2025 ProV1s

[jwb10]

3 hours ago, kmay__ said:

 

Canadian ?

[kmay__]

40 minutes ago, jwb10 said:

Canadian ?

Yes, regular without the line are up to 72.99 now in store. Even if I was a much better player who didn't lose as many, I still don't think I could bring myself to spend that much. 

 

1 hour ago, Hawkeye77 said:

 

They are $55/dozen on Titleist's website right now.  I always buy during the buy 3, get 4, special run every year no reason to ever pay more than that. $41.25 per dozen isn't really unreasonable, IMO.  But plenty of other balls out there at all sorts of prices.

 

Edit: looks your are citing Canadian prices - with a shorter season, you should use fewer!

Haha, 3 weeks left of men's league which started in April, so its a pretty decent length season I feel. Plus there's a couple courses that will let us out any time of year provided there's no snow on the ground, so I've played lots of xmas eve/boxing day/new years eve rounds which are fun.  

 

I use the Kirkland ball, best short game performance I can get within my budget haha.

[m d g]

4 hours ago, Ferguson said:

The manufacturer wants you to wear them out

 

 

I was at a pitch meeting with a guy who said he had a way to embed chips into sports equipment to measure performance. He said you could even put it in a golf ball to help you find them with an app.

 

I gently pointed out that maybe the golf ball companies would buy him out, as they are in the business of selling more golf balls.

 

Other than this, he was a really smart fellow : )

[bobfoster]

On 9/25/2024 at 7:51 PM, Archimedes65 said:

 

Don’t want to open this can of worms again, as there was already a mammoth thread on this topic that’s since closed IIRC, but the PGA Tour has already agreed to go with the roll back, so it’s a done deal for the pros and any USGA/R&A sanctioned play.  And the manufacturers have already intimated that they’re not going to be spending R&D dollars to keep the current balls and also develop the new, post-rollback ball.  As I said in the closed thread, I believe a lot of us recreational golfers are going to be buying a whole lot of the pre-rollback balls during that last year they’re available.  The President of the PGA of America joked that he expects his local club members to be buying eight years of balls that year…

 

[bobfoster]

10 hours ago, kmay__ said:

They are $55/dozen on Titleist's website right now.  I always buy during the buy 3, get 4, special run every year no reason to ever pay more than that. $41.25 per dozen isn't really unreasonable, IMO.  But plenty of other balls out there at all sorts of prices.

 

Edit: looks your are citing Canadian prices - with a shorter season, you should use fewer!

Two Canadians die and end up in hell. The devil decides to pay them a visit, so he walks into their room and sees them talking and laughing. Confused, he asks them why they're happy.

They tell him, "Well, we're so sick of the cold, and this place is nice and toasty." The devil, annoyed, storms away and goes to Hell's boiler room, where he turns up the temperature. He goes back to the Canadians' room, along the way being begged by all sorts of people to put the heating back down. He enters the room to see the Canadians having a barbecue.

Furiously, he asks them what they're doing. "Well, we can't pass up this wonderful weather without getting out the barbecue!"

The devil realizes he's been doing the wrong thing. He goes to the boiler room and turns it down until it's at a colder temperature than ever seen on earth. He knows he's won now, so he goes back to the Canadians' room, only to see them jumping up and down in excitement. He shouts at them in fury, "WHY ARE YOU STILL HAPPY?!?”

They look at him and shout at the same time, "Hell froze over!!!! That means the Leafs won!"

[Shilgy]

Three pages in and no one has asked the question…..

 

Why is this in Tour Talk?

[Pnwpingi210]

22 hours ago, Shilgy said:

Three pages in and no one has asked the question…..

 

Why is this in Tour Talk?

Cause people started talking about changing ball specifications that are 4-6 years away ….

 

edit: I don’t think this thread originated in tour talk but was recently moved here.

Edited September 30, 2024 by Pnwpingi210

[GoGoErky]

21 hours ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Cause people started talking about changing ball specifications that are 4-6 years away ….

 

edit: I don’t think this thread originated in tour talk but was recently moved here.

The specification changes for testing start in Oct 2027. All new balls at that point have to be compliant so it’s only 2 years away. So while for amateurs they can still use the current ball 2030 manufactures have to be compliant come Oct 2027

[Pnwpingi210]

1 hour ago, GoGoErky said:

The specification changes for testing start in Oct 2027. All new balls at that point have to be compliant so it’s only 2 years away. So while for amateurs they can still use the current ball 2030 manufactures have to be compliant come Oct 2027

Correct.  This is 2024/2025.  Might be relevant for next cycle.

