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Posted: December 31, 2012
U.S. Open? Check.
Most important shot of your life? Check.
One of the worst lies you’ve ever seen? Unfortunately, double-check.
This sets the stage for Titleist Brand Ambassador Webb Simpson and his most memorable shot of 2012. As most Tour Players know, there is nothing like the pressure that comes along with playing in a major championship and when it’s the U.S. Open – they know the conditions are going to be extremely difficult on a good day.
In the penultimate group, Webb put on a show of skill, nerves and determination during the final 18 holes at the Olympic Club. After making birdies on holes 6, 7, 8 and 10, he moved into contention and came to the 72nd hole needing Par or better to finish with the clubhouse lead.
After a solid drive, his approach shot landed just off the green but when he made it greenside, he found his Pro V1x in a rather tricky lie that would set up a difficult up and down.
“I get up there and the lie is so unique. It’s an old drain but there is no drain cover under it. It’s just dead grass,” said Simpson. “The most important shot of my life I’m facing and it’s one of the worst lies I’ve ever seen.”
So what was Webb thinking? He just wanted to keep it simple.
“If I execute the technique right on my chip and I land it in this area, about a three foot area it’s going to be good.”
It was really good. One chip and a putt later, Webb was in the clubhouse with the lead and, with his wife by his side, watching the final group come in. After the last putt dropped, nobody was able to match Webb’s score and he was now able to add U.S. Open Champion to his resume.
Hear what Webb had to say in the video above and check out some more of our Team Titleist Shots of the Year below.
Team Titleist Shots of the Year: Louis Oosthuizen Edition
Team Titleist Shots of the Year: Rickie Fowler Edition
Team Titleist Shots of the Year: Jason Dufner Edition
Team Titleist Shots of the Year: Zach Johnson Edition
Posted: December 20, 2012
Titleist Brand Ambassador Zach Johnson's victory at John Deere Classic turned out to be anything but routine.
After four rounds of solid play at TPC Deere Run, Zach, the local favorite, found himself in a playoff with fellow Pro V1x loyalist Troy Matteson. On the first playoff hole, both players found the water and ended up making bogeys to force another hole of sudden death.
While Troy found the middle of the fairway with his tee shot, Zach ended up in a fairway bunker with 195 yards left to the hole.
“I hit a 6-iron, just a good full backswing with an abbreviated follow through. And just tried to get down on the golf ball,” said Johnson. "It landed middle of the green, maybe towards the back third… and released obviously quite a ways after it ricocheted off the bank.”
Once his Pro V1x settled, Zach sent his putt to the bottom of the cup to capture the title and cap his most memorable shot of 2012.
“When you had to execute a shot in a difficult circumstance, especially when your opponent is in the middle of the fairway. That’s the one that stands out,” said Johnson.
Watch the above video to hear Zach’s take on the shot.
Stay tuned for our next installment of the Team Titleist 2012 Shots of the Year and check out some of the earlier highlights below.
Posted: December 17, 2012
As we continue to inch closer to the end of the year, players across the worldwide professional tours are still grinding out wins and putting together some impressive rounds of golf. This past weekend featured a breakout win for Titleist Brand Ambassador Daniel Popovic at the Australian PGA Championship along with Angel Cabrera's stellar victory with the new Pro V1x prototype golf ball on his home soil at the Visa Open de Argentina.
And on the Asian Tour, Pro V1x loyalist Thaworn Wiratchant secured the Asian Tour's Order of Merit for the second time in his career.
Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x players have now won 190 times across the worldwide professional tours in 2012, more than seven times the nearest competitor with 25 and more than all competitors combined.
ONEASIA/AUSTRALASIAN (CO-SANCTIONED): Titleist Brand Ambassador Daniel Popovic (Pro V1) won the Australian PGA Championship for his first professional victory. Popovic closed with consecutive 3-under par 69's en route to a 16-under 272 victory total, four shots clear of two players, including Pro V1x loyalist Anthony Brown. A rookie, Popovic was the medalist at last year's qualifying school.
What's in Daniel Popovic's Bag?
