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(Originally published in 2025.)
Has golf equipment reached a plateau?
It sometimes feels that way. Across the various product categories, the days of revolutionary improvements from one generation to the next seem to be far in the past. Refinement and optimization are the main objectives nowadays.
One company that can forever claim to have fundamentally changed the game is Titleist, which in the fall of this year will mark a quarter-century since its original Pro V1 golf ball debuted on the PGA Tour. From the very first week it was available, the Titleist Pro V1 swept through the pro ranks, then the rest of the game, like a tsunami, replacing entrenched golf ball manufacturing methods virtually overnight with its arrangement of multiple solid layers beneath a responsive urethane cover.
This is an odd-numbered year, which means the newest iteration of Titleist's flagship golf balls - the Pro V1 and the Pro V1x - are ready to hit shelves. I have had a dozen of each in my possession for a couple of weeks and have had the opportunity to put them through their paces. In short, they represent an incremental improvement on their predecessors, helping to keep the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x the gold standard in pro-line golf balls.
2025 Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls compared to their 2023 counterparts
Play
The holy-grail ideal is a golf ball that exhibits low spin on shots with the driver and fairway woods and high spin on short irons and wedges. Titleist refers to this dynamic as the "spin slope," and with a new core material formula in both the 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x, the company believes it has succeeded in "steepening" that slope. After multiple rounds and practice sessions' worth of testing, I am inclined to agree - I perceived slightly more bite on greenside shots from the new Pro V1 and Pro V1x relative to their predecessors, released in 2023.
While reviewing that year's new golf balls, I had something of an epiphany. For years, I had defaulted to the Pro V1 simply because it was reputed to be the longer golf ball of the two. But by testing both models from the green backwards, I realized that the firmer feel and higher spin and launch of the Pro V1x was worth the potential trade-off of a small handful of yards off the tee for me.
After putting the 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x through their paces, I remain a Pro V1x player. The new version plays ever so slightly softer than its predecessor, with little change in distance or trajectory. That difference manifests most clearly on greenside shots, where the tone of the '25 Pro V1x is slightly more muted than that of the '23 model. Likewise, I found the 2025 Pro V1 to be slightly softer than the already-soft '23 Pro V1, with overall similar feel and flight performance. Crucially, the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x remain superior to their competition in the wind. In other words, two excellent golf balls have been incrementally refined, as indicated by the $54.99-per-dozen advertised price, which is unchanged from the 2023 editions.
Should you play the 2025 Pro V1 or Pro V1x?
Having used the Titleist Pro V1 for approximately 200 rounds since late 2022, I am all-in on spin. Most brands' high-end golf ball lines boil down to a choice between a little more distance and a little more spin, and I would challenge golfers to at least experiment with a new mindset that prioritizes spin over distance. The quest for distance in golf club categories has led to lower-lofted irons and lower-spinning shafts, which cause many golfers I've played with to struggle to generate a steep enough landing angle into greens. This limits stopping power and, therefore, control. What good is a little bit more distance if it doesn't end up helping get you closer to the hole on the shots that matter? If you have defaulted to the Pro V1 for years because of distance, you should at least experiment with a sleeve or two of Pro V1x golf balls this year. You might find spin is your friend, too.
That said, The Pro V1 is a fantastic golf ball in its own right. Golfers who would already describe their typical ball flight as high should likely stick with it. There's a reason it's been the dominant golf ball for a quarter-century.
What's with the Pro V1x Left Dash? Is it the right Titleist golf ball for you? [2026 update]
Although Titleist kept their consumer offering simplified to two tour-ball models - Pro V1 and Pro V1x - for many years, the company has produced several variants, called Custom Performance Options (CPOs) to suit the more niche needs of its touring pros. CPO models like the Pro V1 Dot and Pro V1 Star have been coveted by collectors, sometimes selling for hundreds of dollars per dozen on the secondary market.
The first of these models to break through to wide retail availability was the Pro V1x Left Dash (or -Pro V1x), first formulated in 2018 as a high-launching, low-spinning option for a handful of elite players whose games need both of those characteristics. Andy Ogletree won the 2019 U.S. Amateur using the ball, and Bryson DeChambeau won the 2024 U.S. Open with it. Coincidentally, the Left Dash's highest-profile wins both came at Pinehurst No. 2. Cult popularity of the Left Dash led to it appearing in golf course pro shops and some retail outlets in recent years.
In January 2026, Titleist unveiled a new Left Dash after a lengthy R&D process. Its new 348-dimple pattern mimics that of the main-line Pro V1x, but with different dimple depths that help it maintaining its high-launching, low-spinning, distance-first characteristics with a bit of refinement.
The ProV1x Left Dash is said to fit roughly 5-10% of golfers. I know from experience that I am not one of them. I played several holes with the prior generation of the ball and while I liked what it did off the tee, I felt helpless to control it with irons or wedges. I had several shots from the middle of the fairway go sailing over greens, as if I had caught a wicked flyer lie. For my game, anyway, the regular Pro V1x is the best Titleist golf ball, and my gamer for more than three years. But if you think the Pro V1x Left Dash might fit your game, you can buy it starting January 21, 2026 for $57.99 per dozen.
