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Hi All,
I have seen a number of threads that talk about ball spin and differences between balls. Spin and launch as we know can make a significant impact on distance and ball control. I was reading about the Srixon Q-Star Tour ball recently, and I felt this ball may fit me well and may help my game. It is marketed as having a lot of qualities I’m looking for.. low driver spin, adequate green side spin (almost as much as tour urethane balls, but much better performance here than non-urethane balls), has low compression and very soft feel… for average swing speed players. If all holds true, the Q-Star Tour should fit what I’m looking for perfectly.
Since I have a SkyTrak now, I thought I would take some time over the winter weeks since I can’t be on the course, and compare 5 different balls to examine spin, launch, and distance differences. I have played all of these balls on the course over the past few years, except the Q-Star Tour.
I used the compare club feature in SkyTrak to compare 5 balls.
Preferences
I prefer a soft ball. I have played the Chrome Soft for the last few seasons for this reason… I prefer the feel of the Super Soft even more actually, but like the control of the Chrome Soft better around the greens when chipping and putting, especially on firm fast greens where more spin may be helpful.
Testing
I tried to control as many variables as possible… I completed the tests over several days so I wasn’t too tired out after each session, but kept swing data for each club/ball comparison on the same day (ie: 56 degree pitches one day, full shots next day, 7 iron next day.. etc.)
I hit all balls in my garage off a Fiberbuilt mat using my SkyTrak range. Temps tend to be around 45 degrees in my garage so all balls were kept in my pocket when not hitting to keep them as warm as possible when comparing without having to run back and forth into the house. Each ball was marked with a line, which faced the SkyTrak for each shot. Each ball was in new or like new condition.
I hit anywhere between 5-15 shots of each ball/club combination, until I had 5 solid strikes in my scoring zone… on the SkyTrak range, you can set a yardage, and it will count the number of shots that “hit” your target area… Once I had 5 shots in the target area for each ball/club I moved on to the next ball. I then exported the data, and kept the 5 most consistent shots for each ball/club… I kept 6-8 shots for the Driver, since it was my most variable club.. I needed more shots to hit 5 targets… I need some driver work…
Looking at the averages, it’s pretty much what I expected to see with a few surprises as well.
Results
56 degree half shots (no surpises here)
The first day I was not striking it very well. The day 1 spin numbers were also not what I was expecting I would see, so I decided to give the 7 iron another go the next day… Day 1 distances and ball speeds were lower due to poor ball striking, but was good to see similar trends comparatively on Day 2, which gave me confidence in the numbers I was seeing.
Summary
Overall, between the ProV1 and Chrome Soft, the differences are negligible and are true to what I experienced on course, where I couldn’t tell the difference in performance at all… but the feel is significantly different between them. I much prefer the Chrome Soft between the two, and now have even less reason to reconsider using the ProV1 after seeing my results.
The Super Soft and NXT Tour S both feel great to me.. I enjoy the nice soft off the face, and really seem to fly off the club. What I don't like is the almost too soft feel when putting or the significant lack of spin on pitches and chips, especially playing in tournaments with firm greens. This was also confirmed in this data. I won’t be going back to either of these unless I am practicing when it’s very cold out like late fall, when the balls feel like a rock at 38-40 degrees out.
The Q-Star Tour looks like it has the potential to be a real performer for me. Given the data, I expect it may have acceptable enough green side spin for my game (which is what I was hoping to find), with an even softer feel. I think it feels softer than the Chrome Soft, but not as squishy as the Super Soft. It's a good middle ground. When putting on my practice mat indoors, to me the Chrome Soft feels quite a bit softer than the Srixon… which for me is actually a benefit.. I prefer the firmer/clicker feel off the putter… but prefer that softer compression feel on full iron shots. It also shows significantly less driver spin… and I’m looking to gain some distance off the tee this summer (or I should rephrase that as getting back some lost distance!) so this should help here. Really looking forward to playing a few rounds with this ball in the spring.
