Check out Golfweek’s list of the best golf balls available to purchase in 2024.
A decade ago, the sight of a non-white golf ball would raise a few eyebrows, but those days are long gone. TaylorMade, one of the largest golf ball makers in the world, predicts its non-white ball sales in 2024 – comprised of balls with stripes, special markings or customized logos – will eclipse traditional white ball sales for the first time.
Golf balls with corporate logos have been popular for decades, but tour pros like Rickie Fowler and Tommy Fleetwood compete in PGA Tour events, major championships and Ryder Cups using TaylorMade’s TP5 and TP5x Pix balls that have markings designed to aid in alignment and to reveal how purely you’ve hit your putt. Callaway’s Truvis balls, which are covered in pentagons, have been popular for several years and Srixon’s Divide balls are eye-catching in every weather condition and also help golfers perform better on the greens.
At the same time, manufacturers like Titleist, maker of the Pro V1, and Callaway, maker of the new Chrome Tour, have never made balls to a higher precisely, which means that from ball to ball, consistency is better than ever before.
With such a wide variety of balls on the market, ranging in price from about $22 to around $55 per dozen, finding a ball that matches your game and your budget can be tricky, but Golfweek’s 2024 Golf Ball Guide is here to help. Prioritize what you want from your golf ball (distance, short game spin, soft feel), and then think about a price range you are willing to pay. Keep in mind that if you go down in price, you will likely have to compromise something because the materials that make premium balls perform so well don’t come cheap.
Buy a three-ball sleeve of several different balls, go to the course and see how they perform on chip shots, pitch shots and short approach shots first, then see how they work for you with long irons and woods. The unique way you swing will make each ball play differently, but testing balls on the course will always be the best way to find your perfect golf ball.
Note: Golf balls are often released on two-year product cycles, which means updates are released every two years. For that reason, you will see several 2023 offerings alongside new 2024 putters.
The new AVX provides more greenside spin without sacrificing its low spin and soft feel.
Gear: Titleist AVX golf balls (2024) Price: $49.99 per dozen Specs: Three-piece, urethane-covered golf balls. Available in White and Yellow. Available: January 24
Who It’s For: Golfers who want a softer feel, lower flight and less spin than a Pro V1 without sacrificing greenside spin.
The Skinny: The updated AVX has a new gradational core and a softer, thicker urethane cover to give it enhanced greenside spin, a lower flight and less spin with long irons.
The Deep Dive: With several premium golf balls in its portfolio, including the top-selling Pro V1 and Pro V1x (which do not change for 2024), Titleist designers and engineers were given very clear instructions when it came to developing an update to the AVX ball. The new alternative to the X and V ball needed to be longer from tee to green, but the bigger task was to make it feel softer while giving it more greenside spin.
To achieve those goals in the new 2024 AVX, Titleist started by making the gradational core – which is extremely soft in the center and gets progressively firmer toward the perimeter – slightly smaller. The 2022 AVX also had a gradational core, but the firmness change in the 2024 ball is more substantial, making it more like a multi-core construction in a single-core ball.
The Titleist AVX ball for 2024. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
A firm casing layer (which is the dark ring around the purple core in the photo above) covers the core. That firm material over the soft core is the key to effective energy transfer on wood and long-iron shots. The casing layer also helps to reduce spin when the ball is hit with a less-lofted, more-vertically-faced club like a driver, fairway wood or long iron. The result is more distance with lower spin off the tee and from the fairway with long clubs.
However, on short-iron shots and wedge shots, when the clubhead speed is lower and the impact is made with a more lofted club, the updated AVX’s softer urethane and thicker cover, which is on top of the firm casing layer, can easily be grabbed by the grooves to generate spin. The softer, thicker urethane cover also helps to make the AVX feel softer at impact, even though the ball’s overall compression (80) has not changed.
Knowing that Titleist wanted to keep the AVX’s playing relationship with its other balls about the same, designers knew they needed to give the 2024 AVX a low-spin dimple pattern, but they wanted it to be better than the pattern on the 2022 ball. Ultimately, they chose a quadrilateral dipyramid catenary design (say that five times fast!) that had previously been used in the two-piece, distance-oriented Tour Soft balls. On the 2024 AVX, the cover pattern makes it more stable in the wind.
So where does AVX fit into the Titleist golf ball stable?
AVX spins less off the tee than Pro V1 and Pro V1x
AVX should have a lower launch angle than Pro V1 and Pro V1x.
AVX will feel softer at impact than Pro V1 and Pro V1x.
While the new AVX should generate more greenside spin than its predecessor, the Pro V1 and Pro V1x will spin more around the green and with short irons.
