RZN MS-Tour Golf Ball

If the RZN name rings a bell to you, yes it IS that RZN. After producing Nike’s golf balls for five years and winning a whole bunch of big tournaments, RZN decided to take over the golf ball business and continue to bring their designs to the market following Nike’s departure from the golf equipment industry. There are currently four RZN ball models and this review will cover the RZN MS-Tour which is their soft Tour ball and designed for players with a more medium swing.

How Does it Feel?

When RZN Golf says the MS-Tour is a medium swing-speed three-piece ball, make sure you heed that advice. Going through the RZN online fitting system, it suggested the MS-Tour as my second option, and realistically, I should have gone with my intuition but I wanted to see how the recommendation worked out. If you have a faster swing speed, the MS-Tour will not have an optimal feel for you. Yes, the MS-Tour is in fact pretty soft and and plush around the greens, but it’s also soft off the tee. In my case, it felt too soft off the tee. That said, I have to imagine for lower to medium swing speeds, there would be a nice little pop in the feel with a comfortable and versatile compression.

Off the Tee

Unfortunately I’m not a professional photographer by trade, but if you look close in the photo above, you can see “Micro Dimples” within the dimples. This is designed to reduce air drag for better aerodynamics, but should also really make controlling all of your shots easier. As mentioned above, the RZN MS-Tour was too soft for me off the tee and I would likely be a much better fit in the HS-Tour ball. As such, I had a hard time controlling the ball and its spin regardless of the Micro Dimples. With a lower swing speed, I’d imagine the compression would be more optimal and the reduced air drag would come into play much more. I gave a sleeve to two buddies who swing around 103 mph and 95 mph respectively and they both said the ball was good off the tee.

On the Approach

Ok, things started coming around for me a bit here. I was now able to manage the softer compression of the RZN MS-Tour ball and get a lot of bite into the greens. Shaping and flighting the ball was easy making it great for target golf. One comment I will make is that if you’re on the faster end of swing speed with an aggressive tempo, the ball might feel a little spongy. By making a smoother swing with more moderate speed, I found it to be just right. I felt like I could really grab the ball with the club. Long irons were even showing zip on the greens. Speaking of grip, RZN designed these balls to have high grip in wet conditions. While I haven’t used them in wet conditions, one has to think that would mean the cover grips more in general.

Around the Green

Between the soft urethane cover’s higher grip and the softer compression, the RZN MS-Tour is solid around the green. The ball checked nicely and also played out of bunkers notably well. Trust me, I found enough of them. For whatever reason, the MS-Tour stood out to me with how well it performed from the sand on multiple occasions.

As seen in the picture above, RZN put a larger alignment line on the ball. With so many golfers relying on lines and arrows these days, RZN took care of it for you. Sure, the marking typically comes down to preference, however the bigger and bolder line should make alignment easier. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I found the thinner outer lines to be a nice touch as well.

Final Thoughts – RZN MS-Tour Golf Ball

I never really played the RZN Nike balls back in the day so I can’t comment on how the current RZN balls compare. I do remember quite well, however, that the Nike RZN balls had fairly large cult following. For a very affordable $35, why not try to recapture that magic? The MS-Tour is a soft and compressible ball that should be able to “do it all” but you need to have the right swing speed for it. If you have a higher swing speed but like the sounds of this ball, it might be worth checking out the HS-Tour option.