Titleist Golf is mostly known for their Pro V1 line of golf balls as many of the PGA Tour players are using them each week on Tour. But there are other golf balls in the Titliest line that you shouldn’t be passing up. We think the NXT Tour S ball is one of those golf balls.
We spoke to Titliest and they had this to say:
“We design Pro V1 and Pro V1x to provide the best performance for golfers of all skill levels and swing speeds. The reason we make the other balls in our line is because we know that golfers have preferences that influence their purchase decision, including things like color, feel, durability and price. With NXT Tour and NXT Tour S, we’re basically trying to get as close as we can to Pro V1 and Pro V1x performance without using our proprietary cast urethane technology, which is an expensive process. We believe it’s the highest-performing urethane in the industry, and it’s what gives Pro V1 and Pro V1x its superior scoring performance and helps golfers shoot lower scores.”
In this review we will take a look at the NXT Tour S golf ball.
What Titleist is saying:
“NXT® Tour S
The Titleist NXT® Tour S golf ball is designed to deliver NXT Tour performance with softer compression feel. This golf ball features a proprietary soft compression, highly resilient core, and, like NXT Tour, utilizes a soft Fusablend cover and a spherically tiled, 302 octahedral dimple design. Available in white and high optic yellow.”
Review:
I must confess I have played mostly the “higher” end line ProV1x for quite some time. I was eager to put the NXT Tour S in play to do some comparisons.
Looks:
The high optic yellow NXT Tour S, has a distinctive look to it and is pleasant to the eyes at set-up. On the course it makes it easy to find, even if I hit a bad one in the rough. The NXT Tour S ball also comes in white for those who prefer a more classic look.
Performance:
As with any golf ball review, the nuts and bolts of this review come in the testing. I spent time playing and practicing with each ball and played them against my current gamer the Pro V1X.
I did play golf at my usual San Gabriel Valley course, but also played two rounds in Las Vegas in hot, windy conditions with the greens and fairways running fast and hard. So let’s get to it with breakdowns on each type of club.
Driver:
Trajectory: The NXT Tour S actually played very similar to the Pro V1X as far as trajectory is concerned.
Distance: I found that there was no differences when it came to distance between the NXT Tour S and Pro V1X balls. Both balls held up well in windy conditions and neither ballooned at all.
Playability (ability to shape shots): The Pro V1x was the most playable with shaping shots with the driver, which is to be expected. However, the NXT Tour S ball played quite well when it came to shaping shots with the driver.
Irons:
Trajectory: The NXT Tour S ball launched nicely off iron shots. I found it flew slightly higher than the Pro V1X golf balls. I was surprised at how high I was able to hit the ball without manipulating my swing or swinging harder.
Distance: I was able to get quality distance with the NXT Tour S ball. The distances between both golf balls was nearly identical. I did this testing on some par 3 holes as well as in the fairway and the actual distance was almost spot on.
Playability (ability to shape shots): Again, the obvious thought process here is that the Pro V1x ball would be able to shape a bit better than the NXT. However, I was nicely surprised with how well I was able to shape the NXT Tour S ball.
Wedge Shots:
On course and practice green testing, hitting full wedge shots, half wedge shots, punch shots, low spinning wedge shots.
Having played the Pro V1x for so long I had a general sense of how the ball would come off and a general idea of how much the ball would spin.
The NXT TOUR S, comes off the face with a bit more of a “clicky” sound, but I was surprised that I was able to get it to spin back a couple feet, in comparison to the Pro V1x, which almost always spins back several feet.
Distance: This is hard to judge as each would land relatively closely to each other but given the different spin rate of each the ball would spin back leaving me with relatively different distances from the pin.
Chip Shots:
I hit a variety of shots from thin lies, to flop shots to shots out of the rough, some long running chip shots with an iron or hybrid.
I did notice the Pro V1x came off the face with more spin then the NXT Tour S, after some practice with each I was able to pull off similar results with each ball.
Most noticeable difference was on flops shots the Pro V1x would almost always stop once landing the NXT Tour S, would roll out a little more.
http://youtu.be/tTbZ1Z0NkeA
Putting:
No real discernable difference in putting, slight difference in feel but each ball I putt maintained their line and distance.
Final Thoughts:
There is a lot of data out there on spin rates, ball speed, launch angles, peak trajectory..it goes on and on. All relatively good information if you know what to do with it and how it affects your game. Without having any of this information I used what I know best, how does the ball fit in with my game, swing, normal course conditions, durability, price and scorecard.
Titleist has been and in my opinion will always be a leader in golf ball technology. They continue to make products that are far superior then their counterparts and the newest line of golf balls is no exception to that standard.
The NXT Tour S golf ball is a quality choice of golf ball for almost all amateurs. It matches nearly all the qualities of the Pro V1 golf ball but with less spin. A lot of amateurs struggle with high spinning golf balls and can’t quite shape shots like the pros. So the NXT Tour S golf ball is the perfect choice. I would definitely recommend the NXT Tour golf ball to most golfers out there.
By Phil Burns
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