Ram Tour Spin Golf Ball Review
The Ram Tour Spin golf ball has supposedly been engineered to perform strongly in all areas of the game, whether that be distance, greenside spin, or precise control with your irons. It boasts 392 dimples, which is the number Ram claims helps with a stable trajectory and higher ball flight. Coming in at £39 for three dozens, we took it to the course to see if it could be considered one of the best value golf balls.
The Tour Spin is a three-piece construction ball with a DuPont Surlyn cover, which upon initial inspection certainly feels a lot firmer than most other balls in the ‘tour’ ball department. The ball has the iconic Ram logo either side and a filled in black line with Tour Spin written through it which makes a great putting alignment aid. Considering how the ball felt in hand, the Tour Spin felt surprisingly soft off the putter face and produced a muted ‘click’ sound when striking 15 foot putts.
After hitting a few pitch shots, chips and putts I was actually a little surprised with the performance of the Tour Spin. On a 50-yard pitch my average launch angle was 30°, pretty much bang on what a PGA Tour player would look to launch that shot and had an average spin rate of 6215rpm (revolutions per minute) which is on the lower side, but not drastically low. On the course I saw a little less spin than I would from a premium ball such as the Titleist Pro V1x or the PXG Xtreme golf ball, but enough that I didn’t feel as though I was losing a ton of performance.
The Tour Spin ball performed really well with a mid-iron in my hands. I had an average spin of 6692rpm which is nearly exactly what I would look for and an average carry of 169 yards. The ball flew at the trajectory I would look to see my 7-iron fly at and I was able to hit a variety of shots that I like to hit on the course with no problem. The only time I saw some suspect ball flights were coming out of the rough. The ball often looked like it didn’t hit its peak height from the first cut and performed several nose dive manoeuvres, which were a little concerning.
The performance off the tee was also strong with the Ram Tour Spin ball. Out of all the ball testing I have conducted this year I actually saw some of my more impressive numbers on Trackman with this ball. One shot with the driver actually registered at 170mph ball speed, with a carry of 296 yards and total of 317 yards. These are numbers that were on par with some of the best premium balls I have tested this year. The only drawback was that the spin rates were quite inconsistent. I saw a difference of 800rpm from my highest spinning to lowest spinning shot and a difference of 4mph in ball speed. While this may not seem like much, it was the difference between 30 yards of carry, which is a substantial difference when playing on the course.
Considering these balls work out around £13 per dozen, they provided extraordinary performance and value. While it wasn’t quite enough to sway me away from using other premium balls, the Ram Tour Spin ball can be considered one of the best golf balls for beginners as well as high handicappers. The Tour Spin is a perfect ball for golfers who are prone to losing a few balls on their way round, yet want a ball with plenty of tee-to-green performance.