[hackeraz]

2 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

The specification changes for testing start in Oct 2027. All new balls at that point have to be compliant so it’s only 2 years away. So while for amateurs they can still use the current ball 2030 manufactures have to be compliant come Oct 2027

Oh it's still two years off from implementation? At least by then I fully won't be able to afford to play anymore so it won't matter. 

[jwb10]

On 9/29/2024 at 12:34 PM, Shilgy said:

Three pages in and no one has asked the question…..

 

Why is this in Tour Talk?

As I started this thread, and did so in "pre-release" I wondered the same. I didn't even know this forum existed. Some have suggested that it was early, but there's a thread there (now) for TM 2025 woods, so asking about ProVs we know will be released, and vetted ,by Vegas is certainly timely. So the long answer is , WTF ? 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shilgy]

9 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

The specification changes for testing start in Oct 2027. All new balls at that point have to be compliant so it’s only 2 years away. So while for amateurs they can still use the current ball 2030 manufactures have to be compliant come Oct 2027

Are you certain?  I would guess that the manufacturers WILL BE compliant with their balls but they don’t HAVE TO.    There are balls being made today that would fail current testing.  
 If there is enough pushback it certainly would not surprise me if a DTC ball maker continued making and selling the current ball.

[GoGoErky]

40 minutes ago, Shilgy said:

Are you certain?  I would guess that the manufacturers WILL BE compliant with their balls but they don’t HAVE TO.    There are balls being made today that would fail current testing.  
 If there is enough pushback it certainly would not surprise me if a DTC ball maker continued making and selling the current ball.

As of now the ruling bodies will be using the new specs to test balls.

 

i don’t think anyone knows what the various companies will do but I don’t see how it makes sense to produce a full line of new spec and old spec balls unless come 2025/2026 depending on the brand they just keep producing that years model til 2030 when the rule kicks in for everyone.

 

Would a dtc brand make current spec’s balls past with 2027 testing date or 2030? It’s possible, theres places making non conforming equipment. The market isn’t there for that,

but with golf balls who knows.

 

 

[Shilgy]

18 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

As of now the ruling bodies will be using the new specs to test balls.

 

i don’t think anyone knows what the various companies will do but I don’t see how it makes sense to produce a full line of new spec and old spec balls unless come 2025/2026 depending on the brand they just keep producing that years model til 2030 when the rule kicks in for everyone.

 

Would a dtc brand make current spec’s balls past with 2027 testing date or 2030? It’s possible, theres places making non conforming equipment. The market isn’t there for that,

but with golf balls who knows.

 

 

That’s the thing isn’t it.  Some guys will play an illegal ball and not know it.  Couple years ago in a club event I noticed when we were on the first tee and showing each other what ball we were playing one had the MG Senior.  I let him know it was non conforming so he played something else.  He had no idea that ball didn’t pass specs.

[GoGoErky]

28 minutes ago, Shilgy said:

That’s the thing isn’t it.  Some guys will play an illegal ball and not know it.  Couple years ago in a club event I noticed when we were on the first tee and showing each other what ball we were playing one had the MG Senior.  I let him know it was non conforming so he played something else.  He had no idea that ball didn’t pass specs.

Yeah some will. Based on reading various online posts in forums and other golf groups there’s a lot of golfers who are going to stockpile current balls. They are also golfers who don’t compete or at least don’t outside of their small groups 

[bobfoster]

59 minutes ago, Shilgy said:

Are you certain?  I would guess that the manufacturers WILL BE compliant with their balls but they don’t HAVE TO.    There are balls being made today that would fail current testing.  
 If there is enough pushback it certainly would not surprise me if a DTC ball maker continued making and selling the current ball.

The big OEMs will simply comply. Trying to produce and sell two separate models (compliant and non-compliant) of each ball would just be silly. Not even remotely cost-effective.

 

Same thing happened with the wedge rule. OEMs moaned and vigorously complained during the comment period on the proposed rules, but once the rules were formally adopted, they simply complied. Fairly quickly in fact. Designed compliant wedges, at the same time as they got rid of existing stock of the old wedges. Even though amateurs were technically not required to comply until this year, it has actually been a number of years since you could find a new wedge that didn't comply. Would have made zero sense to spend most of the 20-teens making separate versions of the same wedge, that they'd need to mark as "pre-2010" and "post 2010". 

