MyGolfSpy Ball Lab is where we quantify the quality and consistency of the golf balls on the market to help you find the best ball for your money. Today, we’re taking a look at the 2022 Titleist Tour Speed To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.
About the Titleist Tour Speed
The Tour Speed is unique among Titleist urethane-covered golf balls. While all things Pro V1 and AVX feature cast urethane covers, the Tour Speed is Titleist’s only injection-molded (TPU) urethane ball. It’s also notable that the Tour Speed is made alongside the Velocity and TruFeel at Ball Plant 2, not at Ball Plant 3 where the premium stuff is made.
The original Tour Speed caused a stir among regular readers of Ball Lab. While the performance is intriguing (we found the Tour Speed to be surprisingly long off the tee), its Ball Lab score, while still within the average range, is the lowest of any Titleist ball tested to date.
Have two years of additional experience and a reformulation of the ball yielded a better product?
Let’s find out.
Titleist Tour Speed Construction
The 2022 Titleist Tour Speed is a three-piece golf ball with a 346-dimple cover. While not as soft as a good bit of the competitive set, it offers high-flight, low-ish spin off the tee that you typically find with softer golf balls. With the higher relative compression, it tends to be a bit faster than those competitors.
Compression
On our gauge, the 2022 Titleist Tour Speed has an average compression of 82. That puts it between the OnCore Vero X1 and Maxfli Tour and just a couple of ticks firmer than the ionomer-covered Velocity.
Across the market as a whole, it qualifies as a “firm feel” golf ball, though it’s on or even past the edge of being too soft for Tour play.
Diameter and Weight
We’ve never had a Titleist ball exceed the USGA’s maximum allowable weight. That remains true with all of our sample conforming.
None of the balls tested fell below the USGA’s minimum size requirement. However, a single ball in the sample failed to meet our standard for roundness. Accordingly, it was flagged as bad.
Inspection
Centeredness and Concentricity
Concentricity across the sample was generally good but one ball was flagged as bad due to a significant variation in mantle thickness.
Core Consistency
Core consistency and color were consistent throughout the sample. We did observe a bit of regrind that was isolated to Box 2 but it’s nothing of any particular concern.
Cover
No notable cover issues were found.
Titleist Tour Speed – Consistency
In this section, we detail the consistency of the 2022 Titleist Tour Speed. Our consistency metrics provide a measure of how similar the balls in our sample were to one another relative to all of the models we’ve tested to date.
Weight Consistency
- Weight consistency for the Titleist Tour Speed falls within the average range.
- Box 3 had just a tick more variability than the rest of the sample.
- In terms of the market as a whole, we would consider the 2022 Titleist Tour Speed to be of average weight.
Diameter Consistency
- Diameter consistency for the 2022 Titleist Tour Speed falls within the Good range.
- The size of the balls falls within the Average range relative to the market as a whole.
Compression Consistency
- Compression consistency falls within the Average range.
- A single ball in Box 1 (90 compression) is only just within our allowable range for compression deviation.
- The compression delta across the entire sample was 10.7 points. That’s reasonable but otherwise unremarkable.
True Price
True Price is how we quantify the quality of a golf ball. It's a projection of what you'd have to spend to ensure you get 12 good balls.
The True Price will always be equal to or greater than the retail price. The greater the difference between the retail price and the True Price, the more you should be concerned about the quality of the ball.
Titleist Tour Speed – Summary
To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls and our True Price metric, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.
The bottom line is the results suggest that Titleist has improved the quality of the Tour Speed. The new model falls in the mid to high end of the Average range.
The Good
- Diameter consistency is Good (above Average).
- Average for compression and weight consistency
The Bad
- Two bad balls in the sample (one for roundness, one for layer concentricity)
- While improved, quality is still a step below the Pro V1 and AVX franchises.
At the time of review, the 2022 Titleist Tour Speed gets an overall grade of 79. This falls at the mid to high end of the average range.
MacInFL
11 months ago
I have been playing Tour Speed almost exclusively for a year. In general, I like how it performs. Drives seem at least as long, if not longer, than other balls that I play. It seems to fit my game. Even though I am a low swing speed senior, I particularly like the feel of the ball. It is not quite tour ball compression but firm enough to provide good feedback. Have never been enamored with low compression but do not enjoy playing high compression tour balls (Pro V1x, TP5x, etc.) so the Tour Speed is a good compromise.
My one complaint, the ball does not seem to be sufficiently durable at this price point and seems to scuff / cut easily. With my lower swing speed, I obviously don’t stress the ball but have balls with abrasions even after what I consider to be clean crisp shots. I usually can get at least one round out of the ball but you will definitely see wear, especially if you are having a day “at the beach”.