Golf Ball: Pro V1Driver: 913D2 driver (9.5º)Fairway: 913F fairway metal (15º)Irons: AP2 irons (3-9)Wedges: Vokey Design pitching (48º), gap (54º) and lob (60º) wedges
Thirteen of the 16 players who finished among the top 10 and ties at the event relied upon a Titleist golf ball for their success.
Titleist was the top choice in the golf ball category with 120 players in the field of 156, more than seven times the nearest competitor with 17. Titleist was also the field favorite in the iron (84) and sand, lob and approach wedge (219) categories.
• • •
PGA TOUR LATINOAMÉRICA: Two-time major champion Angel Cabrera captured the season-ending 107 Visa Open de Argentina by four shots relying upon the new Titleist Pro V1x prototype golf ball. Cabrera closed with an 8-under par 64 en route to an 18-under par 270 victory total.
Also finding immediate success with the new Pro V1x prototype was Miguel Carballo, who tied for second with Oscar Fraustro (Pro V1x), giving Titleist golf ball loyalists the top three positions on the leaderboard.
Titleist was the top choice in the golf ball category with an overwhelming 125 players in the field of 144, nearly nine times the nearest competitor with 14.
Cabrera becomes the fourth player to win with a new Titleist Pro V1 or Pro Vx prototype golf ball since the seeding process began on the PGA TOUR in October. He joins Adam Scott (Australian Masters), Luke Donald (Dunlop Phoenix) and Hiroyuki Fujita (Japan Series JT Cup) in the new golf ball winners’ circle.
ASIAN TOUR: At the weather-shortened Iskandar Johor Open in Johor, Malaysia, Titleist Brand Ambassador Jonathan Moore fired a final round 61 to finish alone in second place at 15-under. Moore’s fantastic finish saw him jump into the top ten on the Asian Tour's Order of Merit.
Thaworn Wiratchant (Pro V1x) earned the Asian Tour's Order of Merit for the second time in his career after finishing with a 7-under-par 65 to tie for fifth place. He first won the tour's Order of Merit in 2005.
Titleist was the top choice in the golf ball category with 71 players in the field of 120, more than three times the nearest competitor with 20. Titleist was also the field favorite in the iron (31) and sand, lob and approach wedge (95) categories.
Seven of the top 10 finishers relied upon a Titleist golf ball for their success at the Asian Tour’s season-ending event.
EUROPEAN TOUR: At the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, Titleist was the clear choice of more players in the field of 156 in the golf ball category with 108, six times the nearest competitor with 18.
Posted: December 6, 2012
First contested in 1904, the Australian Open is one of the oldest and most prestigious events across the worldwide professional tours. The list of winners on the Stonehaven Cup is a who's who of some of the most prolific names in the history of golf.
The tournament is also near and dear to a contingent of Australian golfers who are now members of the PGA and European Tours, but annually return to their roots to compete for their national championship.
Team Titleist caught up with six former champions who are participating this week, including each of the last three winners - Greg Chalmers (2011, 1998), Geoff Ogilvy (2010) and Adam Scott (2009) - all of whom just happen to be full product line Titleist Brand Ambassadors.
Check out the video above to see what they all had to say. Enjoy mate!
Posted: December 3, 2012
We've entered the final month of 2012 and while the season may be winding down for some golfers, there is still plenty of action going on around the worldwide professional tours as players look to move into 2013 with some winning momentum. This past weekend featured three wins for Titleist Brand Ambassadors and golf ball loyalists across two different continents.
The wins included a breakthrough performance from Titleist Brand Ambassador Arnond "Bank" Vongvanij, who trusted his Pro V1x and bag full of Titleist equipment to capture his first career win on the Asian Tour. The weekend also featured a stellar victory for Hiroyuki Fujita (pictured above) who carded a five-stroke victory at the Japan Series JT Cup trusting the new Titleist Pro V1 prototype golf ball and a playoff win by Pro V1x loyalist Sebastian Fernandez at the Colombian Coffee Classic on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica.
Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x players have now won 186 times across the worldwide professional tours in 2012, more than seven times the nearest competitor with 25 and more than all competitors combined.