 

Pretty sure the same thing will happen with the ball rule. By 2026/27 all of them will be compliant with the new rule. The USGA may stagger compliance dates, but the OEMs are not going to stagger implementation dates. The economics of both manufacturing and marketing dictate that either the old ball or new ball will be on the shelves, not both. Do you really think Titleist wants to start running parallel (old ball/new ball) ProV1 production lines? And - though we are fanatics on WRX - believe it or not a considerable number of the 26 million golfers in the US are casual weekenders. Many of whom don't even know there's a new ball rule. They'll simply buy whatever's on the shelf at Dicks. Can you even imagine the marketing nightmare it would be for big boxes or even local course pro shops to start selling two different versions of every Titlist, TM, Callaway and Srixon balls they currently carry? That is just unrealistic.

 

Like it or not, the USGA (in the US) is the governing body for the sport. Will DTCs continue making balls that do not comply with the new rule? Of course! As a matter of fact there's a bunch of them that make balls right now that aren't even compliant with the current rules:

Our 10 Best Illegal Golf Ball in the US - October 2024 | BestProductsReviews.com

But they sell in the thousands, not the tens of millions.

 

In truth, the new rule will matter (a little) to pros and really good amateurs, but will be barely noticeable to most golfers (remember, close to 45% of golfers will never even break 100). Just as the nuanced difference between a U and V groove is nearly meaningless to someone who's swing thought with a wedge is "I just hope I don't chunk it or blade it", so too will the new ball rule mean little to someone who's primary source of distance difficulties come from an over the top swing that slices it into the next fairway, not the compression characteristics of a pure center-face drive.

 

I think the arguments about this are effectively over. The new ball rule is a done deal, and while not required until 2030, I'll predict that by the 2027 season (2028 at the latest) the new balls are all that you'll find on store shelves. Will you be able to "stock up" on the old balls? Sure. Will you be able to buy non-compliant balls DTC? Absolutely! You can right now. But virtually no one does. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shilgy]

14 minutes ago, bobfoster said:

The big OEMs will simply comply. Trying to produce and sell two separate models (compliant and non-compliant) of each ball would just be silly. Not even remotely cost-effective.

 

Same thing happened with the wedge rule. OEMs moaned and vigorously complained during the comment period on the proposed rules, but once the rules were formally adopted, they simply complied. Fairly quickly in fact. Designed compliant wedges, at the same time as they got rid of existing stock of the old wedges. Even though amateurs were technically not required to comply until this year, it has actually been a number of years since you could find a new wedge that didn't comply. Would have made zero sense to spend most of the 20-teens making separate versions of the same wedge, that they'd need to mark as "pre-2010" and "post 2010". 

 

Pretty sure the same thing will happen with the ball rule. By 2026/27 all of them will be compliant with the new rule. The USGA may stagger compliance dates, but the OEMs are not going to stagger implementation dates. The economics of both manufacturing and marketing dictate that either the old ball or new ball will be on the shelves, not both. Do you really think Titleist wants to start running parallel (old ball/new ball) ProV1 production lines? And - though we are fanatics on WRX - believe it or not a considerable number of the 26 million golfers in the US are casual weekenders. Many of whom don't even know there's a new ball rule. They'll simply buy whatever's on the shelf at Dicks. Can you even imagine the marketing nightmare it would be for big boxes or even local course pro shops to start selling two different versions of every Titlist, TM, Callaway and Srixon balls they currently carry? That is just unrealistic.

 

Like it or not, the USGA (in the US) is the governing body for the sport. Will DTCs continue making balls that do not comply with the new rule? Of course! As a matter of fact there's a bunch of them that make balls right now that aren't even compliant with the current rules:

Our 10 Best Illegal Golf Ball in the US - October 2024 | BestProductsReviews.com

But they sell in the thousands, not the tens of millions.

 

In truth, the new rule will matter (a little) to pros and really good amateurs, but will be barely noticeable to most golfers (remember, close to 45% of golfers will never even break 100). Just as the nuanced difference between a U and V groove is nearly meaningless to someone who's swing thought with a wedge is "I just hope I don't chunk it or blade it", so too will the new ball rule mean little to someone who's primary source of distance difficulties come from an over the top swing that slices it into the next fairway, not the compression characteristics of a pure center-face drive.

 

I think the arguments about this are effectively over. The new ball rule is a done deal, and while not required until 2030, I'll predict that by the 2027 season (2028 at the latest) the new balls are all that you'll find on store shelves. Will you be able to "stock up" on the old balls? Sure. Will you be able to buy non-compliant balls DTC? Absolutely! You can right now. But virtually no one does. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, I guess. That’s essentially a longer version of what I said.👍

[bobfoster]

21 minutes ago, Shilgy said:

Thanks, I guess. That’s essentially a longer version of what I said.👍

Maybe I phrased a bit of that wrong. It was not intended to be a "point-counterpoint" argument in opposition to what you said, but more like an amplification of what you said (while at the same time as going off on one of my normal long-winded tangents that wound up responding to several other comments at the same time). 

