Titleist has a new Pro V1, and you can't buy it. The pros got it in Japan this week. There's no price and no release date yet.
What's new
Titleist isn't saying what changed. No cover talk, no layer talk, nothing. They refresh these every two years, so the timing is right on schedule. Usually you at least get a spec sheet to argue about.
What you get instead is a tour count. The 2027 Pro V1 and Pro V1x went on the USGA conforming list three weeks ago at the Biltmore Championship. Four players put them in play there. Neal Shipley was one of them, and he led after 54 holes and finished T3. This week in Japan, 12 guys had the new ball in the bag. In a 72-player field, that beat every other brand.
Jordan Spieth confirmed he's switching to it, and he'd been fighting too much spin. So had Neal Shipley. He was in the low-spinning Pro V1x Double Dot and still spinning it too much, and since moving to the new ball he's posted back-to-back top-10s. Two tour players with the same problem landed on the same new ball. That's the part worth watching.
On the short stuff, one tour player told Titleist the 2027 ball comes off pitch shots a touch lower with a touch more spin. Pitch shots from 20, 30, 40 yards, the in-between ones nobody practices. Another said his spin windows were tighter shot to shot, and the ball curved and tailed less in a crosswind. If that holds up for you, that's the half wedge that checks up instead of running to the back fringe. And it's a windy afternoon where your misses finish closer together.
But there's a catch. There's always a catch. It's only in tour bags so far, and I haven't hit it.
Who it's for
If you play Pro V1 or Pro V1x right now, do nothing. The ball in the pro shop is the same ball it was last week. Your bag didn't get worse because Titleist handed balls out in Japan.
If you were about to buy a dozen or three, go buy them. Golf balls are not something you ration for a year waiting on a press release.
And if you're the guy whose irons spin too much and balloon in the wind, this is the launch to watch. That's exactly the problem both of those tour guys were trying to fix.
So here's the call. Buy a dozen of what you trust and let the pros break the new one in first.
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About the author
Paul Liberatore
Paul Liberatore is the founder of Golfers Authority and a former four-year golf gear contributor to Sports Illustrated. He tests golf equipment hands-on to help golfers make better buying decisions.