Titleist still won’t say what’s actually different inside the 2027 Pro V1. The pros who’ve been hitting it, though, are a lot chattier than the company that makes it. A dozen players had the new ball in play at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan last week, and the first real reviews are in. The punchline: the guy who won the tournament wasn’t one of them.
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For more info: GOLF.com
Quick catch-up
We covered the start of tour seeding last week. The new Pro V1 and Pro V1x hit the USGA conforming list at the Biltmore Championship, and Titleist officially kicked off the rollout in Japan. According to GOLF.com’s tour report, 12 players used the 2027 models at Yokohama Country Club. That’s more than any other brand’s ball in the 72-player field, and it’s a brand-new ball that some players were seeing for the first time that week.
Titleist is still keeping the construction details quiet until retail launch. So for now, the best intel comes from the players themselves.
What the pros are saying
Sahith Theegala: a little more bite on the in-between shots. Theegala gave the most specific feedback so far, in a video Titleist posted from Japan:
“I'm able to squeeze even a little bit more out of something that I feel really good about.”@SRTheegala putting 2027 Pro V1 through the paces this week in Japan.👌#1ballingolf pic.twitter.com/sb1x5bWNO3
— Titleist (@Titleist) October 7, 2026
“I think the thing that I’ve found different is with some of the short-game shots,” he told Titleist reps, “maybe like 20, 30, 40 yards, not even like a basic chip, but like an intermediate pitch shot. I feel like it comes out a touch lower and with a touch more spin.” Lower launch and more spin on those awkward half-wedges is a nice thing to hear if your short game is where you make your money. (Theegala then spent part of his Friday round trying to get his ball out of a tree, but that one’s on the tree, not the ball.)
Doug Ghim: tighter spin windows, less curve in the wind. Ghim switched to the new Pro V1x at the Bank of Utah Championship and finished runner-up, his best result of the season. His take was about consistency: “I think between the spinniest ball and lowest [spinning] ball in the groupings that we hit with each club, they tended to be tighter. And I think visually we saw that it was curving less.” He tested in a crosswind, and says watching it “tail less in the wind was a big factor.”
Jordan Spieth: switching (again). Spieth confirmed early in the week that he was moving to the 2027 Pro V1. He’s had a busy year for ball changes. After playing the Pro V1x his whole career, he moved to the Pro V1x Left Dash in the spring because his iron spin was creeping too high, then to the regular Pro V1 around the U.S. Open, and now the new one.
Also in play in Japan: Brian Harman, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Tom Hoge, Maverick McNealy and Denny McCarthy, among others. Titleist also posted videos of Max Homa and Ryan Gerard testing it on site.
The plot twist: the winner used last year’s ball
Michael Brennan won the Baycurrent Classic by a shot over Jacob Bridgeman and Keith Mitchell. That’s his second win of the season and third on the PGA Tour. GOLF.com’s look at his winning bag lists the ball as the 2025 Titleist Pro V1, the current model you can buy right now, not the shiny 2027 version.
That’s not a knock on the new ball. Brennan’s a Titleist guy either way, and plenty of players stick with what’s working while everyone else tests. But it’s a useful reminder for the rest of us: the current Pro V1 is still winning tournaments in the same week its replacement shows up.
What it means for your bag
Two themes keep coming up in the early 2027 Pro V1 feedback: more consistent spin, and a touch more control around the greens. Notice that Spieth and Neal Shipley, who’s posted back-to-back top 10s since switching, were both dealing with too much spin before. That could be a hint about where Titleist went with this one. We’ll find out for sure when the specs come out with the retail launch, likely early next year if Titleist sticks to its usual two-year cycle.
Until then, there’s no reason to sit on your hands. If the current Pro V1 is good enough to win in Japan, it’s good enough for your Saturday game, and the outgoing model can get cheaper once the new version is on shelves.
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