Playing a Pro V1x golf ball, the champion of The Sentry closed in 8-under 65 to win the PGA TOUR’s 2024 season opener by one shot and lead a 1-2-3-4 finish for Titleist golf ball players.
The champion was in complete control of his Pro V1x, gaining more than six strokes (+6.092) on the field with shots into and around the greens.
He led the field in SG: Around the Green (+3.561) and Scrambling (91.67%), getting his Pro V1x up and down on 11 of 12 attempts, including a perfect 2-for-2 on Sunday. He gained more than 2 ½ shots on the field on Approach shots (+2.531/14th).
It marked the champion’s second victory since making the move to his 2023 Pro V1x golf ball at the beginning of last season.
The Sentry champion put the ‘23 Pro V1x in play for the first time at last year’s Sony Open, where he recorded what was then his best finish (3rd) in two years. His next start at the American Express ended with a T3 finish. Two starts later, he won the Honda Classic for his first victory since 2015.
Titleist was the #1 ball at The Sentry with 41 players in the 59-player field (69.5%) teeing up a Pro V1 or Pro V1x golf ball, more than five times the nearest competitor.
The Sentry champion led a 1-2-3-4 finish for Titleist golf ball players, while eight of the top 9 finishers played a Pro V1 or Pro V1x:
The NEW Vokey Design SM10 wedges made their PGA TOUR debut this week at The Sentry – as the field’s most played wedge. A total of 59 SM10 wedges were immediately put into play at Kapalua (25.8% of all wedges), more than any other brand’s total number of wedges:
– Twenty players put at least one Vokey SM10 wedge in the bag this week – including Max Homa and Jordan Spieth, who each arrived to Maui with four new SM10’s, having left their SM9’s at home.
– With new four new SM10’s in the bag, Byeong Hun An gained more than three shots on the field around the green (+3.066), on his way to a third-place finish.
– In total, Vokey was the most played wedge at Kapalua with 98 (57.6%) sand, gap and lob wedges in play.
.@jordanspieth: Always part of the process.
— Titleist (@Titleist) January 4, 2024
Hear from one of the game’s best wedge players on his move to new #SM10 @vokeywedges. pic.twitter.com/4zHPG5Txiz
“So typically Aaron Dill (Vokey Tour Rep) comes to us throughout the year and asks, ‘What can we be doing better?’ And I don’t really have a whole lot to say to him normally because I love my wedges, but he’s always working to improve little things. And then he presents them to us and we get to hit them with Aaron as he talks through the changes that he makes. And then from there, I take them home – you know, you’ve got to hit them a bunch. We're working numbers, working flights, playing with them, building some trust with them, kind of keeping what he's working on in the back of our mind. And then when it all matches up, I feel pretty comfortable taking him out to a tour round.”
- “I flight my wedges really low. And then as I got to the gap wedge and the pitching wedge, I saw some more consistency in the flight, especially on the draw intent shots, just kind of holding a little straighter. That's always a benefit when we're looking at these left pins and trying to attack them.”
- “They're doing for me what they always do. I'm not having to think about any distractions as I'm getting ready to hit a shot. And then when you step back and look at it, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that shot became a little bit easier.’”
Four new #SM10 @vokeywedges in the bag this week for @maxhoma.
— Titleist (@Titleist) January 3, 2024
He made the move after his first testing session with the new models. pic.twitter.com/x9YCvb1ZEO
“I needed to see trajectory. That’s number one. Especially with a 60, I like to launch it low, so I needed to see that it could still stay low without needing to feel like I had to hook it. And then two, I like to play most, not all the time – but a lot of the time with my wedges, I like to play what I call it like a ‘pinch cut, ’ it just falls a little bit right, but it stays low, it has a lot of spin and it just falls a tickle right. That's what I’m always looking for when I’m hitting a new wedge. It's quite often that you go to hit a cut with a full swing lob wedge or sand wedge, and it balloons. So I like to see it flat and just fall a little, right. As long as I can hit that shot, I'm usually pretty happy.”
- “I think it’s just predictability (around the greens). I want to hit a shot and then it feels like, ‘hey, that should be a spinner.’ And then I look up and it's low and it’s skidding and spinning. It's OK to hit some that are bad and look up and be like, ‘Oh, that's ballooning.’ But I don’t want to hit one where I’m like, ‘Oh, that felt really good.’ And then you watch it chase across the green and come out kind of like a bowling ball as the kids say. So it’s really more just making sure that it’s doing what it feels like I caused it to do.”
– “Solid is always the word I say (to describe the feel of his Vokey wedges). Even when I remember I got these new ones, it just still feels, it feels like when you put the club on the ball, it cuts through the ground great. But I mean, the face stability for whatever reason, just feels strong. And I've always liked the look, everything about it to my eye looks good. And then when I hit them... there's no bad give. It’s not kicking all over the place. It feels very stable.”
In just his second start with the NEW T100 irons, Jordan Spieth finished solo 3rd, making 30 birdies around the Kapalua Plantation Course. Spieth first put the new models (T100 4-9 irons, Project X 6.5) in play at the Hero World Challenge following extensive offseason testing.
“Jordan is a precise iron player and very knowledgeable on all his launch, spin and speed numbers on a variety of shots,” said J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s Director of Player Promotions. “With everything going on in his personal life (the Spieths welcomed their second child in September) he didn’t have time to fully vet the new irons until late this fall. During early testing he loved the look and feel but wanted to give them a thorough testing to make sure all the different varieties of shape and flights hit his numbers. He has been very happy with them.”
In addition to his new irons, Spieth was among the first players to put NEW Vokey SM10 wedges in play during the week of their launch on Tour. Spieth added four fresh SM10’s to the bag (46.10F, 52.08F, 56.10S, 60.04T) ahead of his arrival to Maui following work with Aaron Dill this offseason. He finished 6th in Scrambling for the week (83%, 10/12).
Sungjae Im set the PGA TOUR’s 72-hole birdie record, making 11 birdies Sunday at Kapalua to reach 34 total birdies for the week. Im tied the previous record of 32 with a birdie 3 on the par-4 14th. He two-putted the par-5 15th to set a new record and made another 4 on the par-5 18th to close out his week. Im finished 11th in Strokes Gained: Approach (+3.043) and 12th in Strokes Gained: Putting (+3.363), having moved to a new Scotty Cameron Phantom 5s tour prototype putter this week.
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- James Savage
- PR and Communications Manager at Acushnet Europe Ltd
- james_savage@acushnetgolf.com