The manufacturing process for the new Titleist 2021 Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls – encompassing over 200,000 square feet of engineering innovation – is now on display for golfers around the world through the Titleist Ball Plant 3 Virtual Tour on Titleist.com.
The virtual tour follows the same journey around the manufacturing floor that golfers take when they make the trip to Massachusetts to visit Ball Plant 3 (BP3) in person – exhibiting how each layer of a Pro V1 and Pro V1x comes together to deliver the best performing, most consistent and highest quality golf balls in the game.
Golfers can join the virtual tour through their mobile or desktop devices at Titleist.com/BP3-Virtual.
“Since we started giving tours of Ball Plant 3 a few years ago, we’ve had golfers from around the country and many corners of the world visit to see how their Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls are made,” said Jeremy Stone, Vice President, Titleist Golf Ball Marketing. “While we look forward to the day that we can safely welcome visitors back to BP3, we’re excited that golfers everywhere now have the opportunity to go behind the scenes of our process, learn how their golf ball is made from core to cover, and see everything our R&D and Operations teams are doing to earn their trust on every single shot.”
In recent years, many of the world’s best players have also made the trip to BP3, including major champions Adam Scott, Justin Thomas, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson.
• Adam Scott: “I think the most surprising thing I took away from touring the plant is how tight the tolerance levels are in making the golf ball and how strenuous the checks are to make sure there is very little variation ball to ball. For someone whose livelihood and dreams depend on it, it's nice to see how dedicated Titleist is to providing you with the same ball every time out of the box.”
• Justin Thomas: “Seeing the process up close gave me even more confidence than I already had in my golf ball. I always trust my go-to cut shot – that’s a shot I’m very comfortable and most consistent with distance-control wise – and you see why I’m able to have so much confidence in it when you go through the plant. The process just to make one single golf ball and then see how it’s made the exact same, thousands and thousands of times more, it just was extremely impressive.”
• Webb Simpson: “I had no idea how much went into the process. And it was great to meet the people who are making what you rely on week in, week out for your job. I walked away feeling even more confident knowing that at every station, every person’s job was super important to them and they were going to do it to the best of their ability.”
• Jordan Spieth: “There's a reason why Titleist has the #1 ball in golf and it has been for decades. There’s just an extra level of precision that leads to us players trusting it. It leads to the amateurs trusting their golf ball. Just knowing what goes into it on Titleist's side only solidifies that confidence.”
COMMITMENT TO THE PROCESS
The global center of Titleist golf ball technology and manufacturing, Titleist Ball Plant 3 is located in New Bedford, Mass., where in the 1930’s an avid golfer named Phil Young – frustrated with the inconsistent performance of the golf balls he was playing, and not being rewarded for his best swings – set out to make the best golf balls in the world. Young, the owner of a precision molded rubber company, was fueled by the belief and understanding that the performance and quality of a product can only be as good as its manufacturing process – and that golfers should never have to worry how their golf ball is going to perform when they put a good swing on it.
It is this enduring commitment to the process – and helping golfers shoot their lowest scores – that continually pushes Titleist’s exacting performance and quality specifications to even tighter tolerances. Even the slightest variations in golf ball construction can have dramatic performance implications, for example:
• If a golf ball core is just 4/100ths of an inch off-center – about the thickness of a credit card – shot dispersion for every club in your bag can double.
• A golf ball with uneven dimple depths – off by as little as the width of a human hair – can turn a good swing into a bad shot, and cause the ball to fly offline.
• VIDEO: Eye-Opening Aerodynamics with Rafa Cabrera Bello: Watch how microscopic inconsistencies in dimple depths affect the flight of a golf ball: https://youtu.be/aeibKavgytc.
MANUFACTURING AT TITLEIST BALL PLANTS 3 AND 4
Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls – the most played and best-selling golf balls around the world – are made at both Titleist Ball Plant 3 (New Bedford, Mass.) and Titleist Ball Plant 4 (Thailand). The manufacturing and quality assurance processes seen during the Virtual Tour are the exact same ones used at both facilities, ensuring that every Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf ball delivers consistent performance in every dozen – and on every shot. Every Titleist golf ball model is made by Titleist associates in Titleist owned and operated manufacturing facilities. Titleist also operates Titleist Ball Plant 2 in North Dartmouth, Mass., just down the road from BP3.
VIRTUAL BP3 TOUR GUIDE
The Virtual Ball Plant 3 Tour is guided by Iona Stephen, host of Golf TV's “Golfing World,” and a broadcaster for Sky Sports Golf. Stephen, who has played professionally on the Ladies European Tour, first toured Ball Plant 3 in October 2019.
“I’ve always played a Titleist golf ball because I believed it was the best, but I never could have imagined the scope of the process or level of precision that goes into making each and every golf ball,” Stephen said. “The passion and the commitment of the people – many who’ve worked at BP3 for over 20 or 30 years – is something that I’ll never forget.”
IN-PERSON TOURS AT BALL PLANT 3
While in-person tours of Ball Plant 3 have been currently suspended, Titleist will be reopening the experience at the soonest appropriate time. For more information, and to sign up to be notified when the tours resume, golfers can visit www.titleist.com/TourBP3.
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