~ ~ It’s appropriate that I should be writing about the new golf ball from Titleist, the Pro V1x, as I sit watching the last nine holes of the 2003 U.S. Master’s Championship at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
As I type, past Master’s champion Vijay Singh has just launched yet another absolutely enormous drive of well over 330 yards down the 10th fairway, leaving him a relatively simple pitch shot to a par 4 that measures all of 490 yards, and which ordinary mortals could only dream of reaching in two shots. (Singh has just birdied the 10th hole, by the way)
I mention Singh, as he is one of more than 50% of touring professionals who are now using the Pro V1x in preference to any other type of golf ball.

~ ~ But this has now changed since Titleist launched the new Pro V1x.
So why exactly is it that so many of the top players are now changing to this new ball from Titleist?
The answer to that question is very simple and straightforward. The Pro V1x simply goes miles further than any other ball currently being produced.
In recent tournaments Ernie Els, the South African professional and current holder of the British Open title has routinely been hitting drives well in excess of 330 yards in length. He even had a drive measured at 405 yards at a tournament on the U.S. Tour!
So why does the Pro V1x travel so much further than any other golf ball?
The ProV1x is a four-piece ball, with a high compression dual core, that is manufactured in order to give top players extra yardage on every shot they hit.
But the true answer to the extra distance it achieves would appear to be in a new dimple pattern. The dimples are the small indentations on the exterior surface of the ball, that dictate the amount of spin that will be imparted when it is struck by the golf club, and also the flight pattern of the ball through the air.
The Pro V1x has 332 dimples (fewer than most other balls) in seven different patterns. Put simply, what this means is that the Pro V1x leaves the club head at a greater velocity and with far less spin than other balls. Therefore it travels further in the air when hit with the same club head velocity.

~ ~ To be honest, and although this is a contentious viewpoint, my own belief is that the current high-tech revolution in the manufacture of both golf clubs and golf balls is now totally out of control.
Let me illustrate what I mean. One of the most enduring images in golf is the photograph of the late, great Ben Hogan hitting his marvellous one iron shot to the 18th green at the Merion Golf Club in the USA, during his famous victory there in the 1950 U.S. Open. Most of today’s Tour players today would most likely be hitting no more than a wedge shot to the same hole for their approach shot!
Over the last few years, even the famous and VERY conservative Augusta National Golf Club (where the U.S. Masters is played each spring) have felt the need to purchase extra land in order to lengthen the golf course. There was the distinct possibility that one of the top players was going to make the course look very foolish by scoring a sub-60 round. Consequently, Augusta now measures a massive 7,400 yards of the Championship tees.
And Augusta is by no means alone in altering their golf course in order to make it a tougher test for today’s modern touring pros.

~ ~ What this means is that some of golf’s most famous courses are now being altered almost beyond recognition, purely and simply to stop the top professionals from shooting ridiculously low scores.
Any new course being built today that has aspirations to becoming Championship standard simply must be well in excess of 7,000 yards in length, which makes it extremely difficult to play for ordinary handicap golfers.
Even the K-Club here in Ireland, which was only built as recently as the early 1990’s, and which is due to play host to the Ryder Cup in 2007, have had to embark on a project to lengthen and toughen up their golf course. (It’s already plenty tough enough, in my honest opinion!)
Peter Allis, the BBC golf commentator, put it all into perspective when replying to an e-mail query from a viewer during this years Masters at Augusta.
The viewer asked what an average 10 to 20 handicap golfer could realistically hope to score if they played Augusta from the Championship tees.
Allis’s reply was that if 100 golfers of this standard were to play a round there, he would bet his house that not a single player would even break 100. And remember this is on a golf course that ostensibly has a par of 72 shots!
So a 10-handicap golfer SHOULD be able to shoot a round in the low to mid-80’s, and even break 80 on a good day.

~ ~ As I said earlier, I’m no Luddite, and don’t oppose change simply for the sake of it. The restrictions that I would like to see put in place would only apply to the top professionals in the sport, and different standards could easily be adopted for the average amateur golfer. Anything that makes a difficult and frustrating sport easier and more enjoyable to play for the average golfer is very welcome in my book. And golf IS a very difficult and frustrating sport to play well!
But this headlong rush to be constantly finding ways to hit the golf ball greater distances has to stop somewhere, or the sport as it has existed for centuries will cease to be recognisable as the same game!