Many people don't realize the golf history that has unfolded on Las Vegas golf courses. In 1953, Al Besselink won the PGA Tour's inaugural Tournament of Champions that was played on the legendary Desert Inn golf course. In 1996, Tiger Woods won his first PGA Tour event at the Las Vegas Invitational that was played on three courses, Las Vegas National Golf Club, the Desert Inn and TPC Summerlin. But a little known Las Vegas historical nugget is that the new wave of golf ball–the Titleist Pro V1–was first played by PGA Tour pros at the 2000 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, and Billy Andrade fired five rounds in the 60's that year to be the first winner with the new-age ball.
The Titleist Pro V1 was introduced into the golf world under a cloud of secrecy. Leading up to the 2000 Las Vegas Golf PGA Tour event, rumors persisted about the new ball, and a lucky few had seen the prototypes.
But when 47 PGA Tour players used it during the Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, the flood gates were open, marking a huge shift in the golf ball market. "It (was) the largest pluralistic shift of equipment at one event in golf history," Titleist states on its website.
Several Las Vegas golf courses have hosted the PGA Tour over the years in Las Vegas including Las Vegas National Golf Club, TPC Canyons, TPC Summerlin, Spanish Trail Country Club, Bears Best Las Vegas and Las Vegas Country Club.
By December 2000, the first shipments of Titleist Pro V1 golf balls had arrived at pro shops, and the ball took a 5.6% market share very quickly.
Pro V1 golf balls, as of December 17, 2006, had been used in more than 900 worldwide pro golf titles. Other mind-boggling statistics include that 43% of golf ball dollars on course are spent on Titlest Pro V1 balls; the Pro V1 and Pro V1x had a larger market share than Bridgestone, Callaway, NIKE, TaylorMade, Top Flite and MaxFli combined in 2006 according to Golf Datatech; since 2000, more than 100,000 players, 900 wins and more than $1.6 billion dollars in earnings have been recorded across the worldwide golf tours with the Pro V1 golf ball models.
The latest in golf products and Pro V1 golf balls are available at the three Las Vegas Golf and Tennis locations in Las Vegas (Green Valley, Paradise, Rainbow). Call 702-892-9999 for exact locations.