Scottie Scheffler Trusts His Pro V1 to Win THE PLAYERS Championship and Return to World No. 1

By Zack R., Team Titleist Staff On 13 March 2023 Balls Tour Clubs

PGA TOUR | THE PLAYERS Championship

In total control of his Pro V1 golf ball throughout the week at the daunting TPC Sawgrass, Scottie Scheffler became just the fourth champion in PLAYERS Championship history to post all four rounds in the 60’s (68-69-65-69), while gaining more strokes on the field tee to green (+17.167) than any other PLAYERS champion in the ShotLink era.

  • Scheffler’s 17 under total earned him a runaway five-shot victory and his sixth career PGA TOUR title, each of them in the last 13 months and with his Pro V1 golf ball.
  • Along with his record-breaking Strokes Gained: Tee to Green performance, Scheffler led the field in both Greens in Regulation (75%) and Driving Distance (305.9 yards).
  • He gained over seven shots on the field with his approach play (+7.59) and over five shots on the field around the green (+5.039), both ranking 4th for the week.
  • He was also 4th in Scrambling, getting up-and-down 72% of the time, and he used his Pro V1 to hole out twice over the weekend – once for eagle on Saturday from 61 feet on the par-5 2nd hole and once for birdie on Sunday from 34 feet on the par-3 8th hole.
  • The birdie on No. 8 Sunday kickstarted five birdies in a row from Nos. 8-12, helping him pull away from the chasing pack.
  • With the win, Scheffler became just the third player in history to hold The Masters and THE PLAYERS Championship titles at the same time, and he returned to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

SCHEFFLER ON THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS PRO V1

  • Scottie Scheffler has always relied on the performance and consistency of Titleist, having trusted the #1 ball in golf from his 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur victory, through his All-American career at Texas and on every shot he’s hit on the PGA TOUR.
  • “It was the best ball when I was introduced to it,” Scheffler said. “Everybody wanted to play Titleist and still to this day I feel like everybody wants to play Titleist and you see the consistency over time.”
  • On the performance of his Pro V1: “I feel like you’re always playing a different type of shot. Rarely am I just hitting a straight up stock shot, you’re always trying to do a little something with the golf ball. And so having that consistency and knowing that golf ball's going to react the way I need it to react when it comes off the face and when it goes into the green – especially when you get in a Tour setup where the greens are crazy firm, the wind is blowing – you got to have total control over where that golf ball is going to go. I feel like I’ve gotten that consistency with the Titleist ball over the years, and I really trust how it reacts.
    “U.S Open set up is a good example. When it gets really firm, it’s tough. It’s firm and windy and so you can’t necessarily always be hitting like these really, really low shots because you also have to get the ball to stop on the green. So, it gets really complicated with the wind and all these different things. If the pin’s in the back right and the wind’s in off the right, I’m probably going to be trying to take spin off the ball and get it to funnel towards the pin. But if it’s in the front, maybe it’s super windy, I’m hitting more of a lower, spinnier type shot so we can actually stop near the pin. And so having that consistency in the golf ball and knowing that when I strike it properly, the golf ball’s going to do what I need it to do is really, really important.”
  • On his golf ball testing process: “First thing I’ll always do is take them to the short game area. For me, that’s always the most important. From there I’ll go to the range and just look at numbers, carry, stuff like that. From there, I’ll go out on the course and just start hitting shots. So same thing I do in the short game area, have a few of my ball, have a few of the new ball and just try and hit the same shot and see how the ball reacts, see what it does in the wind and just go from there.”
    “One shot that I’m always practicing is when I take some off of it. I need to see that it’s still the same (distance) gaps between my full shot and when I’m taking some off of it. When I’m practicing on the driving range, if I have a little mishit or if a shot doesn’t feel right...I usually have a really good feel for how far it actually carried. If my stock wedge is 140 and I’m trying to hit it 135, and maybe I catch a little bit off and I’m like, ‘man that really feels like 132,’ if it goes that distance, that’s really important to me. And that gives me a lot of faith in what that golf ball’s going to do.”  

