This may be a dumb question, but are the pros using the same premium balls that us mere mortals can buy? When you see Prov1/B330/Nike 20XI etc. being used on tour...are these the same ones you can get off the shelves at Academy or are they custom manufactured/tailored for the pros that use them specifically?

Dustin Johnson's 378 yard drive the other day got me thinking about this (Not that that is evidence in and of itself of a diff ball being used).

[This message has been edited by El Mero Guero (edited 3/11/2014 10:21a).]

I know Tiger always uses a "prototype" ball. Apparently it's in his contract with Nike to never release his actual ball. I would say most of the titleist players use a stock ball

I think they might get to use the newest balls earlier than us mere mortals, but I do think they play the same balls and clubs that can be sold to us. Which is part of the allure of the game. What they have over us is unlimited resources in options, fittings, etc. But the actual components are everything we can also get.

Except for those prototype deals that do happen here or there.

In general yes, they use the same balls we can buy off the shelf. Some players like Luke Donald even use older models.

I could've sworn I read somewhere that Tiger's ball is a few years old as well.

I was told by a PGA professional that the TV announcers use the distances as if all very back tees were used. In reality only a few holes each day. If a hole is 500 yards long and the distance remaining after the tee shot is 130 TV tells us he hit it 370 when in reality the hole might have been playing 460 that day so a shot that went 330 was reported as 370.

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I was told by a PGA professional that the TV announcers use the distances as if all very back tees were used. In reality only a few holes each day. If a hole is 500 yards long and the distance remaining after the tee shot is 130 TV tells us he hit it 370 when in reality the hole might have been playing 460 that day so a shot that went 330 was reported as 370.

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I've always heard announcers say that "The hole is playing ____ yards today" during the telecast. Often comparing it to how it's played on other days based on the tee location.

I know there is a tour issue Pro V that some guys on tour play. Basically same ball with minor tweaks to help with trajectory. I assume most manufacturers have some similar options for their tour players.

But for the most part they are playing the same ball as what we can buy.

Heard Paul Stankowski on the ticket last week talking about how he played the 2008 Pro v1 forever, then went into a funk after they discontinued it. Not that he wasn't already in a multi-year funk before.

Sometimes they are the production balls but not all of the time. Look at the current conforming list of balls and there are over 30 listings for just he ProV1 production name. This includes older year models that some players will continue to play, the production versions and tweaked versions for launch and spin for some players.

The former PGA tour player I've played with here used a ball designated "+--PROV1x--+" on the midstripe and were labelled as "PROV1x Trajectory Plus" which he still had quite the supply of. Apparently wasn't a completely personal ball but one of the package options that Titleist provides their staffers. That is my only personal knowledge but I would assume most guys are out there using the production version of balls.

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I was told by a PGA professional that the TV announcers use the distances as if all very back tees were used. In reality only a few holes each day. If a hole is 500 yards long and the distance remaining after the tee shot is 130 TV tells us he hit it 370 when in reality the hole might have been playing 460 that day so a shot that went 330 was reported as 370.

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I'm fairly sure that guy didn't know what he was talking about. The t.v. guys have access to real time Shot Link data. The numbers they give are going to be accurate. They're not just looking at the scorecard and subtracting distance from the 150 marker. They have the same daily yardage books that the players do and again, they have other technology and data being fed to them.

I asked Jay Don Blake that very question a few years ago. We were playing in a shamble at TPC Vegas in a stiff 2+ club wind. I thought my ball was in play or something but it wasnt and he threw me a ball. It was a 2009 pro v1x. So I played the hole out and it sparked the discussion about players using older versions. He said when the 2011 ball came out he took a few to the 150 marker and, into a similar wind, couldn't reach the green with his normal 7 iron. So he pulled a few of the older balls out of hjs bag and put them center green. He stuck with the 2009 and said a bunch of his friends did too. Apparently players with high trajectories had a lot of problems with it in windy conditions. I then used the 2009(this was early in 2011 and I had just bought my first sleeve of the new ball) and could also tell the difference in those winds. I ended up switching to the penta tp5 and never gave the 2011 provx a second look.

As mentioned, there are some other options listed on the conforming list. Some of those were just experimental but others are played. But my gusss is 80% of tour used balls are available to us.

Watty I realize what they have access to but I also realize they're in entertainment. I don't know what you do but the guy who told me that was in professional golf. Not a club pro or teaching pro, but a player. He possibly knows what he's talking about.

[This message has been edited by jja79 (edited 3/12/2014 3:31p).]

[This message has been edited by jja79 (edited 3/12/2014 3:31p).]

I posted this recently, but I made my first career hole-in-one with a tour only model Pro -V1+.