| It appears that 2000
is the Year of the Ball, with many of the ball manufacturers introducing
a host of new products.
- Callaway Rule 35
- Nike Tour Accuracy
- Wilson Smart Core
- Top Flite XL 2000 and Professional Distance
- Titleist's new Tour Distance SF and Pro VI 392
- TaylorMade's new "TaylorMade Control" ball
Of the abovementioned, Titleist and TaylorMade
have waited until everyone else launched their ships before bringing
out their new offerings. Both Titleist's Pro V1 392 ball and TaylorMade's
heretofore unnamed "TaylorMade" "Control"
ball are currently taking the professional tours by storm. Of
all the other manufacturer's mentioned above, Callaway's market
share, minor as it is, is going to erode even further.
Now that Callaway's rhetoric and commotion has
died down, both Titleist and TaylorMade, with correspondingly
deep pockets, have responded with their new balls and without
doing much PR to date, letting their top endorsers do all the
talking for them.
The playing attributes of the Pro V1 392, its
prototype name, are winning all over the world. Phil Mickelson
claimed the first big win for the new ball when he topped Tiger
Woods to the Tour Championship title at East Lake Golf Club near
Atlanta. Moreover, he attributes his current success to the Pro
VI.
Though neither of these balls is available to
the public, we were fortunate to obtain a sleeve of each ball.
(Titleist will begin shipment during December on a limited basis
with a M.S.R.P. of $52 per dozen) The hype is real folks! These
two balls are simply outstanding. Both have low spin rates off
the driver, yet high spin rates around the greens. Both are extremely
long.
Our testing however indicated that the ball is
very similar to the Titleist Professional, and, is in our opinion,
more for the lower handicapper than the high handicapper. On the
other hand, the new Tour Distance SF is a superb ball, much improved
over the original Tour Distance and is suitable to a much broader
golfing audience.
The TaylorMade Control ball, another non-wound
ball, is currently being tested on all Tours by TaylorMade's stable
of staff players. Reports are that the ball feels great, has great
distance (causing pros to take a club less) and phenomenal touch
around the greens. Our local testing of the ball confirmed the
pros findings. These balls should be on the market during the
first quarter of 2001 – probably heralded at the PGA Show
in Orlando this January.
At this point in time, Titleist is garnering
the majority of the wins over all ball manufacturers with the
Pro VI and more information is forthcoming from the Titleist camp
than the TaylorMade camp regarding these new balls, so the remainder
of this article will focus on the information that is available
from the manufacturer as of December 1, 2000.
At the recent WGC-American Express Championship,
Canadian left-hander Mike Weir relied upon the new, large core,
multi-component ball to earn his first victory of the year. Weir
topped a leader board that included five Titleist players among
the top 5 finishers and ties, including four players who changed
to the Pro V1 for their successes. Lee Westwood's runner-up performance
with the Pro V1 gained him the PGA European Tour's Order of Merit
title as its leading money winner. Westwood won five events on
the PGA European Tour this year, all while relying upon Titleist
golf balls. With Weir's victory, it marked the 135th for Titleist
on the 2000 worldwide professional tours, over 100 more than the
nearest competitive golf ball brand with 33.
The Pro V1 complements the Tour Professional,
Tour Prestige and Tour Balata liquid-filled center wound golf
balls and will be available sometime early next year according
to Titleist.
The Pro VI golf ball has a large solid core,
multi-component construction, and high performance Urethane Elastomer
cover technology, similar to the Professional model. With the
Pro V1, Titleist claims that the new ball offers another breakthrough
choice for golfers seeking longer distance and their so-called
"Drop and Stop" performance into greens.
Titleist Staff players, using the Pro V1 have
now won eight events in five weeks since its tour introduction
and it seems to be a sure-fire winner when it hits the markets
in the US late December or early January.
Facts and figures:
- 33 of the 55 players who participated in the WGC-American
Express Championship relied upon Titleist for their success,
compared to 6 for the nearest competitor.
- Mike Weir rallied from 8 strokes behind after Friday, to finish
with a 65-69 for the two-stroke victory.
- Sergio Garcia's 8-under par 64 on Sunday was the best final
round of the tournament.
- Weir's victory increases Titleist's win count on the U.S.
PGA TOUR to 31, compared to 8 for the nearest competitor. Titleist
has been the choice of 11 of the last 13 winners on the U.S.
PGA TOUR.
- The Pro V1 was the choice of 20 players at the WGC-American
Express Championship, exceeding the combined total of all competitors'
solid construction golf balls and making Titleist the #1 ball
of choice in both wound and solid construction categories.
With Callaway having major manufacturing, quality,
marketing and price issues, (they have even introduced "practice"
balls which are really "seconds" at $19.99 per dozen)
and Nike's Tour Accuracy ball appealing to the Tiger fan, we predict
that Titleist will increase their almost insurmountable market
share with TaylorMade phasing out their Inergel line and the "TaylorMade"
being their big hit together with their outstanding 300 Series
(TM) Metal Woods for 2001. This leaves Nike and Callaway way behind.
As for Wilson and Top Flite, their appeal will still be there
to those golfers seeking a quality ball at an excellent price.
|
Titleist, Callaway, Nike, Wilson and TaylorMade 
