Equipment
2021 Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x: Continuing the pursuit of the perfect ball
The Titleist Pro V1 is far and away the best-selling ball in golf, and for 2021, the engineers have delivered on their promise to never stop trying to make the best better with the introduction of the all-new 2021 Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls.
How do you make the most trusted golf balls better?
When the designers and engineers at Titleist are looking for feedback, they go right to the top—that means the best players in the world. Engineers seek to find out not just what they like about their current golf ball, but what if anything can be improved upon.
After lengthy discussion and research with the best golfers in the world, improvement came down to three factors.
- Greater spin and softer feel
- More control with a higher apex
- Distance, but not at the sacrifice of the other two factors
By combining these wants from golfers, together with new and proven technologies, Titleist is giving golfers what they believe to the very best golf balls the company has ever produced, and players agree.
“When a golfer chooses Pro V1 or Pro V1x, they are choosing absolute performance. Our R&D and Operations teams have spent years engineering new technology into each and every component of 2021 Pro V1 and Pro V1x. When it comes to the performance and quality of these products, we will continue to go to every length possible to help golfers play their best and shoot their lowest scores.” – Jeremy Stone, Vice President, Titleist Golf Ball Marketing.
2021 Titleist Pro V1 technology inside and out
Just like with golf clubs, engineers don’t focus on just one performance factor when designing a golf ball. It’s about bringing each component together to have it perform at the highest level, and for a golf ball, that usually means designing from the inside out. However, with the 2021 Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls, it actually worked the other way around.
New Spherically-tiled Tetrahedral Dimple Designs – Let me start by saying I don’t come up with these names, this is all about engineering. The Pro V1 features a new 388 dimple layout, while the Pro V1x has 348. Both patterns have been optimized for each golf ball model’s specific characteristics to maximize distance and flight consistency.
To make it easy to remember, the Pro V1 is intended to provide a penetrating trajectory while Pro V1x will fly higher.
It’s important to note that this is the first totally new dimple redesign of the Titleist Pro V1 golf balls since 2011, and since that time the Titleist R&D team has gone through the painstaking process of designing, manufacturing, and tested more than 1,900 aerodynamic patterns—including no less than 60 different iterations of the new 2021 Pro V1’s 388 dimple layout and more than 30 versions of Pro V1x’s 348 dimple design as per Titleist.
“It takes years of work – we’ve been working on these new packages for almost a decade – but it is that commitment to research that ensures each golf ball is optimized to fly at its longest and most efficient trajectory.” – Mike Madson, Titleist R&D’s Director of Aerodynamics & Research Engineering
Reformulated 2.0 ZG Process Cores – As mentioned off the top, at the core of every golf ball is, well, a core (see what I did there?) and each core has to designed to deliver maximum ball speed and consistency shot after shot. The ZG process ensures that through production, each solid core Pro V1 and dual-core Pro V1x is going to deliver distance and soft feel.
Fast High-Flex Casing Layer – The casing layer between the core and the cover adds speed and lowers spin on long game shots. This casing layer is comprised of a highly-resilient, high-speed (another way of saying firm) ionomer which was originally developed for the Pro V1x Left Dash—and like with any piece of golf technology has trickled its way into other products in the line where it can be used to increase performance variables.
Softer Cast Urethane Cover – To complete the package and deliver on the number one thing players requested with the new golf balls, the new formula for the cast urethane cover is the softest formulation Titleist has ever used the Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls to increases spin around the green and offer players more control.
Price and availability
The new 2021 Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls will be available in golf shops starting January 27.
Both the Pro V1 and Pro V1x will be priced at $49.99 and be available in white with play numbers 1-4 and 5-8 along with the same numbers (00-99) through custom. High optic yellow will also be an option but only with the play numbers 1-4.
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Equipment
Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.
…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.
Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.
Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.
According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.
He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.
Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
Head over to PGATour.com for the full article.
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Whats in the Bag
Akshay Bhatia WITB 2024 (May)
- Akshay Bhatia what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. Bhatia is deciding between drivers. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Max LS (9 degrees @7.2, 2 grams lead tape heel, 4 grams toe)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X (44 7/8 inches, tipped 1 inch)
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max D (9 degrees @7)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (15 degrees @13.9)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X (43 inches, tipped 1.5)
Hybrid: Callaway Apex UW Prototype (19 degrees @17.8)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 10 X
Irons: Callaway X Forged UT (21 degrees) Buy here, Callaway Apex TCB Raw (5-PW)
Shafts: KBS $-Taper 125 S+
Wedges: Callaway Jaws Raw (50-10S @49, 54-10S, 60-08C @61)
Shafts: KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 135 X
Putter: Odyssey Versa Jailbird 380
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Split
Grips: Iomic
Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour
More photos of Akshay Bhatia’s WITB in the forums.
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Whats in the Bag
Emiliano Grillo WITB 2024 (May)
- Emiliano Grillo what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (9 degrees @10)
Shaft: Project X Denali Blue 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 70 TX
5-wood: Cobra LTDx Prototype (18.5 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 70 TX
Irons: Callaway Apex TCB (4-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5
Wedges: Callaway MD3 Milled (46-08S), Callaway Jaws Raw (50-10S, 54-10S, 60-08T)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Flatso 1.0
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Emiliano Grillo’s clubs here.
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Ryan
Jan 21, 2021 at 5:53 pm
I’m so confused about these balls—when they first debuted, the ProV1 was the softer, higher spinning ball, while the X was firmer and spun less. Now it seems the X spins more and launches higher. I did a trial on my GCQuad and the X spun around 500-700 rpm more on a 75 yard shot. Am I totally wrong?
James
Jan 22, 2021 at 1:29 pm
You are not wrong.
Gunter Eisenberg
Jan 22, 2021 at 4:11 pm
Why they switched model names is beyond me…
Jbone
Jan 21, 2021 at 11:21 am
I hope it’s as soft as the bridgestone tour xs. Feel is the only reason I switched from prov1 over to Bridgestone
Gunter Eisenberg
Jan 21, 2021 at 10:32 am
We’ll see what Rick Shiels has to say. He recently did a performance comparison between the original 1.0 Pro V1 from 2000 vs the 2020 version. Other than the more durable cover for the 2020 version there was little performance difference between the two.