It’s been 25 years since the original Titleist Pro V1 was introduced into professional golf and its rise to become the best premium golf ball on the market has been nothing short of meteoric. The 2023 Pro V1 and Pro V1x were some of the best golf balls we tested over the past year and and so it's always exciting to see what changes have been made when the Titleist prototype white boxes appear.
The first Titleist Pro V1 was introduced to players on the PGA Tour for the first time in 2000 at the Invensys Classic, where 47 players made the switch into the product. Included in that 47 was the eventual winner of the event, Billy Andrade, who has since paid tribute to the original Pro V1. “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” explained Andrade.
This week the PGA Tour is back in Las Vegas at the 2024 Shriners Children Open where the new and improved Titleist 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x are being officially debuted with players both testing and putting the balls in play. Other than a slight change on the design of the sidestamp, it's not clear just yet what changes Titleist has made.
While we don’t know the exact details behind the updated technology inside the new balls, we do know the Titleist R&D team (made up of over 75 people) has been working on improving aerodynamics and materials research as well as liaising directly with Titleist tour players since September at the Titleist Performance Center in Massachusetts to help dial them in ahead of the 2025 season. Players such as Zac Blair put the new Pro V1x in play for the start of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup Fall Series and Lee Hodges also made the switch to the 2025 Pro V1 before teeing it up in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
With the likes of TaylorMade and Callaway upping their games with the launches of the new Chrome Tour and TP5 ranges respectively over the past year, Titleist has been pushed more than ever before to update and improve on the performance of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x in order to maintain its position as the best ball in golf. While getting 47 players to immediately switch into the 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x as they did with the original ball in 2000 seems unlikely, every Titleist ball on the range this week at TPC Summerlin will be the new 2025 variant, giving every player the opportunity to test the new ball.
The bulk of the big names on the PGA Tour tend to start their season in Hawaii at the beginning of each calendar year and so while we see players fighting for status or crucial FedEx Cup points in the fall series, it’s understandable many of these players may not initially make the switch into the new 2025 Pro V1 or Pro V1x. When January rolls around it will be very interesting to see how many players who currently play a Pro V1 or Pro V1x make the switch into the new 2025 ball or if they switch models based on any new performance characteristics they experience.
