XXIO Golf Balls Review

Occasionally you find an off brand golf ball on some odd area of the golf course and you think nothing of it. And why should you? Most of those golf balls are cheap and you can tell.

But if you ever find an XXIO golf ball do not disregard it. These are premium golf balls. And that means they are also expensive.

Its time to put the XXIO golf ball into my best golf ball on Earth challenge. Just like with all of my reviews, I play an 18 hole round at Rackham Golf Course and write-up a review as soon as I get home.

Whenever I play an XXIO golf ball I will update the review on this page. All of my reviews are written in chronological order.

XXIO Aero-Drive Golf Ball Review

9-15-17  –  80 Degrees  – Sunny

Rackham Golf Course  –  White Tees

XXIO (pronounced “really expensive”) is a golf ball I never knew existed. In all of my years playing golf I cannot remember seeing this brand on a ball or club. Not once.

These golf balls were purchased with a gift card at Carls Golfland. Hence, price was not an issue. Whats funny is when I asked the kid to pick out five sleeves of golf balls he said I had to get the XXIO’s. I thought he sneezed. He did not.

What is also funny is out of the five sleeves he picked out these were the only ones under the counter. It was like a drug deal was going down. Not a lot of people know about the XXIO so they don’t ask for them. At $16 for three balls ($5.33 per ball), it might also be because they are very expensive.

The XXIO Aero-Drive is a three-piece ball with an “Energetic Gradient Growth Core, an Ultra Soft Metal Mix, with a Highly Resilient Ionomer Cover”. Those are some big words for a golf ball.

What I thought to be interesting about the sleeve was half of it was written in French. And they are the only golf balls I’ve tested which are made in Japan. I can’t get the Hattori Hanzo sword scene from Kill Bill out of my mind thinking about the XXIO golf ball.

XXIO Aero-Drive claims to have “Super Long Distance, Mid-High Approach Spin, Ultra Soft Feel, and High Durability.” OK. Sounds good. Lets get at it.

Off The Tee – It was one of the more odd days hitting driver with the XXIO. I only hit one fairway. The least accurate day of driving in my testing. But man, the XXIO jumped off the driver. Hit my furthest drive ever on #9. It ended up in front of the fairway bunker and to the right.

Could not hit a draw with the XXIO and my shots either went straight or faded to the right. Had two slices today too. It looked like the XXIO was so close to coming around and drawing but never did. It was odd as I’ll get into the spin I was getting with the irons.

Outside of two bad drives, everything else was just barely off the fairway which gave me a chance with my second shot to shoot at the green. I feel that the XXIO is a golf ball you have to get comfortable hitting with before you get the “Super Long Distance” out of it. Like a training manual needs to come with it.

Fairway Woods & Hybrids – This is where the XXIO shines. It was jumping off my fairway woods and hybrids. If the fairway markers are correct and lets say they are, than I hit two 3 woods over 260 yards on #7 and on #14. Ill include the 3 wood I hit on #18 in the mix too as it flew.

The compression with the 3 wood was awesome. It has the softness of a Pro V1 with the distance of the TaylorMade TP5x. It had a similar feeling with the 5 wood too. The only time I used my 4 hybrid today was to chip.

Irons – The XXIO felt like a beast with the irons. Contact with the club face feels like hitting a whale but the end result is above average spin when it hits the green. I only had 6 greens in regulation today which isn’t that bad since I hit the fairway once.

The XXIO didn’t leave ball marks on the green, it left dents. The backspin and sidespin were impressive. On the Par 3 5th hole I hit a 7 iron which landed on the downslope of a hill. It dug out a chunk of the green, kicked it forward, and backspun some twenty feet. It was awesome. Almost every approach shot that hit the green left a dent and stopped.

Wedges – If there was a hang up with the XXIO Aero-Drive it was with the wedges for me. Since the XXIO feels like a semi truck at contact, it also means its hard to slow down when it’s not coming straight down. Getting a lot of spin with full iron swing shots was happening but not with half shots or wedges.

Not once did the XXIO check up or spin with a wedge. Everything rolled out.

Putting – Five 3 putts and four 1 putts. The XXIO felt like a tank when it left the putter face. Softness was not a sensation I felt when putting. Just like a semi-truck, when the XXIO gets rolling, its hard to slow down.

37 putts were taken today which means it was not a good putting day. I did do well putting from the fringe as I hit the flag stick twice but neither went in.

Durability – The good news is I did not lose a golf ball. And I beat the XXIO Aero-Drive up today. Found two sand traps and hit two trees quite hard.

There is one small scuff mark on the cover but that’s it. You could not tell I played with it unless you were under  lights.

Score – 86

GIR – 6

Putts – 37

Fairways – 1

Penalty Strokes – 0

I do not know what it is about the XXIO Aero-Drive but it feels like there needs to be a owners manual for it. Do not throw away an XXIO if you find one as this an expensive ball. You can tell the Aero-Drive is a premium golf ball once you get past the 1990s font they use. I swear the font is just like Lockheed Martin.

This is a golf ball I need to play again in a non-scientific setting. Every time I took a full swing it felt like the ball took over and did what it wanted to do. If I can only find that owners manual.