Titleist's Pro V1 golf ball was first used to win a professional tournament in October 2000. In the six-and-a-half years since, the ball has become the most popular on tour - nearly 76 percent of the field used Titleist balls at the John Deere Classic, the vast majority Pro V1 and Pro V1x models.
And Sunday at the Sega Sammy Cup in Japan, Toru Taniguchi made the win count with the brand an even 1000.
Since Billy Andrade started the victory tally at the 2000 Invensys Classic in Las Vegas, the Titleist Pro V1 has won 197 times on the PGA Tour; 164 times on the European Tour; 147 times on the Nationwide Tour; 137 times on the Champions Tour; 100 times on the LPGA Tour; and a combined 260 times on the Asian, Australasian, Canadian, Japanese and South African Tours.
According to Titleist, the Pro V1 has been teed up more than 110,000 times by professionals and has earned those pros more than $1.5 billion.
RAPTURE TAKING OFF: PING's Rapture driver racked up two more victories this week, when Frenchman Gregory Havret bested Phil Mickelson in a playoff at the Barclays Scottish Open and amateur Daniel Summerhays won on the Nationwide Tour.
Those two wins mean that the Rapture has earned six titles since Angel Cabrera won the U.S. Open Championship last month.
Havret is devoted to PING - he plays 14 of the company's clubs. Summerhays, on the other hand, is an amateur with no contracts, free to play whatever equipment he prefers on any given day.
HEAVY PUTTER SWITCH WORKS FOR MATTESON: Troy Matteson finished third and ranked sixth in putts per round at last week's John Deere Classic.
Matteson switched from his normal blade model (A-1) with a center-mounted shaft to a new Heavy Putter prototype, which may come to the market later this year.
The Heavy Putter features a 450- to 550-gram head and a 250-gram weight in the grip end; together the weights produce a balance point 75 percent higher than traditional putters. The additional weight also helps prevent the wrists from breaking down and promotes a smoother, more consistent stroke.
"The biggest thing anyone who tries the Heavy Putter will find is that it improves your speed," Matteson said. "And any time you can improve your speed, you're going to make more putts."
COUCH LEAVES NIKE: Following in the footsteps of Jason Gore, Chris Couch has ended his contract with Nike. Also like Gore, rumor has it the source of the problem was over his desire to use a Titleist golf ball in competition, rather than a Nike ball.
A good bet for where Couch will end up: TaylorMade.
CLEVELAND TO HAVE FIRST SHOT: It's pretty certain that the first shot hit at this year's British Open Championship will be with a Cleveland club.
That's because Cleveland staff player Joe Durant will have the first tee shot at 6:30 a.m. local time Thursday.
Durant uses a Cleveland HiBore XL driver with 9.5 degrees of loft. But, should he choose to hit an iron, that will be okay - Durant uses Cleveland CG Golf irons, too.
SORENSTAM SITE LAUNCHES: Annika has a new presence on the web with her site www.annikasorenstam.com. Built to promote the golfer and her apparel partner, Cutter & Buck, the site will feature Sorenstam's schedule, stats, photos and personal info like her favorite recipes and fitness tips.
The site will also share details of her charitable work through the ANNIKA Foundation and Make-A-Wish Foundation and discuss her golf course design work.
TOP SHAFTS: Fujikura was the No. 1 Driver Shaft Brand on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship this week.
"We have enjoyed great success on the professional tours for many years by working with our OEM partners, but the real gratification is to see the ‘trickle down’ effect to the amateur players," said Fujikara's president and COO, Peter Sanchez. "Having more players literally choose to play our wood models than any other shaft company at the Public Links Championship is very rewarding and validates our belief that our product line has something special to offer at all levels of play."
