Review: Titleist ProV1 and ProV1 x

Still the King
For as long as I can remember Titleist has simply dominated the golf ball industry with tour numbers that blow away everyone else and sales that consistently lead the other ball makers by miles.  In more recent years, the other companies are doing everything they can to cut into the lead.  Clearly Titleist has their work cut out for them.  But 2009 will not be the year that Titleist loses its crown.  They will still be king of tour usage and ball sales with the new ProV 1 and ProV 1x.
The packaging of the 2009 ProV 1s and 1xs still look pretty much the same as the past couple years with the silver and gold packaging.  On those packaging the claims are that the new models will perform in pretty similar fashions to the older versions, but both ProV 1 and ProV 1x claim to have more durable covers.  From my findings of playing the 2009 balls against some 2007 and 2008 ProV 1s I found this to be an accurate claim.  The older version looked much rougher after the round than the 2009 ones.  Now that is not to say the 2009 didn’t wear down, they did, but it was not the scruffs or the shredding, but rather peeling paint.  The nice white cover suddenly had ivory sections in a few spots on the ball, indicating the paint was coming off, but no cover damage other than that.
 
On the performance side, I saw similar results as previous versions.  The ProV1 is the spinner around the greens.  It provided that great soft feel with amazing spin off the wedges for extreme holding power.  Mid and long irons still came in with sufficient spin to hold the greens, and off the driver it still offers a low spin with mid launch for good driver distance.


I personally felt like the ProV 1x was a bigger improvement.  It seemed longer off the tee than previous versions and felt like it spun just a touch more around the greens.  This improved distance, spin, and durability made the ProV 1x a real winner in my book.

There is no doubt that Titleist has their work cut our for them.  The other companies’ golf balls are getting much better, but 2009 Titleist will still remain the king, and if they continue to make subtle improvements in the future they should hold that Title for some time.

For more information: www.titleistgolf.com