Price: £43 (per dozen)
If golfing legend James Braid, who re-designed the Peterborough Milton golf course in 1938, had seen the distances we were striping the latest Titleist Pro V1 golf balls over this elegant parkland course, he’d have turned in his grave.
Braid a multi-Open championship winner and part of the Great Triumverate with JH Taylor and Harry Vardon, was in his 60s when he created Milton and despite the emergence of steel-shafted clubs would have gasped at the height and trajectory, not to mention the length, the modern balls achieve.
I was joined by two other ‘fifty-somethings’ – Nigel Munton (handicap 9) and Graham Key (5) and a 71-year-old Alan Parsons (8) to put the new ball through its paces and we were all impressed by its performance.
Said Alan, a former bank manager, who started playing only three years before Braid’s death in 1950: "It certainly gave me some extra distance with my TaylorMade 580 XD driver, but I’d have to get used to the distinctly heavier feel off the clubface.
"The ball didn’t feel as soft and forgiving as I’d expected," he added.
Titleist claims its new and improved ball is a combination of larger solid core and Urethane Elastomer cover producing fast initial velocity, lower spin and high launch. This in turn produces a flatter, straighter and less arcing ball flight for driving and a steep drop-and-stop angle of descent into green with iron shots.
Despite being one of the shortest drivers on Tour, it enabled Fred Funk to claim the highly prized Players Championship at Sawgrass last week in tough windy, conditions.
Nigel, a financial adviser, is normally a devotee of the Pro V1x and admits he’s not a good enough golfer to notice the subtle differences between the old and new balls.
"But it flew lower with the driver than ball I normally use and gave me good roll with the putter," he said.
Graham, a machine operator who has been playing for 25 years, agreed that the cover was certainly more durable than the original ProV1, which will certainly make it more popular with mid-handicap golfers.
