It’s no secret that Titleist has an extensive lineup of golf balls, including their CPO (Custom Performance Option) options that have led countless players to victory, including last week’s winner JT Poston. They also develop more value-oriented performance golf balls in the Tour Soft, Velocity, and TruFeel golf ball lines. Recently, they’ve added more AIM (Alignment Integrated Marking) options to the value lineup of golf balls bringing their total AIM offering count to six.
Titleist says that in their testing players using a Titleist AIM offering are 35% more precise in aligning their putts to the intended path of the putt. That can be the difference between a tricky 8-footer going into the hole and lipping out to miss a par save.
“Interestingly, AIM is more valuable as you get farther from the hole,” said Frederick Waddell, Director of Golf Ball Product Management. “On a four-foot putt, you might be okay lining up your ball with a standard sidestamp because it’s such a short putt. But as you go back to 12 feet or 16 feet, you could be off by up to a foot on either side of the hole as that dispersion cone gets wider. The data really illustrates that, for golfers who like a form of alignment on their ball, our AIM designs can help them be more precise on the greens.”
Titleist ran a test with a group of golfers to determine not only which alignment markings performed the best, but to also compare them to a standard side stamp that you see on every production run golf ball. Since over 60% of Titleist tour staffers utilize some form of alignment marking, there had to be a reason why. When put through a series of alignment prompts, their group of golfers saw a 35% increase in precision when aligning their golf ball to the intended target. By measuring consistency of alignment from left-to-right variability, Titleist discovered what markings were more applicable to golfers that would be playing the different types of golf balls. In general, the ProV1 user stick to their performance alignment, a solid elongated line on the ball, or a more straight forward enhanced alignment that provides three tight lines.
The value offerings feature larger AIM offerings that provide a bit more help for the golfer who’s likely going to be buying the product. Their AIM 360 is on the new TruFeel, which is Titleist’s softest golf ball. The AIM Performance Line on the new Tour Soft, a ball aimed to maintain performance at a lower cost, also comes in a couple of different colors. Finally, the larger ‘arrow’ design of the AIM Performance comes as an option on the new Titleist Velocity, a golf ball that’s meant for players who are prioritizing distance in their game. There’s also a new AIM 360 offering on Titleist’s ultimate spin killer; the Titleist AVX.
Understanding what works best for your game is crucial, and you can hear GOLF gear director Johnny Wunder and I talk about the importance of finding the right golf ball almost every week on the Fully Equipped podcast. Not only is finding the right performance critical, but making sure that you have confidence in aligning your ball on the green is a factor not to be overlooked.
