By Ed Travis
Because of the introduction of the Titleist AVX, the new Titleist Tour Soft, a very good ball for the average golfer, has gotten lost in the shuffle
While many may lament the passing of Tour Soft’s predecessors, the NXT Tour and NXT Tour S, my analysis is the new 2-piece Tour Soft is a combination of both and the description of what Titleist accomplished is very straightforward.
Titleist saw “soft-feel” golf balls from Bridgestone, Callaway, and TaylorMade gaining traction in the marketplace and decided to take action. Titleist is the dominant brand and they not only want to lead in the premium ProV1 and ProV1x models, but in the less expensive lines, as well.
The three competitors soft-feel models are priced at $45 per dozen, a notch less than Titleist’s Pro V1 and Pro V1x, as well as, the new AVX, at $48. The Tour Soft is slightly less at $35 per dozen.
The Tour Soft core is larger in diameter than any other ball Titleist has ever made. In addition, the core has excess rebound to produce high ball speed and yet retain a soft feel with relatively low spin.
The cover, while not the urethane of those models in the premium category, is very thin and made with a blend of four materials to provide greenside control.
According to Titleist the dimple pattern is a “spherically-tiled 342 cuboctahedron” design, which is beyond my ability to describe so I won’t try, but the bottom line is the configuration delivers a penetrating trajectory especially off the driver and long irons.
On the course, the Tour Soft performs as advertised, both men and women reported added distance with the Tour Soft. Reviews from, a 12-handicap man and 17-handicap lady, both agreed the new Titleist Tour Soft was significantly longer off the tee.
“I know it goes farther than any of the balls I’ve been playing,”
My personal experience with the Tour Soft mirrored the distance comments, plus it was very consistent on pitches and chip shots. Once gaining familiarity with the new ball, distance and trajectory on those short shots was easy to achieve. All the rounds were played in Florida, where the wind is a constant factor and not one drive or iron shot produced a “balloon ball” even when contact wasn’t exactly pure.
If you want the advantage of a low- compression, lower spin, soft-feel ball, that will stop on the green, the Titleist Tour Soft, in either white or optic yellow, is the right ball for you.
