The new Srixon Q-Star Tour ball is not the first to make the case that average swing speed golfers should be playing a different ball than elite players. It’s made the case itself in its initial generation unveiled in 2017. But Srixon says the new version will improve average golfers’ games by going lower, higher and softer—that’s in terms of spin, launch and core compression.
Like the top technology balls, the Q-Star Tour features a multilayer construction that includes a rubber core surrounded by mantle and then a urethane cover. As Srixon’s Brian Schielke puts it, “This is tour on the outside soft on the inside.” One other key difference: price. As with past versions, the Q-Star Tour retails for $10-$20 less than some other multilayer urethane cover balls.
The idea behind Q-Star Tour is that moderate swing speed players will benefit off the tee and with other full swing shots because its lower compression core will launch shots higher and with less spin, compared to most multilayer urethane-covered balls that are typically played on the professional tours. In that way, the Q-Star Tour fits in that class of balls that started with the Bridgestone RX series of balls and later, the TaylorMade Project (a).
Unique to Srixon is what it calls the “energetic gradient growth” core formulation designed to optimally increase the stiffness of the core from a soft center to a firmer outer portion. Even so, the core on the new Q-Star Tour is softer than its predecessor by approximately three compression points.
“There are two basic benefits to a soft core for the moderate speed player,” Schielke said. “One, it launches a little bit higher so moderate swing speed golfers usually benefit from a higher launch. And it spins less, which is the best usually for accuracy. Lower spin is lower sidespin, and these people are usually fighting to find fairways.”
Schielke said while the Q-Star Tour’s core may be moderate-swing friendly, the cover is very much the same technology as the company’s tour-played Z-Star and Z-Star XV balls. It uses the same 338 dimple pattern and features an extra, more elastic coating of urethane on top of the urethane cover to improve the cover’s interaction with the grooves of a wedge for increased spin. This cover treatment, known as “Spin Skin,” is in its third generation.
Schielke said players with swing speeds at 95 miles per hour or below would be the target audience for the new Q-Star Tour.
The Q-Star Tour launches in North America Sept. 1 ($30 per dozen in both white and optic yellow).
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