Titleist AVX VS. Titleist Tour Soft Golf Balls Comparison Overview

Titleist makes some great-feeling soft balls that typically belie the feel to produce great short-game performance. This is evident in both the Titleist Tour Soft and the AVX balls. However, when it comes to short-game performance, one of these balls certainly stands above the other.

Today we are going to be telling you about our experience testing the Titleist Tour Soft balls and the Titleist AVX balls side-by-side.

Titleist AVX Balls Overview

The AVX balls felt amazing with our irons – all of them. From the 3 iron to the wedges, we loved the feel and performance of these balls.

To start out with, the AVX balls don’t just feature your average urethane cover. Urethane is the material we prefer for almost all our balls. Titleist went above and beyond by making the AVX balls with a cast urethane cover which reacts even hotter off the iron face.

This gives them very high spin rates with the short irons. With the longer irons, the AVX’s don’t spin nearly as much. This is great news for players who get most of their distance off the deck but who still want a ball that will be highly workable around the green.

The AVX balls also keep spin low off the driver face while imparting a very soft feel – even softer than the Titleist Tour Soft balls.

Titleist Tour Soft Golf Balls Overview

The Titleist Tour Soft golf balls have a 2-piece design which, like the AVX balls does a good job of limiting long-game spin.

The first knock we had against these balls was the ionomer cover which is in line with the soft feel of these balls but is clearly the inferior cover material.

Feel around the green was greatly reduced with these balls and even our low handicap testers were having trouble placing the ball where they wanted on the green. These balls also don’t spin as much near the green on short approaches which may be a problem for some players.

If you naturally produce a lot of spin with your shorter irons though, you should feel right at home with these balls.

The Titleist Tour Soft balls also launch a bit lower than the AVX balls but the main point here is that the Titleist AVX’s perform significantly better on the green (chips, short approaches and even putts) than the Titleist Tour Soft balls.

Titleist Tour Soft Quick Facts

Compression: 65

Cover Material: Ionomer

How Many Pieces: 2-Piece

Spin: Mid/Low

Core Material: Unknown

Dimple Type: Spherically Tile (342)

Titleist AVX Quick Facts

Compression: 80

Cover Material: Urethane (cast thermoset)

How Many Pieces: 3

Core Material: N/A

Dimple Type: Tetrahedral (352)

Spin Level: Low long-game spin, high short-game spin

Best Suited for: Low handicappers

Performance Off the Tee

The Titleist Tour Soft actually played quite long off the tee.

The larger core made sure that no energy was lost even on faster swings and the spin rate off the tee was much lower than around the greens too.

Performance from the Rough

This is where we struggled a bit with these balls.

The ionomer cover tends to bury itself in particularly tall rough.

Performance from the Fairway

The Titleist Tour Soft balls played pretty well from the fairway and gave pretty good bounce on long approaches, reacting well on the 2nd or 3rd bounce.

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Performance Off the Tee

The Titleist AVX balls outplayed the Chrome Soft balls in terms of distance; but only for our faster swing speed testers.

Performance from the Rough

The low flight of these balls made getting out of the rough a bit challenging for some of our less experienced testers.

Performance from the Fairway

You get great distance with pretty much all your irons.

The problem was that these balls were a bit hard to work from the deck.

Titleist Tour Soft Selling Points

  • Large core
  • Good for fast swing speeds
  • Thin cover
  • Plays longer
  • Has a more premium feel
  • Good flight

Titleist Tour Soft Cons

  • More expensive
  • 2-piece design
  • Only available in 2 colors
  • Loses its line

Titleist AVX Selling Points

  • Great for low handicappers
  • Higher-quality urethane cover
  • Excellent responsiveness
  • Sticks to the club face very well
  • Bites fast greens
  • Longer overall

Titleist AVX Cons

  • Not great for mid to high handicappers
  • The low iron spin makes them a bit difficult to work
  • Not great in the rough
  • Pricey

Who Are The Titleist Tour Soft Balls For?

The Titleist Tour Soft balls are truly premium category balls and would work best with single digit handicaps.

More importantly, if you are swinging around 95+ MPH from the tee then you will absolutely love these balls.

Even though they have a 2-piece construction and lack a urethane cover, they yield excellent distance with fast swings.

How Are They With Short Irons?

The feedback and response of the Titleist Tour Soft balls with short irons was comparable to that of the Bridgestone E12 Soft balls.

The cover is a bit thinner than the Bridegstone balls so you get excellent feel so long as your short irons are decent.

Whether you need to work the ball on a tricky green or bite down on a fast one with some back spin, you will find that the Titleist Tour Soft can accommodate.

On The Green

You will have to get used to the Titleist Tour Soft balls a bit on the green.

They have sort of the opposite problem that the Bridgestone E12 Soft balls have in that they make you work for it if you need extended roll.

Still, the other performance factors more than make up for this shortcoming.

Overall Rating: 95/100

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Who are the Titleist AVX Balls for?

The Titleist AVX balls are certainly better for low handicap players with fast swing speeds.

They go farther than the Callaway Chrome Soft balls if your swing speed is up to snuff and deliver the kind of short game performance you would expect from a tour-grade ball.

How are they with Short Irons?

The Titleist AVX balls were also longer (for both our fast swing speed and slow swing speed testers) with short irons.

Low trajectory and low spin make for piercing ball flight even with your 8 and 9 irons.

On the Green

The real star of the show here is the cast thermoset urethane. You get exceptional feel and roll control from these balls on all types of greens: fast, slow, firm, you name it.

Overall Rating: 95/100

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