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Titleist, Callaway, Nike, Wilson and TaylorMade – Brand names with Something to Prove in the Ball Arena

By: Dr. Barry Lotz

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 135^th 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.

Barry Lotz, J.D., Ph.D. is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, the California Golf Writers Association and the director of the Professional Golf Teachers Association of America and a contributing writer to numerous national magazines. He can be reached at www.pgtaa.com