Golf has always brought us some exciting collaborations, some of them we long desired, a few that fell flat, and others are ones we didn’t know we needed until after they happened. This collab between Titleist and Trackman Golf will surely end up in the latter. Introducing the Titleist RCT available in both Pro V1 and Pro V1x.
Today, Titleist is announcing the release of a two-year R&D process in which they and Trackman have created what they believe to be the solution to the biggest shortcoming of radar-based launch monitors that are used indoors. Since radar-based units like Trackman actually track the ball in flight, using them within indoor settings means that the distance is limited, and thus from time to time you will get mis-reads, specifically in terms of spin. If you have been on a Trackman indoors at Club Champion or any other indoor fitting facility, then you have undoubtedly seen the italicizedspin numbers.
So, this announcement of the Titleist RCT might be aimed at a smaller segment of golfers and fitters, but it is still potentially a very big deal.
RCT stands for “Radar Capture Technology” which is an embedded radar reflective patent pending technology that helps to create a strong “signal” which enables accurate spin capture on 99% of recorded shots. More consistent and accurate spin recording also impacts a plethora of other data points like peak height, angle of descent, carry, roll, and total distance. Not to mention, according to both companies it means there will be no requirement of reflective spin markers or precision orientation and Trackman has now been able to improve their spin detection algorithm to require even less distance to measure data.
The fact that Titleist and Trackman have gotten together to potentially remedy the biggest shortcoming of radar-based detection (indoor tracking) may not impact everyone, but where it does, the impact will be quite significant. The new ProV1 and ProV1x RCT will offer all the same performance as the standard ball, so that too should put some minds at ease.
The new golf balls will be available through Titleist trade partners and www.titleist.com on November 3, 2021 with global distribution beginning April 2022. Price will come in at $64.95 per dozen, but in an indoor setting longevity is obviously much different than outdoors.
The price of a bit higher but like you said in the article @Jman the balls should last longer indoors.
As a low to mid spin guy with driver, it always sucked going to driver fittings and see spin numbers around 4000. Made it impossible to determine what was actually a good fit
It is small, but if they’ve now truly made trackman a reliable indoor option, and are the ONLY ball that can do that? They’re going to get a decent little ROI off of that when every indoor fitter uses their ball if they’re using a radar monitor.
This, it’s the first time they’ve almost kind of openly admitted they had a shortcoming somewhere, and if this really does fix it? Think of what it means for places like CC
I don’t think it was the reason, that’s a hardware and design issue, but how cool is it that the ball might end up a solution no one thought about? Pretty wild!
You’re better than that. Or, you will be, with a better device.
I’m real tight to get 16′ I’ve read is needed for radar based devices hence the camera thought. I’m all ears though if you had other recommendations around that price point.
(but maybe this ball reduces that need…)
It will be interesting to see if it helps smaller/cheaper radar based units produce better results as well.
This is the biggest question I have to be honest
Wondering if we know whether this was something Trackman paid Titleist to develop or if it was something Titleist had the idea on independently?
They worked together from the start
It also punches holes in the arguments that people had saying that trackman indoors didn’t have issues.
I think it’s worth $65 to find out.
It’s even more brilliant when you consider that many fitters will fit you into either the Pro V1 or V1x along with your clubs…since they are the only balls with the technology. So they may convert a ton of customers from other brand balls to one of these two models in their non-RCT form.
I’m curious about that too. Little things matter. In a club fit, if the data is really good with these, that’s what matters, and it’s an awesome collab between the companies. Could solve the big issue, and end up being huge.
On the other end, some ball loyalists (other brands) won’t love it I’m sure in their fittings. The whole ‘bring the ball you play thing’ takes a hit. And so do ball fittings. That pretty much goes out the window.
That’s what I took away from this the most, it’s a smoothed over admission that there were some very real, very consistent, issues indoors.
Good point on the other loyalist but this could provide a useful Baseline for Trackman and other dopler fitters to gauge the numbers more accurately and less tedious in there efforts.
For the price you can’t go wrong with a Skytrak. They just released an update that accounts for spin decay so even more accurate now.
I dont think they take all that much of a hit, you can still do all those things, just not with the the 99% read rate. Plus, most use Titleist anyway, right or wrong.
But this is genius by them. Now every trackman based hitting bay or fitter will be using primarily Titleist balls to fit. Meaning, here is your fit based on a Titleist ball. You want your performance to match. Go buy Titleist balls.
Genius.
I mean, sort of.. If used by retailers and fitters, it impacts a LOT of people, right?
It’s also interesting that Trackman has the willingness to admit their shortcomings by creating and promoting this, while others can get away with using their ‘gamer’ balls with maintained accuracy.
Love the intro.
Depends on how many use Trackman vs Foresight. Plus, the minority are still those who go get fit or play in indoor leagues etc