We are all deluged by golf ball ads on the golf channel, in golf magazines and in the pro shops. What is the best golf ball to use? Here at Golf Talk, we have believed for some time that the best ball on the market is the Titleist Pro V1, which is the golf ball we play. But, that doesn't make it THE best ball. So, we decided to do some research to see if we could determine what golf ball out shines all the others.
Titleist, it turns out, is the #1 golf ball manufacturer in the world. They produce and market an extensive line of balls: Pro V1, NXT Tour, DT Solo, Pro V1x, and NXT. Each ball is designed to - supposedly - contain certain characteristics. More distance, softer cover, harder cover, more control, etc. The most expensive in their line is the Pro V1x, which has a retail price of about $58.00 per dozen or...$4.83 a ball. Does being pricey make it the best? Not necessarily, but it could have the high price because it IS the best. We'll see.
Callaway markets the HX Tour, HX Tour 56, HX Red and Blue, Big Bertha Red and Blue, HX Hot, and the Warbird. The HX Tour golf balls from Callaway sell for $50 (12 pack). Mhmmm...the HX Tour is almost as expensive as the Pro V1x. Could it be the best golf ball on the market? Let's look further.
Nike sells the Nike One golf ball, Tiger's ball, for $39.95 a dozen, and they market a cheaper ball called the Nike Power Distance Super Series 2 for $15.95 a 12-pack. That's only $1.33 each! Now, we're talkin'...but can it be the best golf ball for such a puny price?
How about all those other brand names out there: Precept, Max-Fli, Dunlop, Bridgestone, TopFlite, Pinnacle, etc., etc., etc.? They all sell for around $18.00 a dozen. Could one of them be the best? How can we tell?
Well, let's see which golf ball sells the most? According to a press release put out in 2007 by Titleist, the Titleist Pro V1 and V1x sales accounted for 43% of all the money spent on golf balls during that year.
Even more impressive, the Pro V1/Pro V1x on-course market share in 2006 was more than the brand shares of Bridgestone, Callaway, Nike, TaylorMade, Top-Flite and Maxfli, according to Golf Datatech - combined! And the Pro V1 has maintained its position as the best-selling golf ball - on-course and off - ever since.
We live in a community in Gold Canyon, Arizona, that is set around three great golf courses: Mountain Brook Golf Club and Gold Canyon Golf Resort, which has the Dinosaur Mountain Course and the Sidewinder Course. The golf courses are surrounded by the beautiful Sonoran Desert, which means Saugaro, prickly pear, Cholla and other cactus, along with Sage brush and rattle snakes. Consequently, there are hundreds of thousands of golf balls left out there.
One of our neighbors, Bob, likes to go out into the desert looking for those wayward golf balls, and he has about 10,000 of them at any given time. He separates them by brand and quality, and offers them for sale.
We made a stop at his house the other day to see what he had in stock, and he had every brand known to mankind. I picked up a dozen Pro V1's in perfect condition for $9.00, but I was really interested in finding out what ratio of brands he finds. He had lots and lots of Pinnacle, TopFlite, Precepts and the other low-priced golf balls, which would seem to make sense. He also had quite a lot of Titleist, Nike and Callaways. We were shocked and puzzled to find that he only had about five dozen Titleist Pro V1's and 4 dozen Pro V1x's, which he really likes to find because so many people ask for them.
We asked him why he thought there were so few Pro V1's out of all the thousands of golf balls he finds. His answer was a bit stunning - "People who are willing to pay for Titleist Pro V1 and V1x are better players, so they loose very few balls. They probably put more in the lakes than they hit out of bounds into the desert."
All the other players are buying cheaper balls because they know they're going to lose them in the lake, the desert or the snake. That's why Bob had so many more of them.
So, we have concluded that the Titleist Pro V1 and V1x may be the best ball in golf. If the best players are playing it, and paying more for that priviledge, it must perform better for them than all the others out there. These people are after the lowest scores they can achieve on a golf course, and they would be hitting a rock if they could play scratch golf with it. They wouldn't spend five minutes with a Pro V1 if it didn't deliver.
Hit ‘em long, straight and often!
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Contact: darabbitt@gmail.com
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Golf Talk wants to know: Is the Titleist Pro-V1 the best golf ball?
Posted by Don Rabbitt | 3/14/2009 | 2 comments »
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hi don, great post. over here i the philippines you can find used pro v1's for around $2-$5 per dozen depending on their condition. these are recovered balls from water hazards and are usually sold by ball divers. i've been priviledged to use pro v1's all the time because they cost almost the same as the other cheaper brands here.
Thanks for the comment, GP. I'm looking forward to visiting the Phillipines some time in the future. My buddy, Jack Challender, who is a Natural Golf teaching pro, was a Commander in the U.S. Navy and used to play golf every time they stopped in the Phillipines. He said there are some great golf courses there.
Take care of yourself,
Don