Only wild card with the Q-Star Tour for me will be the potential significant loss of spin in the middle of the bag, but if it launches high enough, it may land soft enough and play similarly… I just don’t want the increased distances to mess up my club gapping… but if it’s not drastic, I would trade re-calibrating my brain to a couple of new carry distances to gain 4-7 yards off the tee and keep the same green side control... might also be nice to hit some longer mid to long irons, if they can hold greens well. I will certainly need to test the Srixon out with long irons and hybrids, where it could be problematic if spin drops too low to hold greens with the 5-6i or hybrids.
I attached the spreadsheet I created for anyone interested in taking a look.. and happy to answer any questions… obviously this is how these 5 balls performed with my irons, shafts, angle of attack, swing tempo etc… so YMMV… there are many variables, and this is simply how they perform for me. Hope some of you might find the results interesting as well if you are trying to settle on a gamer ball, and have some of these on your list.
I have seen a number of threads that talk about ball spin and differences between balls. Spin and launch as we know can make a significant impact on distance and ball control. I was reading about the Srixon Q-Star Tour ball recently, and I felt this ball may fit me well and may help my game. It is marketed as having a lot of qualities I’m looking for.. low driver spin, adequate green side spin (almost as much as tour urethane balls, but much better performance here than non-urethane balls), has low compression and very soft feel… for average swing speed players. If all holds true, the Q-Star Tour should fit what I’m looking for perfectly.
Since I have a SkyTrak now, I thought I would take some time over the winter weeks since I can’t be on the course, and compare 5 different balls to examine spin, launch, and distance differences. I have played all of these balls on the course over the past few years, except the Q-Star Tour.
I used the compare club feature in SkyTrak to compare 5 balls.
- Titleist Prov1
- Callaway Chrome Soft
- Srixon Q-Star Tour
- Titleist NXT Tour S
- Callaway Super Soft
Preferences
I prefer a soft ball. I have played the Chrome Soft for the last few seasons for this reason… I prefer the feel of the Super Soft even more actually, but like the control of the Chrome Soft better around the greens when chipping and putting, especially on firm fast greens where more spin may be helpful.
Testing
I tried to control as many variables as possible… I completed the tests over several days so I wasn’t too tired out after each session, but kept swing data for each club/ball comparison on the same day (ie: 56 degree pitches one day, full shots next day, 7 iron next day.. etc.)
I hit all balls in my garage off a Fiberbuilt mat using my SkyTrak range. Temps tend to be around 45 degrees in my garage so all balls were kept in my pocket when not hitting to keep them as warm as possible when comparing without having to run back and forth into the house. Each ball was marked with a line, which faced the SkyTrak for each shot. Each ball was in new or like new condition.
I hit anywhere between 5-15 shots of each ball/club combination, until I had 5 solid strikes in my scoring zone… on the SkyTrak range, you can set a yardage, and it will count the number of shots that “hit” your target area… Once I had 5 shots in the target area for each ball/club I moved on to the next ball. I then exported the data, and kept the 5 most consistent shots for each ball/club… I kept 6-8 shots for the Driver, since it was my most variable club.. I needed more shots to hit 5 targets… I need some driver work…
Looking at the averages, it’s pretty much what I expected to see with a few surprises as well.
Results
56 degree half shots (no surpises here)
- As expected, ProV1 and Chrome Soft extremely close in spin, almost no difference
- Q-Star Tour only about 300 rpm less than ProV1 and CS.. very respectable, and likely won’t notice in real life
- NXT and Super Soft spun FAR less.. like 1000-2000 rpm less, but launched 3-4 degrees higher… exactly what I notice on course. They pop right up, but don’t spin much.
- ProV1 and Chrome Soft spun most within 150 rpm of each other.. essentially the same between 9200 and 9350 rpm
- Q-Star Tour was a little less again, but not by much… about 500-600 rpm less, but still respectable at 8700rpm.. it also launched just slightly higher
- Super Soft and NXT Tour S were similar with much higher launch and peak heights, and spin from 7000-7900 rpm. Much less than the ProV/Chrome Soft..
- Slightly suprised the Super Soft was able to get 7900 rpm of spin
The first day I was not striking it very well. The day 1 spin numbers were also not what I was expecting I would see, so I decided to give the 7 iron another go the next day… Day 1 distances and ball speeds were lower due to poor ball striking, but was good to see similar trends comparatively on Day 2, which gave me confidence in the numbers I was seeing.
