Titleist AVX (2020)

The new and improved Titleist AVX brings with it everything you’ve come to expect from a golf ball release. It’s longer, it spins more around the green, and it preserves everything AVX players love about the ball.

Titleist AVX History

It’s probably reasonable to say that the original Titleist AVX was a ball the company had to make. When soft was the exclusive domain of inexpensive 2-piece balls, it wasn’t an issue. When the popularity of Chrome Soft soared, Titleist, and I suspect begrudgingly so, felt it needed to offer golfers an alternative.

In the most basic of terms, the challenge was to create a better soft ball; something that would appeal to preference driven golfers, while besting the competition in terms of performance and quality. It had to be a Titleist.

The result was AVX, the softest, lowest spinning of Titleist’s three premium offerings.

Where Does AVX Fit?

There’s invariably some confusion about where a given ball fits within its manufacturer’s larger lineup. After shuffling the deck a few years ago, Titleist has made things simple and straightforward.

On a comparative basis, Pro V1x is high launch with high spin. Pro V1 is mid-launch with mid-spin, and AVX is low launch with low spin. Just an FYI, the Left Dash Pro V1x that hit the market last year is high launch like the standard Pro V1x, but with a spin profile that’s between Pro V1 and AVX.

What’s interesting about AVX is that while it’s slotted to compete directly against Chrome Soft, Titleist seldom talks about the ball in terms of how it feels. It’s not that AVX isn’t soft (it is), but the discussion always centers on how Titleist fills a performance gap it within its lineup with a ball it believes vastly outperforms similar compression offerings from its competitors.

AVX was created as an alternative to Pro V1 and Pro V1x for Titleist players who may not have been entirely loyal to either ball. If some others got switched from other brands along the way, all the better.

What’s New and Better?

As with any brand that creates something its customers like, improving the product means striking a delicate balance. With AVX, Titleist wanted to make the ball a bit faster and add a little bit of greenside spin without changing how it played off the irons. It also needed to retain the identity of the ball – the reason why golfers play it. That meant retaining AVX’s low spin performance characteristics, and of course, its soft feel.

There’s not much new in this part of the story. Titleist tweaked AVX’s core formulation and made the core itself a bit larger. That created an opportunity to thin out the casing layer and make it a bit more flexible. The combination provides more distance off the tee with low long game spin – and yes, despite no change to the compression, Titleist says the new AVX will feel a touch softer.

The last piece of the puzzle is a thinner cover that Titleist designed specifically for AVX. It helps deliver a lower trajectory and the greenside spin that every golfer wants.

In robot tests, Titleist found gains of 2-3 yards. It’s not massive, but perceptions being what they are, some will likely find it to be significantly longer.

Who is the Titleist AVX Player?

It should go without saying that brands will often position a product where it’s most beneficial to the bottom line. Within that context, it should also go without saying that AVX is designed to appeal to the preference driven golfer. To put it bluntly, in many cases, that’s going to be a guy for whom performance considerations sometimes take a backseat to less important things like feel and color.

No judgment today. If you’re looking for a softer-feeling Titleist ball, here you go. Please, enjoy.

That’s not to say there aren’t players who won’t benefit from AVX’s performance characteristics.

Prefaced with in any fitting scenario, there will always be outliers, on performance alone, the ideal AVX player is typically a golfer who exists on the poles of the fitting bell curve. Slower swing speed golfers will likely lose only fractions of yards with a low compression ball while gaining distance with their irons. Full disclosure, the risk here lies in iron play, where AVX may launch too low with too little spin for some.

High Speed, high spin guys will lose a bit of pop off the driver because of the softer compression, but for those who typically generate more than 3000 RPM, the speed loss is often offset via spin reduction. The lower spin performance throughout the rest of the bag can be ideal for that same golfer.

Titleist would almost certainly say that the majority of golfers will better fit into the Pro V1 or Pro V1x. For a niche segment of golfers or for those seeking a softer feeling high-performance golf ball, however, the new Titleist AVX might be what you’re looking for.

Colors, Pricing, and Availability

The new Titleist AVX is available in both white and optic yellow. MAP is $47.99. Available now.

For more information, visit Titleist.com.