FAIRHAVEN, Mass. (Oct. 14, 2024) – A quarter-century of breakthrough golf ball innovation continues this week in Las Vegas with the introduction of the new 2025 Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls on the PGA TOUR – marking the start to year No. 25 for the game’s most trusted and best-selling golf ball models.
It was in October of 2000, at the PGA TOUR’s Invensys Classic in Las Vegas, that the original Pro V1 was first made available to play in competition. Forty-seven players – including the eventual champion, Billy Andrade – made the immediate move to Pro V1 that week.
Pro V1 and Pro V1x (Pro V1x was first introduced in 2003) have been the overwhelming choice of players on the PGA TOUR ever since. From the 2000 Invensys Classic through last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, Pro V1 and Pro V1x models have been played in competition on the PGA TOUR over 97,000 times, more than six times the nearest competitor’s total ball count, according to Darrell Survey.
For the Titleist Golf Ball R&D and Operations teams, the challenge over those two and a half decades has remained constant: How do you make the best performing, most consistent golf balls in the game even better?
The answer: Through a collaborative process that has no beginning or end – a process rooted in continuous golfer feedback, rigorous R&D and testing, world-class manufacturing technologies, and performance validation by the world’s best and most discerning players.
2025 PRO V1 AND PRO V1x: TOUR VALIDATION
Prototype Titleist golf balls featuring new and experimental technologies are regularly being tested by tour players during practice rounds throughout the year.
Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Validation and Research, brought out one last round of 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x prototypes to the PGA TOUR earlier this season, with the final selections being made available to Titleist’s tour reps following the Tour Championship.
During September visits to Titleist’s fitting and testing facilities – the Titleist Performance Center at Manchester Lane (Massachusetts) and Titleist Performance Institute (California) – a few PGA TOUR players were able to test the 2025 models as they dialed in their setups prior to the start of their fall seasons.
That list included Hayden Springer (Pro V1) and Zac Blair (Pro V1x), who after testing the new models at TPI put them in play to begin the PGA TOUR’s fall season at the Procore Championship. Lee Hodges made the move to 2025 Pro V1 at the Sanderson Farms, a week after his visit to Manchester Lane.
This week at TPC Summerlin, on the same range where the original Pro V1 first launched, every Titleist range ball will be a 2025 Pro V1 or Pro V1x model, providing every player the opportunity to test the next generation of the #1 ball in golf.
ORIGINAL PRO V1 DEBUTS IN LAS VEGAS (2000)
Prior to the launch of the original Pro V1 at the 2000 Invensys Classic, it was anticipated that roughly 20-25 players would put Pro V1 immediately in play, with 60 dozen Pro V1’s in Titleist’s white box prototype packaging shipped to the locker room at TPC Summerlin. What happened next was unprecedented.
“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 in the locker room and say, ‘Hey, I’m 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 sleeves from each of them. We had guys going to the first tee with half-empty boxes.”
Forty-seven players made the immediate switch, marking the single greatest pluralistic shift in equipment usage in the history of the PGA TOUR. That included the winner, Billy Andrade, and the runner-up, making it a 1-2 finish for Pro V1 in its first week on TOUR.
Andrade credited the win with resurrecting his career: “I remember I was not having a very good year entering that event,” he said. “I was around 160th on the money list and there were only a few events left. I had already sent my check in for Qualifying School. I was desperate. I vividly remember the first time I put it into play during a practice round. The ball was 20 yards longer than the Tour Prestige that I was playing at the time. I chalked some of it up to altitude, but the distance, in addition to the overall performance of the ball, was like nothing I had ever played.”
Pro V1’s large solid core, multi-component construction and high-performance urethane elastomer cover gave players exceptional distance off the tee and control into and around the greens. Players no longer needed to sacrifice one for the other.
“The Pro V1 responded to the changing nature of the game,” said Mary Lou Bohn, President, Titleist Golf Balls. “The arrival of the power game on the tour necessitated golf balls that delivered very low spin in the long game, while maintaining the spin, feel and control of the premium liquid center, wound technology golf balls. We walked the fairways with players during their practice rounds, and it was amazing to hear so many great players effusive over Pro V1’s performance. If you look at the early success of players who achieved record-setting performances, the results spoke for themselves.”
TITLEIST GOLF BALL R&D
The advanced performance of 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x is the result of Titleist’s commitment to continuous improvement and innovation – exemplified by an industry-leading Golf Ball R&D team that comprises more than 75 associates, many of whom have advanced degrees in fields such as chemistry, mechanical engineering, material science, aerodynamics, physics, statistics and mathematics.
- Titleist Golf Ball R&D groups include: Aerodynamics; Engineering; Materials Research and Analytical Chemistry; Research and Intellectual Property; Product Testing and Analysis; and Product Development and Implementation.
- Titleist is constantly conducting golf ball testing at the Titleist Performance Center at Manchester Lane in Acushnet, Mass., as well as the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, Calif. A typical day of data collection accumulates approximately 20,000 data points, and more than 5 million per year. Titleist associates observe every shot to ensure accurate and reliable data.
- Over 1,700 golf ball patents line the walls of the Golf Ball R&D department, representing an unparalleled amount of innovation and intellectual property in the golf ball space. A total of 34 patents went into the creation of the original Pro V1, and more than 125 patents have been implemented on subsequent generations of Pro V1 and Pro V1x.
- Since the original Pro V1 was introduced, the Titleist R&D team has designed, manufactured and tested over 2,500 dimple patterns. Every Titleist golf ball model has a unique dimple pattern to optimize flight and distance.
- Titleist Golf Ball R&D is based at Acushnet Company’s global headquarters in Fairhaven, Mass., within an 11-mile radius of Titleist Ball Plant 3, the center of Titleist golf ball technology and manufacturing, and the Titleist Performance Center at Manchester Lane. It’s this proximity that drives Titleist’s iterative development process, providing R&D the ability to design, produce and test prototypes at accelerated rates.
- Every Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf ball must pass more than 90 quality checks, while the dual core Pro V1x must pass more than 120.
