Do Prior Generations of Srixon Z-Star hold up?

[northstar33]

I've noticed that the 2015 and 2017 model Z-Stars are available at some retailers for as low as $20-$25. How do these models compare to the 2019, or the just released 2021?

 

Seems like one of the best deals on premium balls around if they aren't too far behind current gen.

[basTide]

Haven’t tried any of the new golf balls yet except for the new pro v1s but I have a thing for carrying at lest one of every major ball brand in my bag at one time and the z-stars I have still competes with the pro v1 so I’d say they fare pretty well. The main difference is the z star feel, the z star has a little less compression but somehow feels harder. Distance is very similar between both balls its really just about where you want spin and how much of it do you want. The z star spins less of the tee and with iron shots but more around the greens. The main difference between the old z stars and the new ones are that the ball is covered with their new “spin skin” supposedly giving you more bite around the greens.

[MattM97]

They work just fine, I bet there are probably some people on tour playing an old gen Srixon ball. 

[storm319]

15 hours ago, basTide said:

Haven’t tried any of the new golf balls yet except for the new pro v1s but I have a thing for carrying at lest one of every major ball brand in my bag at one time and the z-stars I have still competes with the pro v1 so I’d say they fare pretty well. The main difference is the z star feel, the z star has a little less compression but somehow feels harder. Distance is very similar between both balls its really just about where you want spin and how much of it do you want. The z star spins less of the tee and with iron shots but more around the greens. The main difference between the old z stars and the new ones are that the ball is covered with their new “spin skin” supposedly giving you more bite around the greens.

The harder feel you are perceiving is likely the ZStar’s firmer TPU cover vs the ProV1’s cast thermoset cover. The couple of points in overall compression deviation between the two is negligible.

 

The v1 spin skin was released in 2013 (aka ZStar3) so the 2021 version (aka ZStar7) is the 5th spin skin iteration. You will be hard pressed to find 2009/2011 versions for sale anywhere (Walmart cleaned out what they had of the 2013 version in early 2019, oldest I have seen there lately has been the 2017 version).

 

To the OP, as long as the balls have avoided extreme temps and/or moisture, anything from the past decade should be fine. I wasn’t a big fan of the 2015 versions, but the 2017 and 2019 versions have been great (2019 version introduced the SRM cover which feels very slightly softer when putting indoors, but they are very similar other than that). The 2013 version was noticeably lower spin across the board and a bit firmer feeling to me compared to subsequent releases.

[ode]

Whatever the last version was ... The cover was prone to wear along the seem and looked awful.....whether it negatively impacted performance,.I do not know.....but I lost all confidence in them and stopped using them.  Hopefully they correct it!

[Godfather]

2017 version was excellent. Super durable and an all-around performer. 

[grochol17]

On 3/26/2021 at 5:04 PM, storm319 said:

To the OP, as long as the balls have avoided extreme temps and/or moisture, anything from the past decade should be fine. 

 

This would be my only concern with going back too far.  

 

In my opinion, the differences between the last few generations of Z stars isn't huge... once they introduced the spin skin the subsequent improvements have been incremental.  If I knew that the 2015s or 2017s had been stored properly I'd gladly play those, even in tournaments.  If you're buying from a trusted retailer, you should be fine.  If you're buying off of ebay, you might be getting them from some dude in Florida that had them in his shed for 6 years, at which point I wouldn't trust the performance.

 

 

21 hours ago, ode said:

Whatever the last version was ... The cover was prone to wear along the seem and looked awful.....whether it negatively impacted performance,.I do not know.....but I lost all confidence in them and stopped using them.  Hopefully they correct it!

 

The wear along the seam doesn't seem to affect playability, at least at my skill level.  Yesterday I played 18 holes in a tournament with one ball (2019 model)... it started showing some seam wear on the front 9, but I was playing poorly so I didn't bother to switch balls.  Even hit a cart path on 5, but kept using it.  With the same ball I shot +2 on the back (including three 3-putts) and won a closest to the pin... stuck a shot to three feet with an 8 iron that went dead straight, hit the green, took one hop and stopped.  These balls are resilient.

[mootrail]

On my last box of first generation Z-Star X.  I bought a stack of them for $10 each at Golf Galaxy.  Wow, it'a still a really good ball.  Wish they still made these.  High compression, but still good feel and better durability then the recent gens.  Always got props for how well they checked around the green.

 

Can't say that for a sleeve of some old Nike Black 110's I just played.  So hard, I just left them on the course.

 

[Bobb3rdown]

2017 was the best. They had them in 6 packs for $10. I must've bought 12dzn and they lasted 3 years. I'll be on the lookout.