For these of you who may need someplace to be, I’m going to chop to the chase.
In comparison with the 2023 balls, the 2025 Titleist Professional V1 and Professional V1x supply:
- Extra pace off the tee
- Extra management with the irons
- Extra spin together with your wedges
If that’s all that you must hear to attempt the brand new balls, cool. They go on sale Jan. 25 and so they’re nonetheless $54.99 a dozen.
Thanks for stopping by. Admire you.
In order for you among the behind-the-scenes stuff just like the design aims and the way Titleist was capable of obtain them, be happy to stay round.
The 25th Anniversary Professional V1
Do you know that 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the unique Professional V1? Now that you simply’re conscious, you (like me) may be considering Titleist would do one thing loopy to completely blow the doorways off this factor.
A seven-layer Professional V1? A brand new gold urethane cowl? How in regards to the long-anticipated (by me) Professional V2?
Nah.
We’re maintaining it easy. That’s not a lot as a result of Titleist lacks an adventurous spirit as it’s a traditional case of not making an attempt to repair one thing that clearly isn’t damaged.
Contemplate the next:
- The Titleist Professional V1 is a dominant No. 1 within the retail market.
- It averages 70 % of the ball depend on the PGA Tour every week.
- It was utilized by 92 % of the sector within the Ladies’s NCAA Championship and 89 % within the males’s.
- Aside from Japan, it accounts for greater than 65 % of the balls in play on each main tour and elite beginner occasions.
And so, 25th anniversary ball or not, the method that went into growing the brand new ball actually wasn’t a lot completely different from the final 9.
It began, because it at all times does, with determining methods to enhance on the one which got here earlier than it.
With that, you would possibly say that Step 1 in growing a brand new golf ball is to hear.
The problem for Titleist is that fairly often the suggestions from Tour professionals is “don’t change something.”
Press them a bit and, “Effectively … extra spin with my irons.”
What does that actually imply?
Which irons? How way more spin?
Poke and prod and “extra spin” turns into “extra stopping energy with a 5-iron however none off the motive force.”
Goals – what Titleist calls its North Star – grow to be product briefs and we’re off and working.
Right here’s what that regarded like this time round.
Professional V1 – Preserve driver spin and distance. Ship extra iron and wedge spin.
Professional V1x – Preserve driver spin and distance. Improve iron and wedge spin (with out exceeding 2021 Professional V1x)
Professional V1x Left Sprint* – Don’t change actually something (apparently) as a result of there nonetheless isn’t a brand new one (and I’m completely not bitter about it in any respect).
* To be truthful, Titleist isn’t doing nothing so far as Left Sprint is worried. There have been a number of prototypes, some extra promising than others. The subsequent Left Sprint isn’t prepared but however that doesn’t imply it’s not being labored on.
Turning into Professional V1: The method
With the large image stuff hammered out, the subsequent step is to determine methods to truly give gamers what they’re asking for.
With golf balls, the avenues for enchancment are considerably restricted. Enchancment comes, in some mixture, by way of the core, mantle and canopy.
Nonetheless, figuring out the proper levers to tug to attain the specified result’s a course of.
Concepts grow to be 100 or so prototypes. These 100 get whittled right down to 70. From there, it’s a lot of testing, evaluation and optimization. If one thing isn’t fairly proper, attempt once more. Make new prototypes. Lather, rinse and repeat till the final finest few choices are able to take to the Tour.
As you may think, the standard of suggestions differs by gamers. Some give loads of detailed and significant insights. Others, not a lot, however there’s nonetheless one thing to be discovered from the launch monitor.
In blind testing, if a participant occurs to say {that a} ball feels hotter or that he’s hitting his home windows and seems like he has extra management, then cool.
Nailed it.
You possibly can consider the ultimate step in prototype testing as Titleist providing a menu however the gamers select the ball that turns into the ball.
However how?
Whereas making (and enhancing) a golf ball requires a good quantity of experience, there’s not any specific magic to it.
To some extent, the method is cumulative the place the work finished in ’21 and ’23 make what I suppose may very well be described as a extra spin-tuned Professional V1 potential.
For 2025, the evolution of the Professional V1 comes largely by means of a core reformation that builds on the enhancements made to the graduated core design discovered within the 2023 balls. Persevering with our restaurant analogy, golf balls are form of like muffins however as a substitute of flour and sugar Titleist tweaks issues like rubber blends and zinc salts whereas adjusting cook dinner occasions and different elements of the method.
