For decades, Las Vegas has been a place where fortunes can be made, and many professional golfers have amassed their fortunes using a Titleist Pro V1 or Pro V1x golf ball. On Monday, as pros arrived at the practice area at TPC Summerlin to prepare for this week’s Shriners Children’s Open, they were greeted by white boxes containing the newest versions of Titleist’s flagship golf balls: the 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x.
While Titleist is keeping details of the new designs under wraps, the seeding process that started Monday is the first sentence in the next chapter of the Pro V1 story – a story that began in research and development offices in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, but truly became a page-turner in Las Vegas.
Pro V1 history
The Pro V1 was introduced in October 2000 at the PGA Tour’s Invensys Classic in Las Vegas, but Titleist had been developing the ball for about five years, trying to blend the short-game spin and control of wound balata-covered balls with the distance of two-piece, solid-core balls.
The Pro V1’s large rubber core, firm mantle layer and soft urethane cover created more distance off the tee, consistency with irons and spin control with wedges for players in prototype testing. At the Invensys Classic that week in 2000, Titleist hoped the seeding process would convince 20 to 25 players to use the ball, and Mac Fritz, then senior vice president of tour promotion, brought 60 dozen golf balls to the tournament.
That turned out to be an underestimation, as 47 players immediately switched to the Pro V1, including tournament winner Billy Andrade and runner-up Phil Mickelson.
The 2023 Titleist Pro V1 (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The name “Pro V1” was initially just an interim stamp for balls submitted to the USGA for conformance testing – not a permanent name. The ball was made to replace the Titleist Professional (Pro), and the mantle layer was created using veneer (V). The number 1 indicated that it was the first version submitted to the USGA.
In the weeks that followed, the buzz surrounding the Pro V1 grew and demand swelled, prompting Titleist to move the ball’s retail release forward from March 2001 to December 2000.
Within four months of Andrade’s win in Las Vegas, the Pro V1 became the best-selling golf ball in the marketplace – a position it has held ever since.
Hello, Pro V1x
Titleist introduced the first Pro V1x in 2003 as a companion ball to the Pro V1. While the Pro V1 has always been a three-piece ball, the Pro V1x…
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