Making PGA TOUR history, the 20-year-old amateur champion of The American Express trusted his Pro V1 golf ball to shoot 29 under par in the desert and win by one shot. The champion made two birdies over his final four holes Sunday at PGA West’s Stadium Course to post a closing 2-under 70, getting his Pro V1 up and down for par from just over 78 feet on the par-4 18th to etch his name in the history books.
The college sophomore has played the 2023 Pro V1 model since the start of his freshman season, winning his first collegiate tournament last March before making a summer run that included victories at the Northeast Amateur, North & South Amateur and the U.S. Amateur Championship.
On Saturday at La Quinta Country Club, he tied the lowest round by an amateur in PGA Tour history, shooting a 12-under 60 to take a three-shot lead into the final round.
With Sunday’s victory at The American Express, Titleist golf ball players have now won each of the first three events to start the 2024 PGA TOUR season.
Grayson Murray won last week’s Sony Open in a playoff with his Pro V1, while the winner of The Sentry played Pro V1x.
Over the last three weeks on the PGA TOUR, a total of 252 players have teed up a Pro V1 or Pro V1x golf ball, more than five times the nearest competitor (44).
Following extensive off-season testing, longtime Pro V1x player Justin Thomas made the move to the 2023 Pro V1x from the prior generation model, teeing it up in competition for the first time at the 2023 Hero World Challenge.
Said Thomas: “All of us want consistency. Whether the wind be down, left-to-right, right-to-left, into. If I'm hitting my numbers, I want [the golf ball] to time and time again be able to have that consistent spin, trajectory, to where I’m not missing numbers by four and five [yards] with what I felt like was a good swing. And I felt like Bahamas was a great time to test it. And yeah, it was awesome.
“I had a couple of irons into the wind that I could tell [the difference between models]. Some 7 irons that I felt were ‘you know, I’m not sure I can quite get this there, but I just got to put a good solid swing on it.’ And just how [the shots] maintained the trajectory and they weren’t ballooning – but with the land angle, now they’re still going to be coming down soft enough when the greens are firm. There was a couple of times there in that first round where the wind would pick up, and I felt like I was able to either hold it against winds or keep it flighted into the wind that I had felt good about the change.”
Thomas posted 16 under for the week in the Bahamas, good for a solo 3rd finish. When he arrived to PGA West this week to make his first PGA TOUR start of the 2024 season, ‘23 Pro V1x remained in the bag.
“I texted Fordie [Pitts, Director of Tour Research and Validation for Titleist Golf Ball R&D], I said, ‘Well, I think we have a winner 23X,’ ” Thomas said. "Yeah, it checked all the boxes, and I was very pleased.”
In his 2024 season debut at the Amex, Thomas posted four rounds of 68 or better to finish T3 at 27 under. On Saturday, he posted a course record-tying 11-under 61, in which he gained over three shots (+3.153) with his approach play and was a perfect 5-for-5 in scrambling around PGA West’s Stadium Course.
The tour launch of the NEW Vokey Design SM10 wedges continued this week at the American Express, with Vokey Tour Rep Aaron Dill on site and back behind his grinding wheel on the Titleist Tour Truck.
When players teed off on Thursday, there were 251 Vokey Design gap, sand and lob wedges in play, more than all other brands combined (55%):
– SM10 was the most played wedge model, with 135 gap, sand and lob wedges in play (29%), more than double the nearest competitor.
– Thirty-nine players put at least one new Vokey SM10 wedge in the bag for the first time, and four of the players finishing inside the top-10 gamed at least one SM10 wedge, including Justin Thomas (46.10F, 52.12F, 56.14F, 60.04T), the 2020 Men’s Olympic Gold Medalist (56.10S,WedgeWorks 60.06K) and the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play champ(56.14F, 60.04T).
More than 100 players on the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour that have already played new SM10’s in competition since the new models first appeared at The Sentry.
Longtime Titleist golf ball player Lydia Ko opened the 2024 season with a decisive victory against the LPGA’s best, posting a final-round 70 to close out a two-shot victory. In full control of her Pro V1x+ prototype golf ball, Ko took control of the tournament with bogey-free rounds on Friday and Saturday, playing those 36 holes in 9 under while hitting 32 greens in regulation (89%).
It marked the 20th LPGA title for Ko, who is now 1 point away from the LPGA's Hall of Fame qualification.
Last August, Lydia Ko made the move to the prototype Pro V1x+ golf ball, putting the model in play for the first time at thePortland Classic following some work with Titleist Golf Ball R&D rep Jeff Beyers.
According to Beyers, Ko liked the added spin with her short irons and wedges she saw while testing Pro V1x+.
While the vast majority of Titleist golf balls in play across the worldwide professional tours are either a Pro V1 or Pro V1x, some players choose to play custom performance options (CPO’s) – such as Pro V1x Left Dash, Pro V1 Left Dot and Pro V1x+. These CPO’s are designed to fit players with very unique launch conditions as well as evaluate forward looking technologies.
Ko has played the ball ever since, and is a cumulative 60 under in those last eight events, including this week’s victory. In addition, her team won the Grant Thorton Invitational in December.
“I’ve used the Titleist ball for a really long time and I can speak from my experience that every time I’ve tried something new I’ve been able to see a difference, and I just love how it is the #1 golf ball,” Ko said. “It’s not just an advertisement. It is something that I believe and something that I really trust. The golf ball is such a crucial part of the equipment standpoint and in the game.”
