Titleist is introducing the 2025 version of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls this week at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, and it’s a special occasion. This is the 25th year since Titleist unveiled a golf ball that reshaped the professional game.
That so many players used it in Las Vegas in 2000 was not a surprise because a majority of players used Titleist, anyway. But for years, most tour professionals used a wound ball that gave them more spin and control around the greens, even if that meant sacrificing some distance.
This new Pro V1 had a solid core and urethane elastomer cover that allowed for greater distance without losing control.
Titleist was expecting two dozen players to use it in competition and brought 60 dozen golf balls to Las Vegas. Instead, 47 players made the switch, which Titleist says is biggest pluralist change to new equipment in PGA Tour history.
Billy Andrade switched and won in Las Vegas. Phil Mickelson switched and was runner-up. Mickelson ended the year beating Tiger Woods at the Tour Championship and said of the ball, “I feel I am a whole different player.”
As much attention as Titleist gets with the golf ball, Mark O’Meara actually was the first player to use a modern solid-core golf ball to win a major. He used a Top-Flight manufactured Strata Tour ball when he won the Masters and The Open in 1998.
Woods was using the wound Titleist Professional until switching to a Nike solid-core golf ball in May 2000, right before he won the U.S. Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach to start his unprecedented run of four straight majors.
Titleist introduced the Pro V1 about five months later. Its first major champions using the new ball were Karrie Webb in the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles and Retief Goosen in the U.S. Open at Southern Hills two weeks later.
