callaway tour ix

[weswilkes]

Yeah I got mine yesterday as well...I totally forgot I even signed up for these. Needless to say a nice little treat to come home too!

[davechen]

I played the Tour ix for the first time today, and so far I like 'em. I shot a record low for me, 40, in my league match today. Much of that was due to chipping. I holed a birdie chip and had 2 or 3 other nice chips for tap in putts. And I hit a good drive that when over 250, probably 10 yards longer than I would normally hit.

They putted fine. They didn't really check up, but it doesn't happen much for me, since I don't have the swing speed for it.

[JSC924]

Got my 2 sleeves in the mail today and played a round of 18 already. The packaging box for the promotional 2 sleeves of golf balls is very fancy. The honeycomb dimples are an unique and interesting design. Out of the box, the balls have a sticky coating and performed as well if not better than the pro v1 in terms of short game spin (less than 20 yards). However, as the ball was hit and cleaned a few times, the cover was not as sticky as it was out of the box and the performance declined for those short shots.

The golf ball had no improvement to my tee shots in terms of distance. From feel, the ball performed fairly well off the tee in terms of keeping the ball straight by limiting the spin. I noticed the ball launched much higher off of the scoring and long irons without excess spin to exaggerate draws or cuts. The ball flew straight off of iron shots.

The key is that it does everything a pro v1 can but just has slightly less spin on short wedge shots. It is more durable than a pro v1 and costs slightly less. I would still go with a pro v1 for raw performance and go with a mid level ball like the bridgestone e5+ or e6+ for value.

[klaymon]

Got mine today. I have some other balls to burn through first, so I'll test these in a couple of weeks or so.

[Clubchucker]

Well, I believe it's more like . If it had those ---- parts, it'd be more like the Titleist ball and I'd probably like it more.

First part...I agree. Titleist's line is better, but my point was it's not a deal breaker by any means...for me. And I think it's because we may use it differently, judging by the second part of that quote. My use of the alignment line is when I'm placing my ball back at my mark. Align it to the direction I want it to go (squatted position, looking at the hole). Next use of it is to square my putter according to the direction I've set the alignment line. After that, I guess I'm in a "zone" because once the face is square...it sounds weird, but I see nothing. I don't see the ball, I don't see the putter...nothing. I simply concentrate on my stroke and keeping my head still until after contact. I get what you're saying about the "blurry" part, but I don't even think I get a blur after I've set my putter square. Sounds weird I know...LOL.

Bottom line: I still haven't tried the balls. I'm not sticking up for them in any way, shape or form. I'm not looking for something "as good" as my Titleist. I'm looking for something better. And, it will have to impress me quite a bit in order to do that. I know what my Titleist can and will do (ok..most times, but the times they don't ain't the balls fault). For all intent, they're the same cost (sorry, I don't consider a buck or two any difference). It has to be better....much better in order for me to switch. We'll see. Should get a good idea next week, since that's my golf trip...126 holes of golf in 3.5 days.

[TheGasman]

Man, I almost gave up trying numbers and I finally got it. So what happens to the guy who got the coupon in the mail with the code I used.(haha)

[DJYoshi]

IT IS HOOOOTTTT off of the face of your club! You feel that sucker compress and BOOM. I think I hit the longest drive of my life today on a downhill 440. I was left with a little over 100 yards. It was downhill and down wind & I played a slight draw to roll with the wind, but damn did that sucker fly... It felt like it had much less spin on the shorter irons though.. but all around..it's a great ball.

[polodinks]

i got mines on monday and i completly forgot about them..... ill never use them i love the neat little box they came in but my lil brother freaked out for a sleeve so i gave him one...... i have no intension to use them lol
i like my titleist too much

[YogiTKE]

I played the Tour ix last night and was very pleased with its performance. I had no problem spinning/stopping the ball and even drawing the ball back on par 3's and approach shots. The ball seemed to be even more durable than the HX Hot that I normally play. Wedges didn't scuff the Tour ix at all compared to the HX Hot. I was very suprised of that.

[joshtpa]

i got mines on monday and i completly forgot about them..... ill never use them i love the neat little box they came in but my lil brother freaked out for a sleeve so i gave him one...... i have no intension to use them lol

Why did you sign up for them, if you have no desire to try any new golf balls?

[iacas]

And I think it's because we may use it differently, judging by the second part of that quote.

Turns out we don't. I read your description, and that's how I use it too. I think the "more line-like" look of the A.I.M. line assists me in lining up the putter (and it's part of the reason I prefer a putter with a sight line).

To put a cap on this slightly off-topic discussion , I'll link to an article I wrote on putting and leave it at that. Certainly the markings on a ball are a small part of the ball's worth, so, we may have already given it too much credit in this discussion. http://thesandtrap.com/playing_tips/...t_making_putts

Why did you sign up for them, if you have no desire to try any new golf balls?

Yeah, a bit rude since you took a number (and balls) away from someone who would want to use 'em.