 

We're good my friend.

[tgoodspe1991]

Well these just showed up on my doorstep...

 

[jwb10]

22 hours ago, tgoodspe1991 said:

Well these just showed up on my doorstep...

 

Glad to see this was moved, thanks. Not sure how this got hi-jacked to conversation about the rollback, but glad to see it has returned to the original topic. Soooo, those look like every ProV in the last 30 years (except for the cool sidestamp), give us your feedback as soon as you can. Hopefully, we'll all get a white box, soon..awesome share, kid !

 

 

 

 

 

[philly2kuk]

I played pro v1 for ten years until this year and bar a couple of years of trying everything else from 2012-2014 I’d played every gen of pro v1 from the very first. I always came back to the titleist balls as they were superior.

 

However it’s going to have to be a very special ball to pry the current gen tp5x out my bag. For my game it sits perfectly as it gives me the lower spin and wind cheating flight off the long clubs that the pro v1 gave me but it checks round the green with the firmer feel, higher spin and higher flight the pro v1x gave me. For me and quite a few people I know, the tp5 range has been the ball of choice at my home club this year.

[jwb10]

On 10/2/2024 at 1:01 PM, tgoodspe1991 said:

Well these just showed up on my doorstep...

 

have u hit'em ????

[prestong]

I received the box this week with the two prototype sleeves (ProV1 and the ProV1x). The box was so plain and unexpected that I threw it in my neighbors yard fearing it maybe an explosive from my x-wife.  I opened it once it didn't go off and was pleasantly surprised that I was picked. 

 

I gave the Xs to my 1-handicap friend and I played the ProV1s.  Played the worst round I have played all year.  These felt more firmer than the current ProVs and much more firmer than the Chrome Tours (my current ball of choice).   (I have also been playing the new PXG balls and I like those as well).  These prototypes did not travel further or check up any more than previous models.  

 

These prototypes did not excite me enough to be in a "can't wait for these to come out" mode but more to stock up on the current model at lower rates when the new ones are released.  

[kwainio]

My only real takeaway from the new playing the new proto ProV1 was that it felt firmer than the current model. After that seemed about the same.

[tgoodspe1991]

On 10/2/2024 at 1:01 PM, tgoodspe1991 said:

Well these just showed up on my doorstep...

 

 

Adding my thoughts to the mix. I haven't played a full round with them but hit a few shots and mostly did a lot of chipping and putting.

 

Candidly, the ProV1X are hard as a rock and make a notable "clip" sound even on short chips. It's not my preferred sound or feel at all. I'm usually a mid-to-softer golf ball player but have gamed a ProV1X plenty of times just fine. I'd go so far as to say they're the worst feeling and sounding ProV1X I've ever tried. Just... unpleasantly clicky. They seemed to come off the face lower too, which felt a little more unpredictable around the greens. The standard ProV1 feel relatively normal, much softer than the ProV1X but firmer than previous generations.

 

Honestly, there's nothing about these balls that make me particularly excited. They just feel another generation of Titleist golf balls. The ProV1X is an instant no for me with the crazy firm sound and feel. I think if you're a Titleist ball player, you're going to blindly pick up the ProV1 if you want a softer feel and ProV1X if you want a firmer feel. You might notice both feel firmer than previous generations, the ProV1X being more extreme in this regard.

 

Overall, I'd say... meh? I'd be just as happy playing this year's version than next year, or even older versions than that (especially with the exorbitant prices of golf balls these days). It was very cool to be selected and have some special "25 Prototype" logo balls, but these just didn't deliver any wow-factor for me this year.

 

I'll still play all 6 until I beat them up or lose them, maybe save one of each for posterity... and of course if I get my first hole-in-one with any of them I will redact all of this and claim they're the best thing to happen to golf ball tech in a generation.

[jwb10]

4 hours ago, tgoodspe1991 said:

 

Adding my thoughts to the mix. I haven't played a full round with them but hit a few shots and mostly did a lot of chipping and putting.

 

Candidly, the ProV1X are hard as a rock and make a notable "clip" sound even on short chips. It's not my preferred sound or feel at all. I'm usually a mid-to-softer golf ball player but have gamed a ProV1X plenty of times just fine. I'd go so far as to say they're the worst feeling and sounding ProV1X I've ever tried. Just... unpleasantly clicky. They seemed to come off the face lower too, which felt a little more unpredictable around the greens. The standard ProV1 feel relatively normal, much softer than the ProV1X but firmer than previous generations.

