For these of you who might 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 you want to hear to strive the brand new balls, cool. They go on sale Jan. 25 and so they’re nonetheless $54.99 a dozen.
Thanks for stopping by. Recognize you.
If you’d like among the behind-the-scenes stuff just like the design targets and the way Titleist was capable of obtain them, be happy to stay round.
The twenty fifth Anniversary Professional V1
Do you know that 2025 marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the unique Professional V1? Now that you just’re conscious, you (like me) is likely to 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 preserving it easy. That’s not a lot as a result of Titleist lacks an adventurous spirit as it’s a basic case of not attempting 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 p.c of the ball rely on the PGA Tour every week.
It was utilized by 92 p.c of the sector within the Ladies’s NCAA Championship and 89 p.c within the males’s.
Apart from Japan, it accounts for greater than 65 p.c of the balls in play on each main tour and elite beginner occasions.
And so, twenty fifth 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 the best way 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 execs is “don’t change something.”
Press them a bit and, “Effectively … extra spin with my irons.”
What does that actually imply?
Which irons? How rather more spin?
Poke and prod and “extra spin” turns into “extra stopping energy with a 5-iron however none off the driving force.”
Goals – what Titleist calls its North Star – change into product briefs and we’re off and working.
Right here’s what that appeared like this time round.
Professional V1 – Keep driver spin and distance. Ship extra iron and wedge spin.
Professional V1x – Keep driver spin and distance. Enhance 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 honest, 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 the best way to really give gamers what they’re asking for.
With golf balls, the avenues for enchancment are considerably restricted. Enchancment comes, in some mixture, by the core, mantle and canopy.
Nonetheless, figuring out the proper levers to drag to attain the specified result’s a course of.
Concepts change into 100 or so prototypes. These 100 get whittled right down to 70. From there, it’s numerous testing, evaluation and optimization. If one thing isn’t fairly proper, strive 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 may 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 the use 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 type of like desserts however as a substitute of flour and sugar Titleist tweaks issues like rubber blends and zinc salts whereas adjusting cook dinner instances and different elements of the method.
By the point the oven timer goes off, hopefully you’ve bought one thing higher.
Extra pace?
You could have seen that at the start I shared Titleist’s declare of extra pace. You could 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 thus far explains the place the added pace got here from.
Let’s clear that up.
Whereas enhancing spin traits was the aim, pace is extra of a contented little bonus. Contemplate it our shared twenty fifth anniversary current.
Over the past a number of years, we’ve talked about Titleist’s opponents spending large cash to enhance the standard and consistency of their golf ball merchandise. Whereas Titleist might not have a line-item greenback quantity it may level to, high quality enhancements are a seamless 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 slim on account of these improved tolerances, it creates a chance 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 permit manufacturers to lift their CT targets. Likewise, tighter tolerances allowed Titleist so as to add somewhat pace to the brand new Professional V1 and Professional V1x.
How a lot quicker 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 attention-grabbing 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 somewhat 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 that you could’t decouple the aerodynamic package deal from the remainder of the ball so a promising new dimple sample might present optimum outcomes with a given building. Likewise, an optimized package deal would possibly push the gap past what the USGA’s ODS (general distance customary) permit for.
Merely, it’s a balancing act.
For the 2025 balls, Titleist discovered that the present aero package deal on the Professional V1 labored effectively with the brand new ball and so the quilt 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 convey flight down a bit. The decrease flight is why Titleist says the brand new Professional V1x gives extra management.
Decrease flight off the driving force is one thing gamers had requested for but it surely’s equally true that if Titleist hadn’t made the adjustments, with the added pace, the 2025 ball might not have handed the ODS take a look at (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 some other ball for that matter) that’s proper for everybody.
The Professional V1x will fly greater and spin extra, most notably off iron pictures. 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 matches extra golfers into Professional V1x than some other ball in its lineup. Whereas the excessive compression can work effectively for quicker gamers, its higher-flight, higher-spin properties make it a fantastic possibility 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 greater whereas AVX is softer and sometimes longer off irons.
If in any respect potential, we’d advocate going by a ball becoming to search out the very best ball on 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) will likely be accessible at launch as effectively.
Out there in golf retailers worldwide starting Jan. 25.
For extra info, go to Titleist.com.
The previous one continues to be fairly good
Whereas provides final, the 2023 Professional V1 has been discounted to $49.99 a dozen.
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