©Titleist Golf

Spin: High

Dimples: 346 Proprietary Dimple Design

Compression: Mid

Category Comparison: Tour

Spec: (Three) 3 Piece / Layers

Cover: Urethane MTR Cover System

Core: high speed core construction and specialized casing layer

Price: $39.99

Titleist takes the world by storm With new EXP-01 golf ball. Titleist is arguably the most well-known company in golf today, and their latest EXP-01 golf ball is the stuff dreams are made of. We are only exaggerating a bit for dramatic effect, but truth be told, the new golf ball from Titleist is exceptional in more ways than one: basically, the EXP-01 is crafted to offer “normie golfers” the prototype testing experience which until now was exclusive to pro-golfers. And by prototype balls, we refer to a blank white-box of Titleist prototypes, which are the equivalent of the best box of chocolates for Tour pros.

©Titleist Golf

So, what has been until now a real treat for golf elites, i.e. the heart-racing experience of playing for the first time with a prototype golf ball is now available to the avid masses of consumers in North America, also known as El Norte. Starting with October first, the first batches of EXP-01 were launched at select retailers and pro shops, and if you’re not accustomed to the white-box thing, here’s the rundown: Titleist, which is arguably the world leader in golf balls, is a company that constantly innovates and tests its products/prototypes in R&D projects. And speaking of research and development, in order to get the best feedback possible, Titleist tests its prototypes with both amateurs and professionals alike, i.e. with golfers of all skill levels.

So, if you want to become part of the “white box prototype testing process” you have 2 options: either you’re a Tour pro, and in this case Titleist will beg you to test their new golf balls, or you become part of Team Titleist, the next best thing since sliced bread (or so we’ve heard), where you can opt in to give feedback (after testing) directly to the company on sample sleeves. Now, getting back to the brand spanking new EXP-01, Titleist kept everything under wraps and it’s still very secretive when it comes to the exact specs of the golf ball, but they have a good reason for being very hush-hush: they want the general public, and by that we mean you dear reader, to provide them with as much unbiased feedback as humanly possible, and also, very importantly, to begin the testing process with an open mind. The EXP-01 was launched initially as a limited release of sorts, and that’s pretty much the exact same way Titleist launched their hugely popular AVX: small batches for testing first, followed by a full release after feedback was given and analyzed. Here’s from Titleist themselves:

©Titleist Golf

“EXP•01 is being released as part of the Titleist EXP Project, a new and ongoing initiative created to provide golfers the opportunity to experience new golf ball technologies still in the experimental phase. The Titleist R&D and Golf Ball Product Management teams will be actively seeking performance feedback from golfers who play EXP•01 during its availability.”

The new golf ball from Titleist marks a new approach from the company, in more-or-less the same way like they did it with the Concept Series, but sans the hefty price tag, i.e. you won’t have to pay premium prices for a premium product. At least for now, stay tuned. Why are they doing that, you asked? Well, first things first, Titleist tries to understand how new tech works in the hand of regular golfers, and that’s why they are looking to get unbiased performance feedback from “average Joe Six-pack”. Also, giving golfers of all skill levels a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to test a premium product at a fraction of the “Real price” is a clever marketing strategy, i.e. Titleist is trying to win the hearts and minds of potential customers, who knows?

Retailing at $39,99 a dozen, the new Titleist EXP-01 costs approximately the same as the Titleist Tour Soft ball, one dollar less to be exact. However, the EXP-01 comes with an obvious advantage over the Tour Soft, and we’re talking about the former’s urethane cover. Judging from what we know so far, it seems like Titleist is trying to position their new premium golf ball right under their current $47.99 ProV1 and AVX line (in regard to pricing at least), i.e. this is going to be a new high quality urethane ball, or a line extension of the company’s premium line. Here’s Michael Mahoney, Vice President, Golf Ball Marketing, Titleist, commenting about their new prototype:

©Titleist Golf

“We want the EXP-01 to be the first of many opportunities for us to work directly with consumers to not only gain personal feedback but also provide golfers with the chance to be a part of the decision making process. The EXP Project invites golfers into the early stages of our R&D process and allows us to broadly test experimental materials, constructions and processes that could be integrated into any segment of our golf ball line. EXP•01 is truly an exploratory product and there’s no better way to evaluate our progress than getting it into the hands of dedicated golfers.”

Furthermore, the message reads: “We will not be providing full details of the product design as we do not want to influence the performance of this product,”

However, even if we don’t know the exact tech specs of the EXP-01, we can make some educated guesses about the new ball based on what we know so far: first, since we’re talking urethane golf ball, it’s pretty obvious that the new ball from Titleist is going to offer improved greenside spin, and we also know that the EXP-01 features a 3-piece construction. The thing is, there are not many urethane covered golf balls featuring this particular design which aren’t built to maximize performance from tee to green, so it’s going to be one hell of a ride testing these new ones. Moreover, there’s the MTR cover system. Since this is something brand new and Titleist didn’t bother to explain what the acronym means, we must infer this is a new technology which is now in “real life tests”, and it’s about enhancing short game control and spin.

To sum things up, when you’re buying the new EXP-01, you’re not only getting a premium golf ball, but you’re part of a social experiment of sorts, and it needs to be told that convincing people to pay actual money for experimental products is a novel and brilliant concept. Basically, this is a consumer research project in which participants must pay if they want to be part of.

– Compression Video

– Spin Video

– Dimples Video

– Golf Ball Brands Video

– Titleist Video

– Understanding Spin Video