If there’s an unofficial king of golf balls, it’s the Titleist Pro V1. The manufacturer promotes its elite pellets as the top golf ball on the PGA Tour, and its name is synonymous with professional golf excellence. While Titleist promotes its signature golf ball as a fixture on tour, they never let the product languish. Denying their designers and engineers the luxury of complacency, Titleist renovated and improved the Pro V1 for 2021.
New for this year, both the Pro V1 and Pro V1x include a new core, a new casing layer, a new Urethane cover and improved aerodynamics. Finally, Titleist installed a proprietary installation of a 388 dimple design the manufacturer says will optimize distance and purify ball flight. It’s all in a day’s work for a ball that wants to stay at the top of the golf world.
In our full ranking of the best golf balls, it was a toss-up between the newly improved Titleist Pro V1 and the Mizuno RB 566V, a unique ball that features 566 micro-dimples. In the end, we had to give the top spot to the Titleist Pro V1.
What We Liked About the 2021 Titleist Pro V1
Very few golf balls “feel” like the Titleist Pro V1. We don’t mean the feel in the hand as you tee it up or position it for a putt. It’s the sensation on club contact — during that 300th of a second that the club strikes the ball. There’s a reassuring solidity when a good golf swing meets a Pro V1. That aura of quality flows from drive to iron shot, chip to putt. There’s none of the plastic harshness that you might find with cheaper golf balls. You know you’re playing a quality product the moment you complete your downswing.
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Best Feature: Superior Construction
What sets the Titleist Pro V1 on its lofty perch is its multilayer construction. All of its levels are proprietary and unique to the Pro V1, but the whole show starts with the 2.0 ZG Process Core, re-created for 2021. A new casing layer, created to reduce spin, wraps around that core. Finally, a softer, cast urethane Elastomer cover — with the new, spherically tiled, 388 tetrahedral dimple design — finishes off the build quality.
What We Didn’t Like about the 2021 Titleist Pro V1:
This is a top-shelf golf ball for top-shelf players. However, that also means it’s overkill for mid-to-high handicappers. Yes, it’ll serve just as well as any other ball for less-skilled golfers, but this ball is engineered in detail for highly skilled players looking for maximum length, piercing ball-flight, pinpoint accuracy, soft touch and stickiness around the green. If you’re a hack-and-chase weekend warrior, and we say that with no disrespect, you can save yourself a few bucks. That low-handicapper vibe comes at a premium as the standard Titleist Pro V1s sell for about $50 a dozen, depending on the outlet. You can buy very good golf balls from major manufacturers like Callaway, Mizuno or Vice for half that cost.
If you are indeed a lower handicap player who can put its precision to good use, the Titleist Pro V1 is still worth that cost once you hit the first tee box.
The Verdict: Long live the king.
And, we don’t mean Arnold Palmer, may that King rest in peace. The Titleist Pro V1 remains one of the best golf balls in the global game. Always composed of multiple layers of the finest materials, the Pro V1 underwent a redesign for 2021 that should keep it amidst the most popular golf balls on the PGA Tour and your local course.
Due to its popularity, the Titleist Pro V1 is easy to find. You can buy these balls on Amazon for $49.99. Not only are these the best-selling golf balls on Amazon, but reviewers have also given this ball an incredible 4.9-star rating.
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