ASIAN: With four top 10 finishes in 2012, Titleist Brand Ambassador Arnond "Bank" Vongvanij relied on his Pro V1x golf ball to capture the King's Cup in his native Thailand for his first career Asian Tour title. The 23-year-old rookie began Sunday three shots back, but closed with a bogey-free eight-under 64 to finish with a 22-under par 266 victory total.
"This win means a lot to me as I now have a two-year winner's exemption and I can focus on playing well at every tournament I take part in," said Vongvanij in an interview.
Vongvanij won by two shots over Thaworn Wiratchant (Pro V1x), and Mardan Mamat (Pro V1x), giving Titleist golf ball players the top three positions on the leaderboard and seven of the top 10. Wiratchant's second place finish places him atop the Order of Merit with two more events remaining on the 2012 Asian Tour schedule.
What’s in Arnond Vongvanij’s Titleist Bag?: Ball: Titleist Pro V1x Driver: Titleist 913D3 8.5º (Graphite Design Tour AD GT X) Fairway Metal: Titleist 913Fd 13.5º (Aldila RIP x), Titleist 910F 17º (Grafalloy Pro Launch Red x) Utility: Titleist 909H 21º (Aldila NV Hybrid s) Irons: Titleist CB 4-9 (TrueTemper Dynamic Gold SL s300) Wedge: Vokey Design Spin Milled CC 48º, Vokey Design SM4 54º & 60º Putter: Scotty Cameron Red X
Titleist was the most played golf ball at the 144-player event with 91 players, more than three times the nearest competitor. Titleist was also the top choice in iron sets with 34 and sand, lob and approach wedges with 90.
JAPAN GOLF TOUR: Trusting the new Titleist Pro V1 prototype golf ball, Hiroyuki Fujita never looked back on Sunday en-route to capturing the season-ending, limited-field Japan Series JT Cup. It was just the second event in which Fujita played the new golf ball in competition. He posted an 18-under par victory total, five shots clear of two players, including Titleist Brand Ambassador Toshinori Muto (Pro V1x). It marked the fourth victory of the year for Fujita, and the 15th of his 20-year JGTO career. The win also vaults Fujita to the top of the JGTO season-long money list.
Titleist Brand Ambassador K.T. Kim and Titleist golf ball loyalist Toru Taniguchi (Pro V1x), finished fourth and fifth place, respectively, as four of the top five finishers relied upon Titleist golf balls for their success.
Titleist was the most played golf ball at the limited-field event and was also the top choice in sand, lob and approach wedges.
AUSTRALASIAN: After a final round 69, Titleist Brand Ambassador Daniel Nisbet finished in solo second place at 12-under in the the NSW PGA Championship. One stroke behind Nisbet at 11-under was Nick Cullen who posted a final round 67.
Titleist was the most played golf ball at the event with 95 players trusting a Titleist golf ball.
PGA TOUR LATINOAMERICA: The winner of the Colombian Coffee Classic trusted his Pro V1x golf ball and made a birdie on the first playoff hole at Club Campestre de Cali, after both players finished regulation at nine-under 275.
Posted: November 16, 2012
The second you book a Titleist club fitting at Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti, Mich., you've proven you'll go the extra mile for your game.
That's all Brent Norton, a Titleist authorized fitter and Director of Custom Fitting at Miles of Golf, needs to know.
Step one: Commitment. Step two: Confidence.
"My job as a fitter," Norton says, "is to make sure first and foremost that a player has the best 14 clubs for his or her game."
In order to play your best and shoot lower scores, you need to be able to trust your equipment on each and every shot. Miles of Golf, one of five Titleist Regional Fitting Centers within the Titleist Fitting Network, specializes in building that trust, working with you to build a set composition that precisely fits your game.
"It's a well-oiled machine. We do fittings like teaching academies do lessons," says Norton, adding that Miles of Golf fits over 1,500 players a year, from higher handicap players to some of the best players in the Midwest. Norton says golfers have come from as far as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, for fittings.
"We don't have a big advertising budget, but our business keeps growing because of word of mouth," he say. "Playing with properly fit equipment is a huge performance advantage. That's not a secret."
