Last week I was invited to the launch of the Titleist Pro V1 & Pro V1X golf balls.
Mike Mahoney The Director of Golf Ball Product Management for Titleist shared with me some amazing facts.
Titleist are responsible for every piece of the manufacturing process of the golf ball. They don’t outsource anything. The do their own research and development, they make their own components including the urethane cover (every other ball manufacturer purchases their urethane from a company like DuPont).
A Pro V1 golf ball has to pass 91 quality control checks before it makes it into the box and is good enough to be sold.
A Pro V1 X has to pass 124 checks.
Golf balls made using the exact same formula at different times of the year eg. summer and winter perform very differently. If they are not careful this would lead to a golf ball being made that exceeds the speed limit and would get Titleist struck off the approved ball register. A very bad outcome.
Titleist can change the recipe slightly for the different times of the year so that no matter when the ball is made it will perform identically. Titleist are right on the legal speed testing limit and this process allows them to stay there.
Last year Titleist made close to 1.35 million Pro V1 & Pro V1X golf balls.
The total number of golf balls returned world wide were 15 golf balls.
What this means is they have great quality control and we the consumer get the best ball on the market. It made me think “I would be crazy to use another brand of golf ball”.
Just a footnote. I am not contracted with Titleist and other than the odd sample here and there I actually buy my own golf balls from Titleist. I have been doing this since 1985.