ACUSHNET, MASSACHUSETTS | For golfers, fall is a time to start talking about new equipment and the balls and clubs that tour professionals are starting to use in competition – and that will become available to recreational players in the coming months. One of the most compelling this year is next-generation Pro V1 and Pro V1x, which will be introduced at the PGA Show in late January.
To learn more about that offering and do a bit of product testing, I traveled last month to the recently revamped Titleist Performance Center at Manchester Lane in this southeastern Massachusetts town. And on a pleasant, partly sunny morning, I listened to Titleist associates describe the different advances in these iterations of Pro V1, a version of which I have played since the original first began hitting the consumer market in December 2000. Then, I ambled to a tee at this 152-acre complex, which serves as a test center, fitting operation and meeting facility, and began hitting balls that came from two different boxes onto a vast and verdant range. A pair of Titleist technicians monitored the Trackman data from my shots, and we discussed the specifics of each one. I hit maybe two dozen 7-irons and an equal number of wedges and drives. And the determination afterwards was that the new Pro V1x was the ball for me, due largely to its higher ball flight, longer carry distance and the way it so deftly “dropped and stopped” with each of my iron and wedge shots.
I smiled with approval of the decision we had made and allowed myself to dream for a moment of more birdies in rounds to come.
Then I asked a simple question: How different are these balls from the original Pro V1 that took the golf world by storm nearly a quarter century ago after tour professionals first put it in play?
The answer: a lot, with the new Pro V1 representing the 14th iteration of that ball. As for Pro V1x, which debuted in 2003, the next generation of the product will be its 12th.
That information was a revelation because I remembered the hubbub that accompanied the unveiling of the original Pro V1 at the Invensys Classic in Las Vegas in October 2000. The ball featured a solid rubber core, an ionomer casing layer and a soft, thin urethane cover with 392 dimples, and I figured there had not been more than some tweaking over the years.
But that is not how Titleist rolls, for perpetual improvement is a company mantra.
At the time of that tournament 24 years ago, I was covering the golf equipment business for Golfweek. I had heard rumblings about this mysterious new golf ball. So, I quickly accepted an invitation from Titleist to join some of its associates in Vegas to learn more about the product and see first-hand how it was being received.
The buzz was palpable as soon as I arrived at TPC Summerlin. News circulated that 47 PGA Tour pros had decided to make the switch to Pro V1 that week, a move that the gear maker today says was the “single greatest pluralistic shift in equipment usage at one event in the history of the PGA Tour.” On the range, I watched tour professionals who were not playing the ball (such as Fred Couples) gather around those who were (Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III, to name but two) and gawk at how far that ball was flying. At one point, I approached Steve Elkington and asked for his thoughts. He raved about the ball’s performance, saying that Pro V1 gave him better distance, feel and control. Then, he reached into his golf bag and slyly handed me two sleeves of Pro V1 that were encased in white boxes. I immediately stuffed them into my briefcase.
The reason for the subterfuge, I later learned, was that Titleist had planned on only 20-25 golfers putting Pro V1 into play that week. So, it had shipped only 60 dozen of those balls to Vegas and was already having shortages.
“I missed the forecast by about 50 percent,” said Mac Fritz, Titleist’s senior vice president of tour promotions at the time. “Players would come into the locker room and say, ‘Hey, I am definitely going to play Pro V1 this week,’ and I would say, ‘OK, well, hang on a second.’ Then I’d go over to two other players I’d already given dozens to and snag a couple of sleeves from each of them. We had guys going to the first tee with half-empty boxes.”
“I am playing a game right now that is different from any game I have ever played. I honestly believe that if you are not playing this golf ball, then you are at a distinct disadvantage to the entire field.”
Phil Mickelson
That Thursday morning, the first day of the tournament, I sat with Peter Jacobsen at breakfast in the players’ dining room. “I guarantee you, the winner here will have used that ball,” he said. “It’s that good.”
Turns out, Jacobsen was right, with Billy Andrade coming out on top. It was the golfer’s fourth career triumph on the PGA Tour, and first in two years. And Andrade later credited Pro V1 with resurrecting his career.
Mickelson was runner-up in Las Vegas, and after winning the Tour Championship three weeks later with Pro V1, averred: “I am playing a game right now that is different from any game I have ever played. I honestly believe that if you are not playing this golf ball, then you are at a distinct disadvantage to the entire field.”
After hearing testimonials such as those, pros clamored to put that ball into play. So much so, in fact, that according to the Darrell Survey, which monitors equipment use at professional and amateur tournaments, Pro V1 and Pro V1x models have now been used in competition on the PGA Tour more than 97,000 times since the first event at TPC Summerlin, a number that is more than six times the nearest competitor’s total ball count.
Recreational players were just as taken by the product. Per reports from market researcher Golf Datatech, Pro V1 became the best-selling golf ball on the market by March 2001, which was only its fourth month of availability to consumers. And it has maintained that position every month since.
To be able to sustain that streak, Titleist could not afford to stand pat. So, even after Pro V1’s smashingly successful debut, the company began working on ways to make the golf ball better. And it has continued to do that ever since, relying on a collaborative process that includes feedback from golfers on the professional and amateur levels and rigorous research and development from a department that is today composed of 75 associates and responsible for securing more than 125 patents that have been implemented in the creation of Pro V1 and Pro V1x since their introductions.
It is also worth considering the role that cutting-edge manufacturing technologies employed at Titleist Ball Plant 3 just down the road from Manchester Lane has played in that ride as well as the company’s stringent quality control, with every Pro V1 ball needing to pass 90 checks before being packaged and sent to market – and Pro V1x more than 120.
Then, there has been the performance validation through the years by the world’s best professionals and elite amateurs.
The first enhancement of note to the ball came in 2003 when Titleist brought out its third-generation Pro V1, with a softer and faster core formulation, a speed-enhancing and spin-controlling ionomer casing, a shear and abrasion-resistant urethane elastomer core and a new aerodynamic icosahedral dimple design.
That same year, the equipment maker introduced Pro V1x, which featured a large-diameter, resilient dual core that was designed to deliver low driver and iron spin for even greater distance. The ball also boasted a thin, urethane cover, only this one had 332 dimples in seven different sizes.
The year 2007 marked the fifth generation of Pro V1 and the third of Pro V1x. Titleist technicians say that a key innovation in both models was a staggered wave parting line, which eliminated the seam that could be seen on previous iterations while increasing dimple surface coverage for improved aerodynamics and more consistent ball flight. In addition, Pro V1 and Pro V1x featured for the first time A.I.M. (for alignment integrated marking) side-stamps, to help with alignment, an advance born largely from player input.
Four years after that came the ZG process core, which was used in the Pro V1 to create more consistent core hardness and what company engineers call “concentricity.” That same technology was employed in the center of the Pro V1x dual core in 2013. And both Pro V1 and Pro V1x featured Next Generation 2.0 ZG process core technology in the 2017 models.
In 2021, those same balls were endowed with new aerodynamic features designed to produce longer and more consistent ball flights, with Pro V1 having a 388-dimple count and Pro V1x one that numbered 348.
And two years after that, the Pro V1 boasted a new high-gradient core and Pro V1x a high-gradient dual core, for lower long-game spin while still maintaining short-game spin and control.
Now comes the 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x. And based on what I experienced during my visit to Manchester Lane and the reports I have been reading and hearing from tour professionals, Titleist keeps finding ways to make the flagship of its ball business better and better.
It’s been quite a run.
E-MAIL JOHN
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