By the point the oven timer goes off, hopefully you’ve acquired one thing higher.
Extra pace?
You’ll have seen that at the start I shared Titleist’s declare of extra pace. You’ll have additionally seen that it wasn’t a part of the product transient (Tour gamers weren’t essentially asking for it) and nothing I’ve stated to this point explains the place the added pace got here from.
Let’s clear that up.
Whereas enhancing spin traits was the objective, pace is extra of a contented little bonus. Contemplate it our shared 25th anniversary current.
Over the past a number of years, we’ve talked about Titleist’s rivals spending massive cash to enhance the standard and consistency of their golf ball merchandise. Whereas Titleist could not have a line-item greenback quantity it may well level to, high quality enhancements are a unbroken and endless a part of the Titleist course of.
In lots of respects, high quality enhancements manifest as tighter tolerances and, as these manufacturing distribution curves slender because of these improved tolerances, it creates a possibility to push pace targets nearer to the USGA limits with out growing the danger of exceeding them.
It’s mainly the identical factor you’ve heard about on the clubmaking facet. Tighter tolerances enable manufacturers to lift their CT targets. Likewise, tighter tolerances allowed Titleist so as to add just a little pace to the brand new Professional V1 and Professional V1x.
How a lot sooner are we speaking?
In robotic testing at roughly 100 mph, Titleist places the pace profit at an additional .5. That’s not a ton but it surely’s not nothing. The doubtless fascinating factor is that positive factors in participant testing common nearer to 1.5 mph, although there are some that aren’t seeing any pace positive factors.
With the brand new 2025 Professional V1 and Professional V1x, you’re going to get some spin advantages and, with just a little little bit of luck, you would possibly choose up some pace, too.
Aerodynamic optimization
As a part of each new ball launch, Titleist seems for alternatives for aerodynamic enchancment. The ripple is you could’t decouple the aerodynamic bundle from the remainder of the ball so a promising new dimple sample could present optimum outcomes with a given building. Likewise, an optimized bundle would possibly push the gap past what the USGA’s ODS (general distance normal) enable for.
Merely, it’s a balancing act.
For the 2025 balls, Titleist discovered that the present aero bundle on the Professional V1 labored properly with the brand new ball and so the duvet carries over unchanged from the 2023 ball.
With the Professional V1x, the sample itself is identical however Titleist tweaked the depth of the dimples to deliver flight down a bit. The decrease flight is why Titleist says the brand new Professional V1x gives extra management.
Decrease flight off the motive force is one thing gamers had requested for but it surely’s equally true that if Titleist hadn’t made the modifications, with the added pace, the 2025 ball could not have handed the ODS check (largely due to the maths behind the USGA’s bounce and roll mannequin).
Cool, so which one is true for me?
Sadly, the proper golf ball varies from golfer to golfer That’s to say, there’s no Titleist (or every other ball for that matter) that’s proper for everybody.
The Professional V1x will fly larger and spin extra, most notably off iron photographs. Professional V1 will fly decrease and spin a bit much less within the lengthy recreation. Each supply loads of short-game spin.
It’s maybe notable that Titleist suits extra golfers into Professional V1x than every other ball in its lineup. Whereas the excessive compression can work properly for sooner gamers, its higher-flight, higher-spin properties make it a terrific choice for golfers who wrestle to generate sufficient spin.
On the opposite finish of the spectrum, Left Sprint and AVX present choices for golfers who generate an excessive amount of spin. Sprint is quicker and can fly larger whereas AVX is softer and infrequently longer off irons.
If in any respect potential, we’d suggest going by way of a ball becoming to search out the most effective ball to your recreation.
Pricing and availability
The 2025 Titleist Professional V1 and Professional V1x golf balls retail for $54.99 a dozen. Each can be found in white and Excessive Optic Yellow. The Enhanced Alignment Possibility (alignment facet stamp) shall be out there at launch as properly.
Accessible in golf retailers worldwide starting Jan. 25.
For extra info, go to Titleist.com.
The previous one remains to be fairly good
Whereas provides final, the 2023 Professional V1 has been discounted to $49.99 a dozen.
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