Ever since the debut of the original Pro V1 at the Invensys Classic in October 2000, Titleist has traditionally used the Las Vegas stop on the PGA Tour to reveal its latest iteration of the most-played ball on tour to its tour staff. This week at the Shriners Children’s Open, the company is doing that once again with the reveal of its 2025 versions of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls.
It has been two years since the last models were introduced and while the company, as per its custom, is mum on details at this time, it is part of its long-held seeding and validation process with its players. The prototype balls will be delivered to players’ lockers this week and the process will continue over several months as the company seeks feedback from the game’s best on its latest product.
TPC Summerlin is where Titleist’s original Pro V1 prototypes were introduced to PGA Tour players. Billy Andrade won that event after being one of 47 players who put the ball in play that week, marking a seismic shift towards multilayer, urethane-covered golf balls.
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 moneylist and there were only a few events left. I had already sent my cheque in for [entering] 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 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.”
Since that time the adoption from tour pros and sustained play with the ball over time has been unlike anything the industry has seen. From the 2000 Invensys Classic through the Sanderson Farms Championship a fortnight ago, Pro V1 and Pro V1x models have been played in competition on the PGA Tour more than 97,000 times, greater than six times the nearest competitor’s total ball count, according to the Darrell Survey.
Despite scant details, this latest Pro V1, like previous models, is a three-piece multilayer ball (single core, mantle layer and cover) and the new Pro V1x is a four-piece multilayer ball (dual core, mantle layer and cover). From photos provided by the company, the sidestamp has solid-black arrows pointing in two directions. Another detail given that ball’s history is this: expect a number of players to switch over – and quickly.
