OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE
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SUMMER 2016
l
GEAR
GAME
CHANGER
n 5 THINGS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW
ABOUT THE MOST POPULAR BALL IN GOLF
BY randY YounGman
S
ince it was introduced in 2000, the Titleist Pro V1
golf ball has established itself as the most popular,
most successful and most purchased ball in the
world. What made it such a smash hit – a crushed
drive down the middle of the fairway, so to speak – is that it
is a solid-core, multi-layered ball that combines the best fea-
tures of the previous solid-core long-distance ball, with the
spin, feel and control of the wound-technology, liquid-core
balata balls previously favored by professionals and ama-
teurs around the world. Simply stated, the Pro V1 delivers
more speed with less spin when struck with a driver, mini-
mizing hook and slice tendencies, and it spins more and
stops more quickly when struck by an iron. Here are five
more things that you probably never knew about the golf
ball that revolutionized industry…
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1
The first PGA Tour player to win with a Pro V1 was Billy Andrade, who won the
Invensys Classic in Las Vegas in October 2000, the first week the ball was put in
play in any professional tournament. At the time, Andrade was 159th on the Tour
money list and in danger of losing his card, but he shot five rounds in the 60s to
beat Phil Mickelson by one shot. Forty-seven tour players switched to the Pro V1 that
week, including six of the top 11 players on the final leaderboard: Andrade, Mickelson,
Jonathan Kaye, Chris DiMarco, Tom Byrum and Joe Durant.
