TITLEIST LAUNCHES 2019 PRO V1 AND PRO V1X

HOW do you improve on a golf ball that is the most used ball in professional golf and is hugely popular among amateur players around the world?

Titleist’s Research & Development team set out to do that by adding more distance to the 2019 Pro V1 and Pro V1x through increased ball speed and lower long game spin, while maintaining the short game control players crave.

To achieve these goals and keep the performance characteristics of the previous versions that golfers enjoyed so much, the company engineered a thinner cover that allowed further refinements to the other components within the three-piece Pro V1 and four-piece Pro V1x’s construction. This includes a thicker casing layer as well as cores with a greater variance between the soft centre and now firmer outermost portions.

“When we set out to develop the 2019 models, we found that golfers at every level are extraordinarily satisfied with the performance of their Pro V1 or Pro V1x. At the same time, golfers keep telling us they would still like more distance – as long as they don’t have to give anything else up,” Vice President, Titleist Golf Ball Marketing Michael Mahoney said. “Through the prototyping process, our chemists and engineers discovered a way to cast an even thinner urethane cover, and therefore increase the percentage of speed-enhancing materials in the overall construction. 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.”

The urethane elastomer cover is made using

Titleist’s thermoset casting technology and is 17 percent thinner than the previous model, meaning the casing layer has been increased by 14 percent for the Pro V1 and 11 percent for the fifirmer firmer feeling Pro V1x. This thicker layer surrounding the core can now rebound faster, effectively increasing distance without increasing long game spin, one of the trade-offs associated with lowering a ball’s compression, another typical way to gain ball speed.

Rounding out the distance gaining formula of the updated 2019 models are new ‘2.0 ZG Process’ cores. A singular piece in the Pro V1 and a dual construction in the Pro V1x, the new core technology helps preserve the feel of previous models by keeping the soft centres but becoming firmer, and thus faster, as it gets closer to the casing layer.

In addition to the performance improvements over the 2017 version, the latest Pro V1 and Pro V1x also marks the first time Titleist will offer its top ball in high optic yellow, which Bubba Watson recently put in play. Although diversifying the colour options of its most popular golf ball seems a straightforward decision, ensuring the performance characteristics, including durability, remained in the new colour posed a challenge for the company’s golf ball development teams based at its Ball Plants 3 and 4 in Massachusetts, where every Pro V1 is produced.

“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 signifificant significant R&D undertaking,” Mahoney said. “The performance and durability characteristics of our cast urethane are the best in the industry. It’s because we formulate and manufacture the cover ourselves that we are able to control the material with such precision and consistency. 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 both the new yellow and traditional white, the Pro V1 and Pro V1x have maintained the differences in ball flight and spin of previous models, with the softer feeling Pro V1 possessing a lower trajectory than the Pro V1x, which features 328 tetrahedral dimples as opposed to the Pro V1’s 352 and flies higher with greater spin on iron shots.

As has been the case since the first Pro V1 was launched in 2000, the balls underwent a Tour seeding process that began at the PGA Tour’s Las Vegas stop in November 2018. It achieved almost immediate success when Charles Howell III won just two weeks later with the new Pro V1, while Cameron Smith switched to the new model at the Australian Open before defending his Australian PGA Championship crown two weeks later.

“The 2019 Pro V1 for me is a home run,” Howell said. “I’m getting all the ball speed I had with the prior generation Pro V1x and more. Plus, the new Pro V1 feels softer to me around the green, which I prefer. Ball speed off the driver is a pretty hard and fast measurable whereas touch and feel around the green is player dependent. I go through a fairly rigorous testing process when it comes to new equipment, but it did not take long for me to put this ball into play seeing it gives me the best of both worlds.” SRP: $72.95 per dozen. Contact: For more information, visit www.titleist.com.au