Thanks to fellow TT member, Peter H., I managed to try out the new AVX Prototype ball this past week. Peter H. brought some back from his visit to California so I was fortunate to get to try this ball in a round.
We have been getting lots of rain recently as a result of a "Pineapple Express" so the courses around here in the Vancouver area are mostly damp with lots of soft or soggy turf. The course that I played had some adequate fairways and the greens were in decent shape and relatively dry given the rain.
The AVX felt pretty good off of the tee. I played a shorter, executive style course, so I only had 2 tee shots with the driver, 2 tee shots with my fairway wood and 1 tee shot with my hybrid. All of the other tee shots were with irons.
The distance was about normal and not too dissimilar to the Pro V1x that I normally play with. I also played this round with my NXT Tour S on about half the holes, playing 2-balls simultaneously for direct comparison purposes.
The feel of the AVX was not too bad, but I must admit that I could not really feel a significant difference in terms of softness between the AVX and the NXT Tour S.
Regarding spin and approach shots to the green, there seemed to be a bit more spin with the AVX ball vs. the NXT Tour S, but I do think that some of the spin benefit may have been blurred as the NXT Tour S managed to stick around on the greens pretty well as the greens themselves were damp and softer than normal.
One noticeable difference was when I played the longest par 4 on the course. I decided to play 2 - balls to close out the round and to compare the AVX to the NXT Tour S one last time. My tee shots were within about 10 yards of each other (the NXT Tour S being slightly longer on this shot). My approach shot with the NXT Tour S ball was a bit on the thin side. My shot did not have the trajectory that I was after (high shot to land softly); it was a little lower trajectory and carried almost all the way to the flag. As the rear of the green sloped away from the flag, I thought that there was no way that ball would stick around the green even with the green being as damp and soft as it was.
I then retrieved my AVX ball and played almost the exact same shot from the same spot. I felt that I put a good swing on the ball, the trajectory was a little higher and it felt like I managed to put some more spin on the ball.
When I approached the green, I could see my two golf balls. One was near the flag about 8 feet away, the other had indeed rolled off of the green and was resting about a foot in the fringe. I thought that my initial assumptions were correct -- the AVX ball spun more and was the one closer to the pin while the NXT Tour S was the on the fringe.
As I settled over the ball on the fringe and discovered that it was the AVX ball and not the NXT Tour S. I was a little flummoxed or confused as to how this happened. After chipping my AVX to within 3-4 feet of the hole, I went over to the other ball for the "birdie" putt. Well, I was in for a bit of a surprise. it turned out that the other ball that I was playing was not my NXT Tour S, but rather my usual PRO V1x. I couldn't help but laugh ... I guess when I went to retrieve the NXT Ball from my bag, I inadvertently grabbed one of my Pro V1x's.
So, the takeaway for me was that the AVX does not appear to have the spin and control as the Pro V1x. Even though I thought that I had played a better shot with the AVX the, Pro V1x still produced more spin and checked up nicely next to the pin and not the other way around! I know that this is only an anecdotal account, but I decided to share it with my fellow TT's for what it is worth.