- Again ProV1 and Chrome Soft were very similar, within a few hundred RPM and similar launch for both
- Q-Star Tour was the lowest spinning both days. 800-1000 rpm less spin in fact, but it also launched the highest giving me the longest carry distances, by as much as 7 yards at times. Will need to test on course and see if this will fit my game or if it will mess up any of my club gapping
- NXT Tour S and Supersoft spun similarly or MORE than the ProV1 and Chrome Soft both days.. this was very surprising, and I did not expect this, however on course I really didn’t have much trouble holding greens with either ball with middle irons, so this explains why
- Winner here was clearly the Q-Star Tour. Highest launch and lowest spin of the group. Spin was lower by around 300 rpm which is significant for the driver… which equated to the longest carry and total distances. Only a few extra yards, but I’ll take them
- Suprisingly the NXT Tour S, Chrome Soft, and ProV1 played farily similar.. spin only varied by 10-20 rpm, but the NXT did hit a higher peak height.
- Super Soft had the highest spin of the bunch and lowest distance. I attribute that to the lower ball speed I was getting and perhaps the higher fade spin on those strikes… I may have been getting tired on these shots. I expect it would probably play similarly to the NXT Tour S at the same ball speeds
- As I was practicing yesterday I hit a mess of 8i shots with just the ProV1 and the Srixon Q-Star Tour… since I had the data and planned on posting this, I thought I would add these results to the spreadsheet too…
- For this compare, I had a lot of swings with each, and just deleted any swings under a 100 mph ball speed and kept the rest… good, bad, or ugly
- Results were very similar to the 7 Iron data, Q-Star Tour spins about 800 rpm less than the ProV1 again, and launches higher with a higher peak, resulting in longer carry and a couple yards more roll… I felt better about the 7 iron data as well after seeing consistent results with the 8 iron
Summary
Overall, between the ProV1 and Chrome Soft, the differences are negligible and are true to what I experienced on course, where I couldn’t tell the difference in performance at all… but the feel is significantly different between them. I much prefer the Chrome Soft between the two, and now have even less reason to reconsider using the ProV1 after seeing my results.
The Super Soft and NXT Tour S both feel great to me.. I enjoy the nice soft off the face, and really seem to fly off the club. What I don't like is the almost too soft feel when putting or the significant lack of spin on pitches and chips, especially playing in tournaments with firm greens. This was also confirmed in this data. I won’t be going back to either of these unless I am practicing when it’s very cold out like late fall, when the balls feel like a rock at 38-40 degrees out.
The Q-Star Tour looks like it has the potential to be a real performer for me. Given the data, I expect it may have acceptable enough green side spin for my game (which is what I was hoping to find), with an even softer feel. I think it feels softer than the Chrome Soft, but not as squishy as the Super Soft. It's a good middle ground. When putting on my practice mat indoors, to me the Chrome Soft feels quite a bit softer than the Srixon… which for me is actually a benefit.. I prefer the firmer/clicker feel off the putter… but prefer that softer compression feel on full iron shots. It also shows significantly less driver spin… and I’m looking to gain some distance off the tee this summer (or I should rephrase that as getting back some lost distance!) so this should help here. Really looking forward to playing a few rounds with this ball in the spring.
Only wild card with the Q-Star Tour for me will be the potential significant loss of spin in the middle of the bag, but if it launches high enough, it may land soft enough and play similarly… I just don’t want the increased distances to mess up my club gapping… but if it’s not drastic, I would trade re-calibrating my brain to a couple of new carry distances to gain 4-7 yards off the tee and keep the same green side control... might also be nice to hit some longer mid to long irons, if they can hold greens well. I will certainly need to test the Srixon out with long irons and hybrids, where it could be problematic if spin drops too low to hold greens with the 5-6i or hybrids.
I attached the spreadsheet I created for anyone interested in taking a look.. and happy to answer any questions… obviously this is how these 5 balls performed with my irons, shafts, angle of attack, swing tempo etc… so YMMV… there are many variables, and this is simply how they perform for me. Hope some of you might find the results interesting as well if you are trying to settle on a gamer ball, and have some of these on your list.
Attached Files
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