Early season feedback from staff professionals like Miguel Angel Jimenez, Tim Clark and Tim Petrovic on Srixon's original Z-UR ball revealed that while it delivered the flight and distance characteristics it perhaps didn't have quite the feel and control they wanted around the green.
This was borne out in our own Golfmagic tests in March, where even amateur golfers can detect a firmness that makes a ball slightly less forgiving off the clubface.
As a consequence Srixon presented their top players with the Z-URS model - slightly lower (10%) compression and a softer feel and sound of the clubface of their irons. The results have been remarkable: Jimenez wins the Celtic Manor Wales Open, Clark the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and Petrovic the Zurich Open in New Orleans.
I also offered some amateur friends the opportunity to try the new ball (officially launched today) and the impressions were almost universal - a definite softness and forgiveness at impact in their iron play without any detectable loss of distance from driver, fairway metal or rescue club.
The most remarkable difference, however, was in putting. As greens became faster during the summer months the need to control distance off the putter face is imperative and from a variety of clubfaces, including polymer insert and stainless steel, the Z-URS was unnerringly consistent.
I handed my playing partner, nine handicap left-hander Martin Boughton, a new Z-URS ball on the first tee of a recent match and he proceeded to roll in some outrageous par-saves with his ageing Callaway putter.
Unfortunately, the ball didn't always respond to our callous ineptitude off the tee and after holding a 2-up lead after seven holes, we eventually lost on the 17th, by which time our respective Srixon balls were looking as tired as our own joints felt.
While sharing similar features with the original Z-UR, including head and crosswind stability, a 330 dimple pattern and the world's thinnest cover (0.02 inches), it's not, perhaps, as durable as other balls in the £40 per dozen range.
I suppose it's a price you pay for improved performance in modern balls. Even if they can find them, amateurs tend to skim them out of bunkers, bounce them on cart paths and fire them against tree trunks and while they may retained their shape for 72 holes after about 60 firm blows (not counting the putts) in an average round, scuffs and creases in the paintwork begin to emerge.
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Rating: |
8.5/10 |
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Summary: | The Z-URS is an improvement on its sister Z-UR with better feedback from those short irons as well as chips and putts. But perhaps it lacks the durability demanded by modern-day hackers. |
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