Ball Lab: 2022 Srixon Z-Star Diamond Review

MyGolfSpy Ball Lab is where we quantify the quality and consistency of the golf balls on the market to help you find the best ball for your money. Today, we’re taking a look at the 2022 Srixon Z-Star Diamond. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

About the Srixon Z-Star Diamond

The Srixon Z-Star Diamond ostensibly was designed for Brooks Koepka to be a “best of both worlds” cross between the standard Z-Star and the Z-Star X offering higher compression than the former and more spin than the latter.

All of that made things a little awkward when he ditched the ball prior to the U.S. Open. The reality is that Srixon designers were working within a narrow window and it’s hard to get things perfect on the first try. A new Z-Star Diamond is in the works so it shouldn’t be too long before we can find out how that ball stacks up against the original.

Z-Star Diamond Construction

The 2022 Srixon is a three-piece golf ball. In that respect, it’s more similar to the standard Z-Star than the XV. It offers a 338-dimple urethane cover. The entirety of our sample was produced in Srixon’s factory in Japan.

Compression

On our gauge, the 2022 Srixon Z-Star Diamond has an average compression of 95. That’s identical to the Chrome Soft X we discussed in our most recent Ball Lab.

As a reminder, we’re playing in the same compression ballpark as the Pinnacle range ball and the 2022 Bridgestone Golf Tour B X. The Z-Star Diamond is softer than a Titleist Pro V1x and slightly firmer than the 2021 TaylorMade TP5x.

It solidly qualifies as a firm golf ball.

Diameter and Weight

Diameter consistency has been more than a little problematic with the Srixon golf balls we’ve measured. Whether that’s traceable to the factory (the majority of the Srixon balls we’ve tested were made in Indonesia) or some other manufacturing problem isn’t clear.

That said, the good news is that we found absolutely no issues with the Z-Star Diamond. All of the sample balls were round and, while a couple of balls in the sample challenged USGA limits, none crossed over.

Likewise, none of the balls in the sample exceeded the USGA’s weight limit.

Inspection

Centeredness and Concentricity

We have found some concentricity issues in the past, though they’ve been more prevalent with the lower-cost models. This time around, we didn’t find anything of concern.

Core Consistency

Other than a couple of balls that were a few shades lighter, core color was mostly consistent throughout the sample. Srixon uses more regrind (those bits of yellow visible in the core photo above) than any manufacturer of repute but, given the general consistency of our measurements (see below), it’s nothing to be concerned about.

Cover

No cover defects were noted.

Srixon Z-Star Diamond – Consistency

In this section, we detail the consistency of the 2022 Srixon Z-Star Diamond. Our consistency metrics provide a measure of how similar the balls in our sample were to one another relative to all of the models we’ve tested to date.

Weight Consistency.

Weight consistency for the Srixon Z-Star Diamond falls well within the average range. The chart reveals a couple of balls that are comparably light but nothing of any real concern. In terms of the market as a whole, we would consider the Z-Star Diamond to be an average weight golf ball.

Diameter Consistency

Diameter consistency for the 2022 Srixon Z-Star Diamond falls within the Average range. Diameter has been an area of struggle with other Srixon balls we’ve measured to date so this should be seen as a significant positive. The size of the balls falls within the average range relative to the market as a whole.

Compression Consistency

Compression consistency falls within the Good range. Box 2 was slightly softer than the other two but, generally speaking, the compression line is what we love to see. The compression delta across the entire sample was only four points which is, quite frankly, exceptional.

Srixon Z-Star Diamond – Summary

To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls and our True Price metric, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

With absolutely no red flags anywhere in the sample, the Z-Star Diamond is the best Srixon ball we’ve tested.

The Good

Zero bad balls Above-average compression consistency

The Bad

Nothing of consequence. No worse than average for any metric.

At the time of review, the 2022 Srixon Z-Star Diamond gets an overall grade of 85.

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