GOLF ASIA 47Liquid-filled
centre wound
Titleist Tour
Balata ball
becomes the
most played ball
o n Tour.Titleist
Professional
ball becomes
the first Tour-
played urethane
covered ball.Titleist Pro V1
ball is played
for its 1,000th
win across
worldwide
professional
Tour s.Titleist
celebrates its
60th year as the
number one
played ball at
the US Open.47 golfers put
the new three-
piece Titleist
Pro V1 in play at
the Invensys
Classic. Billy
Andrade wins
the event.Following the
success of Pro
V1, Titleist
launches a four-
piece Pro V1x, a
ball with 60
fewer dimples.A second
Titleist Ball Plant
opens in
Massachusetts.Titleist HVC ball
introduced as
the first two-
piece golf ball to
ever bear the
Titleist script.Titleist 384 Tour
revolutionises
the golf ball
design.Titleist reaches a
manufacturing
milestone of 100
million
golf balls.NXT Tour and
NXT Extreme
balls combine
maximum
yardage and
responsiveness
from iron and
short shots.Titleist Velocity
ball launched –
the fastest solid
core of any
golf ball.Revamped Pro
V1 and Pro V1x
are launched.Titleist launches its
“most advanced
and best
performing golf
balls ever stamped
with the Titleist
script” with the Pro
V1 and Pro V1x.1983 1987 1990 1992 1993 1994 2000 2003 2007 2008 2009 2012 2015 2017
traditionalists who want to preserve the
game’s history and values. Last year,
when Augusta’s Tournament Committee
revealed it had spent US$27 million to
buy land around the course, ostensibly
to reposition the 13th tee, Jack Nicklaus
went in to overdrive. “They’ve got a lot of
options of what they could do. I’m sure
that from a traditionalist standpoint, the
best way is probably to lengthen the hole,
and then you don’t change anything else.
I tell you, the simplest solution is change
the frigging golf ball. The golf ball goes
so far, Augusta National is about the only
place, the only golf course in the world
that financially can afford to make the
changes that they have to make to keep
up with the golf ball. I don’t think anybody
else could ever do it.”
Although a sensible and reasoned
argument, when somebody like Nicklaus
says the ball is going too far, the average
club golfer hears ‘Distance’. To them,
the game hasn’t become easier just
because DJ and Rory are hitting it out
of the driving range. We want to hit it
further and when viewed through this
lens, technology is the weapon working
on our behalf.
Hit it and hopefully find it. That’s been
the motto of the weekend golfer for
generations. And that’s not changing
anytime soon.