TITLEIST GOLF BALL PLAYERS FINISH 1-2-3-4 AT PLAYERS

Titleist was the #1 ball at THE PLAYERS with 99 players, five times the nearest competitor, including each of the top four finishers on the final leader board

1. Scottie Scheffler (Pro V1)
2. Tyrrell Hatton (Pro V1x)
T3. Viktor Hovland (Pro V1)
T3. Tom Hoge (Pro V1 Left Dot)

In fact, 10 of the 12 players who finished among the Top 10 and ties teed up a Pro V1 or Pro V1x model.

THE CHAMPION’S WINNING WEDGES

  • The 2023 PLAYERS Champion trusted three Vokey Design wedges for his scoring clubs – including the Vokey SM9 WedgeWorks 60T lob wedge he used to hole out for birdie Sunday from a short-sided lie 34 feet away from the pin on the par-3 8th.
  • He also got up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 9th and par-4 12th holes from 35 yards and 21 yards, respectively.
  • One of the champion’s shots of the tournament came early in Saturday’s second round, when he holed out for eagle on the par-5 2nd from 61 feet with a deft short-side pitch shot out of the deep rough.
  • For the week, he ranked 4th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green (+5.039) and Scrambling (72%).
  • The winner trusted the same wedge set-up – SM8 50.12F & 56.14F and SM9 WedgeWorks 60T – to win the WM Phoenix Open just four weeks ago and has used three Vokey Design wedges in each of his six career victories on TOUR.

WINNER’S KEY PUTTS WITH SCOTTY CAMERON PUTTER

  • The PLAYERS Champion also gamed a Scotty Cameron Tourtype Special Select Timeless GSS tour prototype putter, which he used to roll in a 20-foot, 10-inch par putt on the 72nd hole to seal his five-shot victory.
  • The putter is the same flatstick he trusted to victory last month at the WM Phoenix Open and the same model that saw him win four times in 2022 but with a flatter lie angle.
  • The winner began his final nine holes by rolling in an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 10 to extend his advantage, which he built on with two more birdies on Nos. 11 and 12.
  • For the week, the winner recorded zero 3-putts, and he ranks 4th in 3-putt avoidance for the 2022-23 season (1.04%).

DP WORLD TOUR | Magical Kenya Open

Jorge Campillo (Pro V1) claimed his third career DP World Tour victory, posting 18 under to win by a two-shot margin.

  • The Spaniard closed with a final round 66, capping off a week with four rounds in the 60’s (69-68-63-66).
  • Campillo put on a ball striking display at Muthaiga GC, finishing 2nd in Greens in Regulation (82%) and 5th in Strokes Gained: Approach (+2.12 per round).
  • He also ranked 3rd in Driving Accuracy (71%) and 9th in Scrambling (77%).

ASIAN TOUR | International Series Thailand

Titleist Brand Ambassador Wade Ormsby made birdie on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to claim his fourth-career Asian Tour title.

  • The Australian shot a final round 7-under 65 to reach 20 under and force extra holes, closing out the tournament by holing a 12-foot birdie putt on his second go-around on the par-5 18th.
  • Nine of the 11 players finishing among the top 10 and ties teed up a Titleist golf ball for the week.

SUNSHINE TOUR | Mediclinic Invitational

Stefan Wears-Taylor (Pro V1x) earned his first career victory on the Sunshine Tour after posting 25 under to win by one shot on his home golf course, Centurion Country Club.

  • Wears-Taylor recorded rounds of 63-64 (17 under) over the weekend to vault up the leader board, which featured Titleist ball players finishing 1-2-3-4 at the tournament’s end.
  • “I didn’t even know what I was on in terms of score,” said Wears-Taylor. “I was just sticking to my gameplan. Being my home course. I’ve got a good idea of where I want to hit it. So, my focus was to just stick to the process and play the best golf I can, and to make good decisions and commit to them. But yes, for me to be able to shoot 17-under for the weekend is very pleasing.”

PGA TOUR AUSTRALASIA | NZ PGA Championship

Titleist Brand Ambassador Louis Dobbelaar (Pro V1) claimed his first professional victory, winning by three shots after posting 20 under for the week.

  • Dobbelaar was the only player to shoot all four rounds in the 60’s for the week at Gulf Harbour Country Club (66-67-66-69).
  • Eight of the top nine finishers on the final leader board had a Titleist golf ball in play for the week.

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