Is the Titleist Pro V1 Really the Best Ball?

When you ask golfers which golf ball is the best, the answer usually comes back Titleist.  There is no question that the ProV1 and ProV1x are the number one balls on the tour and the top sellers in the consumer marketplace but are they really better than the other premium golf balls?  The answer may surprise you.

In 1932 the Acushnet Process Company created a golf ball division and a young MIT graduate named Phillip “Skipper” Young developed a machine that could uniformly wind rubber string around a rubber core—creating the wound golf ball.  By 1949, just a few years later, Titleist had become the most-played golf ball in the U.S. Open.

Back in those days they did make, without question, the best golf ball on the market.  They had two impressive claims.  You could take a dozen Titleist and drop them all through an O-ring gauge.  No other brand could do that without having some balls stick in the gauge.  They were also the only company that didn’t have to hand pick balls for the tour players.

When the multi-layer ball replaced the wound ball Titleist lost its advantage.  Today all golf balls are perfectly round except of some counterfeit Pro V1 balls.  I am not implying that they don’t still make a quality product.  I am just saying it is no longer the best.  I don’t think Tiger Woods would have dropped Titleist at the peak of his career in 2000 if they were better than everyone else.  I also don’t believe Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, and Jason Day would play with an inferior golf ball but they don’t play Titleist.

Now I have my favorite young tour player, Bryson Dechambeau, playing my personal favorite Bridgestone B330S and he does it for scientific reasons.  He has been playing them for years before he recently signed with them.

All I am saying here is that Titleist and their marvelous marketing department is still capitalizing on what they accomplished once-upon-a-time and the fact that they give away more balls than anyone else, not because they are superior.  You owe it to yourself to go to a ball fitting, especially Bridgestone, whenever the opportunity arises.

Cover Photo via Flickr