The winner of the Hilton Grand Vacations ToC played four Vokey SM9 wedges (46.10F, 48.10F, 54.10S, 58.08M wedges) and a Scotty Cameron P5 GSS tour prototype putter (center shaft) on her way to earning her 20thcareer LPGA victory.
Titleist Brand Ambassador Alexa Pano began her sophomore season on the LPGA Tour with a solo second-place finish, birdieing three of her final five holes to post 12 under and finish two back of Lydia Ko.
Pano plays a Pro V1 golf ball and 14 Titleist clubs, nine of which she gamed for the first time this week in Orlando. Pano, who finished the week 1st in Birdies (19), added a set of NEW T100 5-9 irons along with four NEW Vokey Design SM10 wedges (46.10F, 50.12F, 54.14F, 58.12D) over the offseason.
She also led the field in Putts Per GIR (1.69) with her Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 tour prototype putter.
– “The spin on this ball gives me a lot of confidence around the greens and hitting shots in, I can really predict what I want to do and [it’s] just a very reliable golf ball. If I want to stick something, I can do that. If I want to get the rollout, I can still do that, and [Pro V1] just kind of gives me the freedom to play golf. I know my golf ball is going to do what I need it to.”
– “I think before I turned pro, I definitely tested a few different balls and just nothing has the consistency that a Pro V does for me. Trying to get those different ball flights, whether it’s lower with my wedges or going high, but you still, when you’re hitting it high, you still want to see a bit of a drive to it. You don't just want to see it floating. And that's really the main reason I've always stuck with the Pro V1.”
– “I'm a massive feel player. Almost everything I do is feel. I’m not super big on the technological side, and [Pro V1] has always just had a great feel for me. I love the way that it comes off the club. I love the way that I see it react on the greens and yeah, I have a really good feel with this.”
– “This is one of my favorite clubs in my bag. The TSR has been pretty game changing for me... Getting my driver to be a massive asset for me versus something that I was trying to control. It’s given me some strokes gained and yeah, I love it. I really love the look of this driver... the face angles on all my clubs for me are one of the biggest thing, being a big feel player, a visual is big for me. And just looking down at this, I love the way it sits on the ground and makes me feel before every drive that I hit.”
– “I’ve just recently, this offseason, switched into the new T100. I went out to visit Chloe [Robinson, Titleist Technical Player Relations Representative] in California and she helped me get fit for these.”
– “Feel is probably the biggest part of my golf game. I think feeling the club through the turf is massive for me.... I really like these irons specifically because they pierce the ground really well.”
– “A good feeling [at impact] is important, but also the visual aspect of seeing kind of the thinner [topline] goes hand-in-hand with my feel. If I feel good over a club, looking down at the face angle, it really shows when I swing. Face angle is massive for me in every club in the bag.
– “Love the look of them, which is no surprise. I always love the look of a Vokey, but they feel super good so far. ... I think my favorite part about hitting [SM10] was hitting some of those full pitching wedges on the range. I do like to play kind of a right-to-left ball flight and when you start trying to get it up to its furthest distance is when you can see the turn kind of get to its maximum. And seeing a little bit more control [with SM10] was somethingthat’sreally big for me.”
“I got this putter last offseason when I went up for a visit at the Scotty Cameron studio and Paul [Vizanko] wanted to fit me for a mallet, even though I’ve always been kind of a blade putter most of my life. And I was set on using one of the two blades that we got fit for that day, but he made me take this. He’s like, ‘you never know what’s going to happen.’ And I was really struggling with my putting the first half of this year. It was just not solid, not consistent at all. I was losing a lot of shots. So finally,just kind of got to a point where I was like, alright, we need to switch something up. So I switched over to this mallet and it’s the reason I’m a winner on the LPGA tour now. It’s been such a massive help. I jumped up so high in the putting ranks. I was really low at some point this year and it’s given me a lot of confidence around the greens. And now it’sprobably my favorite club in the bag.”
Titleist Brand Ambassador Jeremy Paul - twin brother of DP World Tour player Yannik - claimed the first event on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour schedule, posting a bogey-free weekend to win by one in the Bahamas. Paul, playing a Pro V1x golf ball, TSR3 driver, T-Series irons and SM9 wedges among his Titleist setup, carded three straight rounds of 67 in rounds 2-4 to finish at 17 under and earn his first career KFT victory.
About Titleist Media Center
Titleist, Golf’s Symbol of Excellence, is the game's leading performance equipment brand, having earned the overwhelming trust of tour professionals, club professionals, competitive amateurs and dedicated golfers worldwide. The Titleist golf ball embodies superior performance, innovative design and technology, precision manufacturing and unmatched quality. It is the unequivocal #1 ball in golf, and has been for 70 years and still counting. Titleist also sets the standard for golf clubs through an unwavering commitment to performance, meticulous attention to detail, and as the game’s preeminent golf club fitter. Titleist golf gear, comprising golf bags, headwear, travel gear, accessories and golf gloves, also delivers the performance and quality excellence promised in every product that bears the Titleist Script.
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- James Savage
- PR and Communications Manager at Acushnet Europe Ltd
- james_savage@acushnetgolf.com