Titleist adds more speed to new Pro V1, Pro V1x

In October of 2000 at the PGA Tour’s annual stop in Las Vegas, Titleist completely changed the game of golf and took over the premium golf ball market with the introduction of Pro V1.

Billy Andrade won the event that week using the new ball and the reviews it garnered from him and several others were nothing short of gushing.

Why? Quite simply, golfers had never seen the combination of distance, spin, and durability that the Pro V1 provided.

At the time, a majority of touring professionals immediately put the new ball into play. And with demand far exceeding supply, recreational golfers scrambled to stockpile as many Pro V1s as they could get their hands on when the ball was made available to the public two months later.

Nearly two decades have passed since then, but little has changed.

Pro V1 and its stablemate Pro V1x, which had been introduced a few years later, continue to dominate ball counts on every professional tour, and they remain far and away the most popular premium golf balls among amateurs of all ability levels.

And every two years, as Titleist like clockwork releases new versions of each ball, countless golfers wait anxiously for the chance to put the new Pro V1 and Pro V1x into play.

That wait is now over, as the 2019 versions of Pro V1 and Pro V1x are finally available to the public.

In terms of the changes that have been made to the new Pro V1 and Pro V1x as compared to the 2017 iterations, they almost exclusively revolve around speed, as a new cover and new core have been implemented to deliver more ball speed but spin reduction in the long game, which is the ultimate recipe for distance.

“When we set out to develop the 2019 models, golfers keep telling us they would still like more distance, as long as they don’t have to give anything else up,” said Michael Mahoney, Titleist Vice President of Golf Ball Marketing. “Through the prototyping process, our chemists and engineers discovered a way to cast an even thinner urethane cover. Pro V1 and Pro V1x are now even faster, as a result, all while maintaining the scoring performance and feel characteristics that golfers demand from these golf balls.”

More specifically, the urethane cover on the Pro V1 and Pro V1x has been made 17 percent thinner, which helps create speed without sacrificing short game spin and stopping power, while the casing layer that lies beneath the cover has been made thicker by 14 percent in the Pro V1 and 11 percent in the Pro V1x to deliver reduced long game spin.

Also key in the performance of each ball, however, is a new 2.0 ZG Process core, which has been completely redesigned to support the faster ball speeds and lower spin rates off the tee that the cover and casing were created to deliver.

“We reformulated both cores,” said Frederick Waddell, Senior Manager of Titleist Golf Ball Product Management. “That reformulation coupled with the casing and cover changes are how we get to higher ball speeds.”

Also new for 2019, based on player demand and feedback, is the introduction of high-optic yellow versions of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x.

And while that might not seem like a major technology advancement, it took significant work from Titleist’s team of engineers to make it happen.

“As the demand for yellow Pro V1 and Pro V1x started to grow, our material scientists got to work on what we knew would be a significant R&D undertaking,” Mahoney explained. “The performance and durability characteristics of our cast urethane are the best in the industry. While it may seem pretty straightforward, recreating those properties in yellow required a new and complex chemistry with considerable iteration until we got it just right.”

In terms of the early feedback that Titleist has gotten about the 2019 Pro V1 and Pro V1x, validation for the changes that have been made have been evidenced by impressive tour adoption numbers.

Since the new balls were made available to professional golfers around the world, more than 200 have already put one of the new balls into the play, resulting in six professional victories already around the globe, including Charles Howell III getting back into the winner’s circle last fall at the RSM Classic, his first PGA Tour win in more than 11 years.

Of course, one of the biggest questions that golfers always have when it comes to each new Pro V1 and Pro V1x release is which ball is the best choice for their game.

As it relates to the 2019 versions of each ball, they will perform similarly to the 2017 versions when it comes to playability.

“The difference really between Pro V1 and Pro V1x comes down to flight, feel, and spin,” Waddell added. “Pro V1 provides a nice penetrating trajectory, lower spin, and softer feel. Pro V1x flies higher, spins a little more, and has a firmer feel than Pro V1.”