KickA**

The KickX Tour Z was a pleasant surprise.  When first taking the ball out of the package they had a slight tacky feel to the touch.  The large graphics were immediately noticeable, both the logo and the alignment markings.  Testing done over 3 days on greens that were running about 9 on the stimpmeter.  Greens were fairly hard.

 

NAME:  KickX Tour Z quickly became KickA** to my foursome mostly because it was more fun to say and they sound alike if one mumbles.  Would probably be a good anchor line for an ad campaign. 

 

GRAPHICS:  upon showing my ball on the first tee, one person saw the alignment marks and truly thought from his distance and without his reading glasses that I had picked up a range ball. If you are into minimalist graphics, this is not for you.  I used the alignment lines and think I am getting used to them. I am used to a single line and have a single line on my putter so am accustomed to lining those two up.  I used the single line in the middle quite effectively.  I was able to mark my balls by adding a second (and third) dot to the alignment line to distinctly mark each ball in case a provisional ball might need to be hit.

 

PERFORMANCE:  Without using a launch monitor, I was virtually unable to distinguish this ball from my normal ProV1x.  The KickX Tour Z was slightly longer off the tee and checked up quicker on the greens, which were hard.  I can't prove it empirically yet but I believe the KickX scuffed a tad less after a visit to the cart path, which surprised me given the soft cover.  The KickX Tour Z was softer off of the putter face but rolled just as consistently.  

 

CONCLUSION:  I will definitely buy these KickX Tour Z balls once I use up the 8 dozenTitleists I got during the last buy 3 get one free promo.