Should more OEMs offer custom tour balls? (Titleist's new "Left-dash" Prov1X)

[zbeekner4]

Should more OEMs offer custom tour balls? (Titleist's new "Left-dash" Prov1X)

Seems like Titleist has been producing a "special" tour only Prov1x for a while and is now going to offer it as a custom order golf ball to the masses. It says the Prov1x is high launch and high spin while the "left dash" version will be high launch, low spin. The low spin characteristics being closer to the AVX type of ball although not as extreme.

Should more OEMs offer this kind of custom option for their golf balls?

 

[obedt]

The more options the better! Back when my swing was a little less crap I enjoyed testing the CSX TT. Hope more tour models continue to trickle down.

 

[McLovin]

these tour only balls are nothing new. but i very much like the idea of making these available to the general public.

i understand that it's a niche product with a small target audience, so the solution would be to not go to retail. make them available as an online purchase only. heck, maybe even limit availability to when demand hits a certain level. like you put your order in, but it may never get fulfilled if the total orders don't exceed 30 dozen or whatever it needs to be.

i don't see this as damaging the brand perception. you don't have to market it heavily, just a quick press release and see what happens. the nerds who care about this tour issue stuff (raises hand) will be paying attention, and the other 99% of consumers will go on buying the retail version.

seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[NullNomad]

The avg avid fan golfer will spend the money to lose them just like any other ball, so I say go for it OEMs.

 

[Nappy]

I'm pretty excited to try them. Not to say that they're going to help my game, but I like having options.

 

[Snickerdog]

Might be worth trying out.

 

[M2Giles]

The more options on the market the better. Probably one of the surprising things is seeing just how much a ball can change your game. So the more options the better to ensure golfers get a ball that fits their game.

I understand that most of the balls released are aimed at larger bands of the market than what some of these niche tour only balls are aimed at. Likely there is already another ball on the market that performs close to a tour only ball, but the brand allegiance may not be there.

 

[BlkNGld]

I'm going to be the contrarian.

Titleist is so dominant in the tour ball market that they can invest in a production run and be fairly certain that they'll sell and/or be used by staffers. They'll still be relatively scarce just like the initial AVX run. It's a way for them to introduce something fresh just like with AVX, but instead of AVX being more of an everyman ball, this has more of an air of exclusivity.

I just don't think that it would be cost effective for their competitors in terms of scale. While we as consumers love more choice, the channel generally prefers simpler (meaning fewer), especially when volumes are low.