Titleist ProV1 Defends its title as Off Pist Ball of the Year
The end of year is upon us and with no rounds booked for the rest of December it is time to add up all those stray balls we found along the way and present the 2022 Off Pist golf ball of the year. While the number of rounds was down this year to a mere 132, the number of balls found was actually up 2.1% to a massive 1412 balls found! This translated to 10.7 golf balls found per round, a significant increase from the year before.
Once again Titleist’s ProV1 sits on top of the leaderboard. With an increase of 11.5% on last years find, the ProV1 represented 6.87% of this years total haul. Even though Srixon’s AD333 was once again able to secure 2nd spot its year on year total remained stagnant thus losing ground on the leader and yielding a slightly smaller share of the pool.
Srixon suffered even worse fate in losing its other podium position to a surging ProV1x. Jumping 5 positions the ProV1x realised a huge year on year gain of 19% capuring 3rd position. Titleist expanded its top 10 footprint in 2022 with 5 entries. The True and Soft Feel made significant leaps and the Velocity while falling of 2021’s pace still managed a top 10 finish.
| MANUFACTURER | MODEL | No. of Balls | % of Total | 22 vs.21 | |
| Titleist | ProV1 | 97 | 6.87% | +11.49% | |
| Srixon | AD333 | 86 | 6.09% | +/- 0% | |
| Titleist | ProV1x | 50 | 3.54% | +19.05% | |
| Wilson Staff | DX2 Soft | 48 | 3.40% | -12.73% | |
| Callaway | Super Soft | 45 | 3.19% | +4.65% | |
| Srixon | Distance | 38 | 2.69% | -37.70% | |
| Titleist | True Feel | 36 | 2.55% | +125.0% | |
| Titleist | Velocity | 32 | 2.27% | -33.33% | |
| Srixon | Soft Feel | 29 | 2.06% | -21.62% | |
| Titleist | Tour Soft | 26 | 1.84% | +44.44% |
Titleist dethrones Srixon capturing the 2022 Off Pist Manufacturers Championship
Titleist secured the double with this years capturing of the 2022 Off Pist he Manufacturers Championship leaving little doubt about what is the most popular balls in golf. With an 11% increase in the 2021’s yield Titleist captured 23.23% of the total share, almost 4% better than Srixon’s 2nd place finish. Normally one would expect 2nd place to be a positive result but with almost a decrease of 15%, Srixon had fewer balls in play and lost significant ground against the market leader.
This years manufacturers leader board included balls from 49 different ball makers, up from the 36 of the year before. This tends to suggest that there are many start-up and fringe manufacturers that are putting balls onto the market that perform at levels golfers are willing to accept. Unfortunately the balls we find do not include the golfers handicap that lost them since it would be interesting to see how this would relate.
We do this little analysis in large part for fun and many of you would question the validity of the statistics. But before you do consider the fact that the 3rd to 9th place positions are unchanged from 2021 to 2022. We were actually amazed that the two complete random samples over the course of the two years produced such consistent results.
| MANUFACTURER | No. of Balls | % of Total | 22 vs. 21 % | Change in 21 Pos. | |
| 1 | Titleist | 328 | 23.23% | +11.19% | +1 |
| 2 | Srixon | 276 | 19.55% | -14.81% | -1 |
| 3 | Wilson Staff | 179 | 12.68% | +13.29% | E |
| 4 | Callaway | 153 | 10.84% | +2.00% | E |
| 5 | Bridgestone | 72 | 5.10% | +7.46% | E |
| 6 | TaylorMade | 69 | 4.89% | +7.81% | E |
| 7 | Vice | 53 | 3.75% | -8.62% | E |
| 8 | Pinnacle | 48 | 3.40% | +4.35% | E |
| 9 | OTHER | 30 | 2.12% | +/- 0% | E |
| 10 | Nike | 28 | 1.98% | +47.37% | +4 |
| 11 | Top Flight | 25 | 1.77% | -13.79% | -1 |
| 12 | INESIS | 21 | 1.49% | -12.50% | -1 |
| 13 | HONMA | 20 | 1.42% | +122.22% | +3 |
| 14 | Volkik | 17 | 1.20% | -29.17% | -2 |
| 15 | Maxfli | 14 | 0.99% | -30.00% | -2 |
| 16 | Golden Green | 8 | 0.57% | -38.46% | -1 |
| 17 | Strata | 7 | 0.50% | +75.00% | +6 |
| 18 | RAM | 5 | 0.35% | +400.0% | +14 |
| 19 | SNYDER | 5 | 0.35% | — | — |
| 20 | Spalding | 5 | 0.35% | — | — |
| 21 | Dunlop | 4 | 0.28% | +/- 0% | -1 |
| 22 | V Plus | 4 | 0.28% | — | — |
| 23 | Maruman | 3 | 0.21% | -40.00% | -5 |
| 24 | MIKADO | 3 | 0.21% | +200.0% | +6 |
| 25 | Tour Special | 3 | 0.21% | +50.00% | +1 |
| 26 | XXIO | 3 | 0.21% | -25.00% | -2 |
| 27 | K-TEC Golf | 2 | 0.14% | -50.00% | -6 |
| 28 | Links Choice | 2 | 0.14% | — | — |
| 29 | Nasau | 2 | 0.14% | — | — |
| 30 | Pearl | 2 | 0.14% | — | — |
| 31 | Slazenger | 2 | 0.14% | -33.33% | -6 |
| 32 | Tour Collection | 2 | 0.14% | -75.00% | -15 |
| 33 | Crane Sports | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 34 | Crivit | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 35 | Dixon | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 36 | Golden Bear | 1 | 0.07% | +/- 0% | -9 |
| 37 | Greenway First | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 38 | Masters | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 39 | Mizuno | 1 | 0.07% | -80.00% | -20 |
| 40 | Molitor | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 41 | Nitro | 1 | 0.07% | +/- 0% | -10 |
| 42 | OnCore | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 43 | Optima | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 44 | Penn | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 45 | Pro Ace | 1 | 0.07% | -75.00% | -23 |
| 46 | Pro Tour | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 47 | Soldier | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 48 | Tramondi | 1 | 0.07% | — | — |
| 49 | Yamaha | 1 | 0.07% | +/- 0% | -14 |
| 50 | Kirkland | — | — | — | -21 |
| 51 | Hogan | — | — | — | -23 |
| 52 | Seed | — | — | — | -19 |
| 53 | Top Point | — | — | — | -19 |
We now look to our rounds in 2023. We will head back to St. Andrews as well several other top clubs in Scotland for our first big golf excursion of the year. Then what follows is still in discussion…. Our Off Pist 2023 ball bags are empty and ready to be filled and we can’t wait to see how the results will compare to the first two years of data.
