t lie and Mike, who is the titleist head of ball fittings and Emma (my fitter) showed me everything on the Trackman. It was surprising for sure but makes complete sense.

The AVX keeps me from ballooning irons and I’m penetrating the wind extremely well. I have no problems stopping balls either. I specifically remember I had a 7iron today that I found actually in the divot on the green that it made.
 
c.a.eleric said:
i just find this interesting. someone with your skill and speed does not fit who i thought the avx was for. i'm not saying you're wrong, but whatever (limited) marketing i've seen has led me to believe that.
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Compression has a major impact in spin. Those with too much, will enjoy something that reduces it and gets more distance for them.

Same with driver. If your a low launch and low spin guy, get a spinny higher launch driver or loft up.

More spin can bring more launch and that is partially controlled with compression.
 
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c.a.eleric said:
i just find this interesting. someone with your skill and speed does not fit who i thought the avx was for. i'm not saying you're wrong, but whatever (limited) marketing i've seen has led me to believe that.
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I had a different experience with the AVX. The distance versus the V were negligible although launch and descent differed quite a bit. AVX was too flat for me. Hitting my 6i yielded about 6-8 degrees less on descent with AVX. It’s a great ball although I wouldn’t hold greens like I can do with the V. V provides the right amount of spin for me through the bag which I like. The V1x is great but too spiny for me since I hit a high ball.


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I had played the AVX for a couple rounds prior to this event (I even had one yellow ball left that I brought with me) but I only had sort of an idea what the intent of the ball was based on what little information was out there during its test release. The ball education we received as THPers has given me a lot more clarity about the target audience for the AVX, and also about the Titleist ball business in general. My takeaway was that the AVX differed from the ProV1(x) in a couple significant ways:

The AVX is easier to compress than the ProV1. For driver that doesn't really matter - they emphasized that just about everyone swinging a driver could compress any of the 3 premium balls well enough for them to perform as intended. Differences become more apparent as clubs get shorter.

The AVX cover is a different urethane formulation than the ProV1. Many have wondered why the ProV1 series was never released in yellow. The Titleist folks explained that they couldn't formulate a yellow cover for the ProV1 that maintained the same performance characteristics as the white cover, so they never released one. Observant folks will notice the AVX is available in yellow. What does all this mean? Again my understanding is that the AVX cover will spin slightly less than ProV on those short pitches (I noticed about 800rpm difference on quality strikes), and it will feel a little firmer (if you're paying close attention).

In my fitting, the increased ability to compress the ball coupled with the slightly less spinny cover netted me a 10yd increase in carry with 6i over ProV1 with a much better trajectory. With Driver, ProV and AVX were very similar, with short pitches, the ProV was a clear winner. But the mid iron performance was what tilted the scale in favor of the AVX. If you have the opportunity to do a Titleist ball fitting I would encourage it, especially if you can do it outdoors with trackman. It can be a very illuminating experience.

One other thing the folks from Titleist emphasized over the weekend was their commitment to quality control. They explained that they have a team whom they referred to as the "ombudsmen" of ball production. That team purchases random dozens of both Titleist and competitor balls and performs quality control testing. The balls are purchased randomly so that the production line isn't aware of what balls are being tested. One discovery they made in testing theirs and competitor balls is that they found competitive balls to vary as much as 40 compression points in a sample size. Their comment was that with a compression swing that large you would effectively be playing a different ball.
 
Titleist AVX Ball Review Thread

Wanted to take you guys through my ball fitting and show how I ended up with the AVX as a start to reviewing the ball. Tried to organize my process to make things a bit easier to read. Hope you guys enjoy.

Step 1 (50 yard pitches):

Spoiler
My fitter was Emma and she was a rockstar. We started with a quick review of my game/ball flight/misses/etc. and started by hitting 50 yard pitches with the Prov1 on Trackman. She looked at launch angle but said it wasn’t too important because there’s many different ways to hit a 50 yard pitch. Spin numbers were more critical and a starting point to see how much spin I was generating. And it was quite a bit, slightly higher than what Titleist deems as “ideal,” but still okay. We hit a few shots with the V and X, with the X being noticeably higher in spin. Emma mentioned that I generate more than enough spin on 50 yard shots with the V so we started leaning towards that over the X.


Step 2 (Full 6iron shots):

Spoiler
We moved to the 6iron and I hit a few shots with the ProV1. Emma asked me how I liked the ball flight visually and I told her that it was what I’m used to - mid ball flight and didn’t balloon. Again, the numbers looked good, launch angle was ideal but there were a few that got slightly too much spin. She then had me hit a few Prov1X. I saw immediately increase in height on the ball flight and Trackman showed I was losing distance and getting too much spin on the ball. Obviously the X was not a good fit for my swing characteristics so we moved back to the V. That’s when Emma brought over some of the AVX. With the 6 iron and AVX, my spin numbers dropped into just at or under what Titleist considers ideal and my descent angle wasn’t as steep. My distances went up and I was hitting my 6 iron 200 yards consistently and surprisingly still getting plenty of spin with it! Essentially we narrowed it down to the V and the AVX, completely eliminating the X.