[mhays26]

I actually did not like these. They felt good off the driver, but around the green is where I really decided they were not for me. I have a go to shot when I am chipping where the ball will come out low and crisp, take one hop and stop on the dime. I couldnt get this ball to do that for anything, for several holes I tried this shot, and it just wouldnt bite. I also thought the cover felt strange. As I was putting on the practice green with the new balls, I would reach with the putter and try to move a ball over closer to me and they would not roll well. The putter face wanted to scoot the ball. Anyway, thats just what I found.

[joshtpa]

I actually did not like these. They felt good off the driver, but around the green is where I really decided they were not for me. I have a go to shot when I am chipping where the ball will come out low and crisp, take one hop and stop on the dime. I couldnt get this ball to do that for anything, for several holes I tried this shot, and it just wouldnt bite. I also thought the cover felt strange. As I was putting on the practice green with the new balls, I would reach with the putter and try to move a ball over closer to me and they would not roll well. The putter face wanted to scoot the ball. Anyway, thats just what I found.

That is odd, because I felt as though they stopped on a dime with that same shot.

[TinCupTampa]

Wow that was just kind of scary, I just read your post and after typing in 100+ numbers I tried the last 4 digits of my SSN like you said. It worked first time. How's that for a coincidence?

I tried my last 4 of my ssn and didnt work... I then tried my 4 digit pin for my debit card and like magic... it worked. Yay for me.

[Puttin4Bird]

Well I played my Tour ix tonight and have decided to take a stab at a full fledge review:

Initial thoughts: Once I opened the box I was surprised at how soft this ball was to the touch. You can literally squeeze and feel the softness more so than any other ball that I can remember. Initially I'm thinking there is no way this ball can be that long off the tee, maybe it'll be good to stop or spin back with full wedges, but I'm skeptical of the distance.

First contact: The first opportunity I had to hit these with any club was my putter on the practice green, it felt about as I expected. It was soft and seemed to roll pretty good. I putted probably 30 or 40 putts of all varying distances and liked the feel.

Now we're on the tee: Tonight we played the back 9 first, hole 10 is a longer par four with OB all along the right. I have cracked a few into some yards there so I actually entertained the idea of hitting something else off the tee but decided that I'm going to confidently play this ball without fear of losing it. I'm glad I did, I stroked one hard down the left side of the fairway, not dead on the nuts, but hard with a slight draw. I was happy with how well the ball stayed online, this draw with a lesser ball might have been further off track. I found through out the night that the ball was LONG, really long in fact, and as advertised by Callaway, the ball does spin less off the driver helping to keep otherwise "draw" shots or "hook" shots relatively closer to the original target.

Iron shots: It reacted a lot like a Pro-V1x in it's ability to "drop and stop." The ball would take it's initial bigger bounce then usually stop within a few feet of the next bounce, I didn't have any spin back on me, but that is nothing new for me.

Chipping: It was so-so in this aspect for me. I was left kind of hoping for more really, but I can't say that I had too many opportunities to chip as I was on in regulation more than normal perhaps.

Durability: GREAT! I used the same ball for 18 holes and it was still in great shape, this surprised the heck out of me as I was expecting the soft feel to mean chewed up covers like the original Rule 35 from Callaway, not the case at all.

Overall Thoughts: First off, the ball is long. I am still amazed at how long it is for the softness. I still am not sure if I like the soft feel THAT much or not, but I can live with it. Driver shots that had some spin on them weren't punished nearly as much as other tour balls I've played. While the chipping and overall mediocrity I experienced around the greens is largely in part of the inexperience I have with this ball. I'm sure upon spending more time using the ball I'd come to know and appreciate the offerings around the green. Right now I know exactly how my Pro V1x will react and this ball is different. Again, not bad, just different.

I think the gains in distance are due in large part to the reduced side spin off the driver, I really liked this feature of the Tour ix and I believe that this along with the added durability might help this ball find it's way into my bag more frequently. Now if we can just do something about the damn price!!!

I'm not going to go and throw away all my Pro V1x's just yet, I still have all 6 balls here, 5 of them completely brand new. So I'm going to have some more time to play these things, I've been a Pro V1x guy for a long time, it's going to take a little more than a squishy feel and a few yards to change my ball.

Enjoy them while you've got em boys, just don't spend more than 5 minutes searching for these expensive buggers!!! I hope you enjoyed my initial attempt at a review. If you have any thoughts, questions, anything I'd be glad to hear them.

[PuterPutter]

Got mine in the mail yesterday. The soft feel comes across just holding them in
my hand. I thought that the feel is similar to the Wilson ZIP or Wilson 50/50.

I am going to play them later today if the boss does not catch me leaving the
office early. (Like at lunch time!!!!)

[obsessedgolfer]

is there a catch

[Black_Death]

The catch is that you have to waste 30 min trying to figure out a code that works...unless you get lucky.