Review: Wilson Staff FG TourX Golf Balls

A soft twist on the long low spin ball
 Every golf ball company tends to have two top tier urethane covered golf balls.  One that spins more and tends to be a little softer, while the other spins less, tends to be firmer and is a little longer.  Wilson introduced the FG Tour ball over a year ago.  It is the softer, spinier ball.  Late 2011 they are introducing the other one, the longer, firmer ball; the FG Tour X.

 I have been a Wilson ball fans since back in the day.  I grew up playing Wilson clubs and using Wilson golf balls.  (It probably helped that my father loved their products.)  It has been great to see the renewal of Wilson Staff the last few years with products like the Wilson Duo Optix.  Everything from their new clubs, to their touring pros and yes even their golf balls.  I played a sample pack of the FG Tour balls this spring and really like them.  They were soft, spun nicely and really durable, but I didn’t end up getting any more because the local golf shop didn’t stock them.  But when I got the opportunity to review the Wilson FG Tour X golf ball, I jumped on it. (Hopefully these will be stocked around town)

 The first thing that is immediately noticeable with either version of the FG Tour ball is that the urethane cover is different.  It is softer and sticker than other brands.  Even in the X it is still softer than most other brands.  This is a great move in my opinion.  So many lower spin, longer balls get too firm.  Not the Wilson FG Tour X ball.  It is that combination of X qualities, but still with a soft cover.

The X qualities are very good too.  It is long off the tee.  I’ve played multiple rounds now and I would say it is as long as any ball on the market.  It has no problem keeping up.  From tee to green it is what you would expect, long, mid launch with mid/low spin.  Around the green it seemed to spin a little more than most X version and is noticeably softer off the putter.

I was also impressed with how durable these were.  I expected the soft cover to get torn up, but it didn’t.  It survived many holes, even a couple rounds (until I lost it).

The only thing I noticed that is different about this ball is that soft cover as I mentioned is a little tacky.  If you roll it in your hand you can tell instantly that it is different.  It is almost sticky.  I’m not sure if that is the paint they use or their urethane compound, because both the FG Tour and FG Tour X are like that.  I only noticed a problem one time.  When I made a less than pure putter stroke, and the ball skidded off the putter instead of a clean roll, the tackiness seemed to grip and the ball stopped well short of what it should have.  Now skidding is never a good thing in putting anyways, but you will note that if your greens are little grabby, these will be slower than other balls.  At the same time this stickiness probably made it check up a little better on pitch shots, so it is a compromise of what will work best for your game. I personally had great results with this ball.

I think Wilson has a winner.  A soft, durable, yet long and lower spin premium ball.  It is a little bit different than the other bands out there, so I think the Wilson twist on the X style ball is very well done.  So if you are looking for X performance with a little softer feel, get the Wilson FG Tour X ball.

For more information: http://www.wilson.com/en-us/golf/balls

Quick Hits
+Long off the tee
+Excellent soft feel for X
+Very durable
+Great combination of spin and control

–Sticky urethane cover