 

Honestly, there's nothing about these balls that make me particularly excited. They just feel another generation of Titleist golf balls. The ProV1X is an instant no for me with the crazy firm sound and feel. I think if you're a Titleist ball player, you're going to blindly pick up the ProV1 if you want a softer feel and ProV1X if you want a firmer feel. You might notice both feel firmer than previous generations, the ProV1X being more extreme in this regard.

 

Overall, I'd say... meh? I'd be just as happy playing this year's version than next year, or even older versions than that (especially with the exorbitant prices of golf balls these days). It was very cool to be selected and have some special "25 Prototype" logo balls, but these just didn't deliver any wow-factor for me this year.

 

I'll still play all 6 until I beat them up or lose them, maybe save one of each for posterity... and of course if I get my first hole-in-one with any of them I will redact all of this and claim they're the best thing to happen to golf ball tech in a generation.

uhoh, there's a trend here....

[prestong]

5 hours ago, kwainio said:

My only real takeaway from the new playing the new proto ProV1 was that it felt firmer than the current model. After that seemed about the same.

Exactly.  My thoughts as well.

[MattC555]

5 hours ago, tgoodspe1991 said:

Candidly, the ProV1X are hard as a rock and make a notable "clip" sound even on short chips. It's not my preferred sound or feel at all. I'm usually a mid-to-softer golf ball player but have gamed a ProV1X plenty of times just fine. I'd go so far as to say they're the worst feeling and sounding ProV1X I've ever tried. Just... unpleasantly clicky. They seemed to come off the face lower too, which felt a little more unpredictable around the greens. The standard ProV1 feel relatively normal, much softer than the ProV1X but firmer than previous generations.

 

Every time I play a ProV1x I notice this and that my drives go further than the ProV1.  The rock hard feel is so bad I give up distance and continue playing the ProV1.  haha

[Pepperturbo]

Recently tested Chrome Tour, not expecting anything, just to see.  Both the new Chrome Tour & Tour X impressed me.  For the last 3yrs, I have been utilizing 4-Titleist balls (DASH, ProV1, ProV1x, AVX) for different reasons, and never liked doing that.  I like having one ball that performs in all areas. 

 

The new Chrome Tour is not only a tad longer than the new ProV1, it performed equally well around the Greens, stopped on a dime, yet gave me a preferred higher trajectory than ProV1, while lower than ProV1x off Driver, similar to Dash-ProV1x.  Also, both Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X at impact, feel and sound similar to ProV1 but better vs. DASH, my current ball.

 

ProV1 = 87

Chrome tour = 87

Chrome Tour X = 98

ProV1x = 97

-ProV1x = 102

 

Even though compression rates for ProV1 and Chrome Tour are said to be the comparable, the Chrome Tour design gives me a slightly higher trajectory equal to DASH, a bit more spin, but less spin and lower than ProV1x.  For those reasons and that it feels and sounds better at impact, it's now giving DASH -ProV1x competition.  Plus I've tested it in 2-4 club wind, so immediately, Chrome Tour has taken AVX ugly weather ball spot. 

 

It seems Callaway has designed two new superb all - around balls.  I haven't played a Callaway ball since 2006.  Callaway is doing a helluva job while Titleist seems to be falling short in a few areas, least with me.

[caniac6]

On 9/26/2024 at 11:58 PM, bobfoster said:

Two Canadians die and end up in hell. The devil decides to pay them a visit, so he walks into their room and sees them talking and laughing. Confused, he asks them why they're happy.

They tell him, "Well, we're so sick of the cold, and this place is nice and toasty." The devil, annoyed, storms away and goes to Hell's boiler room, where he turns up the temperature. He goes back to the Canadians' room, along the way being begged by all sorts of people to put the heating back down. He enters the room to see the Canadians having a barbecue.

Furiously, he asks them what they're doing. "Well, we can't pass up this wonderful weather without getting out the barbecue!"

The devil realizes he's been doing the wrong thing. He goes to the boiler room and turns it down until it's at a colder temperature than ever seen on earth. He knows he's won now, so he goes back to the Canadians' room, only to see them jumping up and down in excitement. He shouts at them in fury, "WHY ARE YOU STILL HAPPY?!?”

They look at him and shout at the same time, "Hell froze over!!!! That means the Leafs won!"

It might take more than that for the Leafs to win.