With her dramatic win at the CME Group Tour Championship, Sei Young Kim (Pro V1) closed out another exciting season on the LPGA Tour. And in a year full of breakthrough victories and major triumphs, Titleist was once again the overwhelming golf ball choice for more players and more champions.
The #1 Ball on the LPGA Tour
During the 2019 season, LPGA players teed up a Pro V1 or Pro V1x golf ball 3,311 times. That represents 82% of all the golf balls played in competition by the game's best female players. That's more than 16 times the nearest competitor with 199 total (5%) and more than four times all competitors combined.
This dominance also extended to victories, as Titleist golf ball players triumphed at 25 of the 32 tournaments staged in 2019, just 7 wins shy of a clean sweep.
Ranking No. 1 in wins and topping the golf ball count each week is important to us as a company because it provides concrete proof that we're making good on our pledge to provide the best performing, highest quality and most consistent golf balls available in the game. If we weren't, you can be sure that it would be reflected almost overnight in the counts. At the highest levels, players do not compromise. They play equipment that helps them win or they make a change.
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Highlights
Pro V1 loyalist Jin Young Ko won four events in 2019, including two majors. She vaulted to No. 1 in the LPGA Tour Rolex rankings and became just the second player after Ariya Jutanugarn (Pro V1x) to sweep all the major awards (including Rolex Player of the Year) while also capturing the money title.
In addition to Jin Young Ko, there were four other players who relied on a Titleist golf ball to win multiple tournaments in 2019, including:
- Sei Young Kim - Pro V1 | LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, Marathon Classic presented by Dana, CME Group Tour Championship
- Brooke Henderson - Pro V1 | LOTTE Championship, Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give
- Mi Jung Hur - Pro V1 | Ladies Scottish Open, Indy Women in Tech Championship
- Winner (Non-contracted player) - Pro V1 | ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open, Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA
Five first-time winners on the LPGA Tour this season relied on a Titleist golf ball in their breakthrough performances, including:
- Céline Boutier - Pro V1x | ISPS Handa Vic Open
- Cydney Clanton - Pro V1x | Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational
- Cheyenne Knight - Pro V1x | Volunteers of America Classic
- Bronte Law - Pro V1x | Pure Silk Championship
- Jeong-eun Lee6 - Pro V1x | U.S. Women's Open
(Lee6 also earned honors as the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year)
Titleist golf ball players captured four of the five women's major championships this season, including:
- Jin Young Ko - Pro V1 | ANA Inspiration, The Evian Championship
- Jeong-eun Lee6 - Pro V1x | U.S. Women's Open
- Hinako Shibuno - (Pro V1) | AIG Women’s British Open
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Why LPGA Players Trust Pro V1 and Pro V1x
It's clear that the vast majority of the world's best players are trusting their games to Titleist golf balls. But why? What are they experiencing that makes them choose Titleist in such overwhelming numbers? At the end of the season, we sat down with a number of the LPGA's best to find out:
Speed, precision and consistency are all important in your golf ball. Man, I am all about the speed because I want to hit it further, but I am probably going to go with consistency as the most inportant. Obviously, that's where you make the most money and the most birdies.
To me, consistency is when the ball reacts the way I need it to react. If I am going to hit the draw I want to see it moving right to left and flying the accurate numbers every single time. When I hit a pitching wedge or I hit a 7-iron, especially on windy days, it's going to go the right number for me. You can't beat Pro V1x for that. It's going to release and spin exactly the amount that I need it to, every time. That's why I love the Titleist Pro V1x.
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The thing I love about the Titlest Pro V1 is it performs in all different conditions. Playing on the LPGA tour, it's so global. We play in all types of weather conditions, on different grasses, at different elevations, at different air pressures. We need a golf ball that performs and is consistent and we know exactly how far it's going to go. I can always count on my Pro V1.
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A few of the other companies reached out to me and offered quite good money. They asked, "Do you want to try our ball?" That's how I started to try other brands. Before that I never really tried any other golf balls. Titleist was just my everything. Then I tried the others and I realized, 'Oh my gosh, I really play the best golf ball in the world. Why am I going to try other things?'
I just learned kind of late and then, to be honest, I feel like I didn't really appreciate them much back then. But I fully appreciate Titleist right now. I just totally have 100% trust in my golf ball. All I need to do is just keep practicing because I know Pro V1 is going to perform well.
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I think the most important part is distance control. Especially if you're going to have a carry on a certain hole, whether it's a bunker to get to a flag or water you have to carry. With Pro V1 I know that my seven iron is going to carry 145 every time and I think that helps when you come down the stretch and pressure moments when you have to pull a shot off knowing that your ball is going to consistently fly a certain distance with each club is really helpful.
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Consistency is everything in golf. In a golf ball, consistency is how the ball comes off the face, how the contact feels and how the ball reacts on the green. The biggest thing for me is, I look for a golf ball that gives me the smallest amount of dispersion. Golf is a game of misses. I know not every shot is going to be perfect. But when I do mis-hit it, I need my misses to be close. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. If I'm going to miss it long or short, it can't be too far away from what my normal shot distances are. Pro V1x gives me that control. Control means better golf and better golf means happy Danielle.
Click here to read the full story behind Danielle's choice to play Pro V1x.
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I need the ball to consistently do the same exact thing every single time just as I try to do the same exact thing every single time. I want to see the same flight. The way that it spins or the way it checks on a chip, the way it rolls on a green. These are the things that I look for in a golf ball.
Pro V1 is super consistent, not only in the ball flight but also around the greens. That's where I really love seeing the ball react the same exact way every single time. That just gives me so much confidence going into tournaments week in, week out. Knowing how it's going to feel and consistently seeing the same reaction on the green, that's a win for me.
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Congratulations on a remarkable season to all the players who competed on the LPGA Tour in 2019 and thank you for supporting Titleist!
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