Step 3 (Driver):

Spoiler
We then moved to hitting the driver. I averaged a 110mph swing speed and +1 or +2 AOA on my driver so I didn’t need more spin to get the ball in the air. In fact, the ball that spun the least was likely going to be the best for me. With that said, both Emma and Mike emphasized that the distance differences off the driver (& 3 wood for that matter) would be negligible between the V and AVX so either would work for my game. They also stressed the importance of letting the irons and wedge game determine the best ball and then adjusting the driver to fit the ball since it’s typically more adjustable. But if you are wondering, the AVX was longer than the V for me.


Step 4 (Personal short game preference testing):

Spoiler
Lastly, Emma and mike told me that it’s important to start on Trackman but the biggest test has to be on my own around the chipping green area. If I don’t like the way a certain ball spins or checks or even feels around the green, then it would be hard to find confidence and play well. So I took the AVX and ProV1 to the chipping area (and ultimately on the course) and compared them head-to-head in both Saturday and Sunday’s rounds. I primarily played the AVX but sprinkled in some short game shots with the ProV1 throughout my rounds. I was surprised by the amount of spin I got on short game shots with the AVX. Yes, the V did grab more on the greens but I’m not sure I saw enough of a difference to give up the distance I gained with my irons and wedges on full shots.


Final Thoughts:

Spoiler
I honestly believe the AVX could be a game-changer for a lot of golfers and is going to shake up the golf ball market. I gained about a club on every iron shot just by getting fit for the right golf ball. The biggest difference I saw from what I was playing previously was the shots into the wind. Obviously, less spin means better distance but it also means it’s going to penetrate winds more aggressively. I had no trouble stopping the ball on the greens (which were rolling at at least a 10 or 11 by the way), but I noticed I wasn’t spinning balls back 3 or 4 feet like I used to, which was fine by me. I hit a 7 iron into one green and found the ball still sitting in the divot that it made on the green. With the AVX, wherever it lands, it’s going to stick right there and I can certainly live with that.



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I played an AVX for three rounds this past weekend. I normally play the B rxs or T v1 balls. I found the compression between the B and T. The ball was longer off the driver and compares for distance, spin, feel, and putting the B rx rather than the rxs. It releases some thru pitching wedge, but not a lot. The B balls are just as expensive. Hard to say either has an edge between avx and rx. I like the additional stop of the v1 and again of the rxs.

So, I like them in this order rxs<v1<avx/rx(interchangeable)
 
Styles said:
I played an AVX for three rounds this past weekend. I normally play the B rxs or T v1 balls. I found the compression between the B and T. The ball was longer off the driver and compares for distance, spin, feel, and putting the B rx rather than the rxs. It releases some thru pitching wedge, but not a lot. The B balls are just as expensive. Hard to say either has an edge between avx and rx. I like the additional stop of the v1 and again of the rxs.

So, I like them in this order rxs<v1<avx/rx(interchangeable)
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So from what we learned this weekend with titleist, AVX has the least amount of spin in their premium tour ball line while ProV1 has the 2nd most spin and X is the highest spin ball. If you have trouble stopping the AVX or ProV1, then you may want to test out the Prov1X!


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Styles said:
I played an AVX for three rounds this past weekend. I normally play the B rxs or T v1 balls. I found the compression between the B and T. The ball was longer off the driver and compares for distance, spin, feel, and putting the B rx rather than the rxs. It releases some thru pitching wedge, but not a lot. The B balls are just as expensive. Hard to say either has an edge between avx and rx. I like the additional stop of the v1 and again of the rxs.

So, I like them in this order rxs<v1<avx/rx(interchangeable)
Click to expand...

If you like to play around the greens with a lot of spin, play the ball that gives you the most spin without negatively affecting the performance with your other clubs. For me I learned that the AVX was that ball. If you can get to a Titleist ball fitting, I very much encourage you to do it. For me it was very educational.
 
Last day in Florida, got a box of these yesterday and will put them in play when I get home. No way to know how good/bad these are for my swing unless I play them.
 
I'm planning on playing Pro V1X this weekend, but I might grab a sleeve of AVX for the following weekend. Normally play CS, but I'm always trying new things!
 
I haven't tried the new V1X yet, even though I could likely use the higher trajectory--the 'extra spin' of the V1X, especially off the driver, has led me to guess that my all too often errant tee shots would be less playable. As an earlier post noted, I find the AVX to be really nice and straight, and so even with the lower trajectory, the AVX has performed really well for me. I will be picking up a sleeve of the V1X to at least try. That being said, I've also really liked the black and red versions of the new Snell MTB, and the new Chrome Soft X, so I'm not ready to pick may favorite ball yet....
 
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