Week in and week out, the best players in the world are looking for ways to improve, constantly working to make sure each part of their game and equipment setup is optimized.
Case in point: World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who opened her 2023 season last week with a victory on the Ladies European Tour – in her first start playing with the NEW Pro V1x golf ball.
Ko has now won her last two events, having closed out the 2022 LPGA season by winning the CME Group Tour Championship, and three of her last four. She finished '22 ranked 1st in Strokes Gained: Total (+2.440 per round), Top Ten Percentage (64%), Rounds Under Par (65), Sand Saves (66.25%) and Putts Per GIR (1.72). Ko also collected the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average, which at 69.988 was the second-lowest in LPGA Tour history.
Coming off such a successful season and late-season stretch, it begs the question: Why change golf balls?
According to Jeff Beyers of Titleist Golf Ball R&D, Ko actually began testing NEW Pro V1x during the practice days leading up to her win at the CME. Working with Beyers on the range at Tiburón Golf Club, Ko quickly became intrigued by the more penetrating flight and faster ball speeds she was registering with 3-wood and driver.
“It kind of caught me by surprise, because we talked about how much she liked her [prior generation Pro V1x], really most of the year,” Beyers said “But then we looked at some numbers and she said she was looking for a little bit less spin off the 3-wood and driver, so it seemed like ‘23 X could be really good idea.”
While Ko wasn’t going to make a change with only four rounds left in the season, she asked Beyers for some 2023 Pro V1x to test at home during the offseason.
During the break, Ko also made a visit to the Titleist Performance Institute to make sure she was dialed in for the start of the new year.
"At TPI, ’23 X did exactly what we saw at CME,” Beyers said. “Lowered the spin 100-150 (rpms), gave her that more penetrating ball flight that she was looking for and was faster off the driver. So she’s like, ‘Oh wow, this is great. Exactly what I was looking for.’ And then most importantly, short irons, wedges, all that stayed the same. So ’23 really did exactly what we hoped for, reduced the spin at the top end of the bag. Added some speed and some distance, but kept mid-short irons, wedges the exact same. We did some short game work too, hit a lot of wedges, and she thought it felt great.”
Ko, who plays high number Pro V1x golf balls, brought several dozen with her overseas for her first start of the new year. The world No. 1 teed up new Pro V1x for the first time in competition and picked up right where she left off in 2022, winning her 26th worldwide title after closing in 4-under 68. Following her victory, she texted Beyers, telling him the new ball worked “like magic.”