Upon arrival at Miles of Golf for your Titleist fitting, it's off to the range to get in some warm-up swings with a bucket of Pro V1's.
Your next stop is The Cluboratory, which is exactly what it sounds like. A laboratory for your game.
Open year-round, The Cluboratory features four weather-protected fitting bays that allow players to hit out onto the range so ball flight can be observed and analyzed. The facility is stocked with Titleist's fitting tools and an extensive shaft matrix to provide a comprehensive, tour-level fitting. The Cluboratory also features top-notch fitting technology, including TrackMan launch monitors, that enables the fitters to confirm players are dialed-in to the right specs.
"We'll use numbers but it's definitely not the Holy Grail," Norton says. "It's more about taking the player's feedback and then backing it up with the science."
A session in The Cluboratory begins by recording the baseline numbers with your current equipment. From there, you'll work with the fitter to determine which club and shaft combinations feel and perform best, paying particular attention to distance, trajectory and yardage gaps. As part of its 27-acre practice facility, Miles of Golf also has a short-game facility with three greens and four bunkers where you can fine-tune your wedge setup.
Norton is one of nine fitters on the Miles of Golf staff that works in The Cluboratory, a place where fitting and learning goes hand-in-hand.
In the following Q&A, Brent Norton talks more about the club fitting experience at Miles of Golf and his path to becoming a club fitter:
TEAM TITLEIST: How did you get started in golf? Who introduced you to the game?
BRENT NORTON: Growing up in a golfing household, my father got me started in the game.
TT: What was it that first interested you in teaching and fitting? Did you have a mentor?
BN: Since my days as a former club professional, I have always loved tinkering with equipment and trying different combinations to get different results. Through this trial and error more and more questions came up and that’s how my passion continued to grow.
TT: You help make golfers better every day. What do you work on to become a better teacher and/or fitter?
BN: One of the things that makes us successful is to know what combinations work well (head/shaft) and what type of swing type works well with that combination. When we get new products in, all of the fitters will go out and spend a day gathering launch conditions data. We all know what our individual launch conditions are and we can use this info to help the fitting process.
TT: What's a typical work day like for you? What's happening behind the scenes that we might not realize?
BN: A typical day for me is no different from any other full time fitter. I arrive at work in the morning and try and get some e-mails answered. Our fitting schedule starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. We have three full-time bays dedicated to TrackMan fittings and another separate facility utilizing Foresight GC2’s. The hardest part of the job is managing an inventory level for two separate facilities on property with two distinctly different needs.
TT: How do you stay on top of your game?
BN: Having girls ages 8 and 10, my golf game has slowed down. In the summer I try to hit balls every day but that can’t make up for playing golf.
TT: Have you made any changes to your equipment setup lately? Are you a tinkerer?
BN: My weakness for tinkering is drivers! I am always looking to try different combinations to see how they perform.
TT: What's your favorite Titleist club in the bag?
BN: My Vokey wedges! All my wedges have my girls' names on them. Hitting a bad shot isn’t a big deal with that reminder on your clubs.
TT: How do you mark your Titleist golf ball?
BN: With a red line.
TT: Who fits you for your equipment?
BN: Anybody that works at Miles of Golf. We all have such a passion for helping people with equipment that we help each other out with our personal clubs.
A closer look at Miles of Golf (and The Cluboratory):
• 27-acre practice facility has over 100 tees (grass and synthetic mats) with 42 covered and heated bays for year-round use, a short-game area and two practice greens.
• The Cluboratory fitting center is open year-round and features four weather-protected fitting bays that allow players to hit out onto the range so ball flight can be observed and analyzed. Staff includes nine expert fitters.
• Technology available: TrackMan, Foresight GC2, SAM PuttLab and Quintic Ball Roll.
• 10,000 square-foot golf shop ranked in top 100 best golf shops in the country, according to Golf World magazine.
• The Kendall Academy, the largest golf academy in Michigan, has eight experienced PGA and LPGA professional instructors giving lessons year-round.
• Phone: (734) 973-9004
• Website: www.milesofgolf.com/
Titleist Regional Fitting Centers are located at Jim McLean Golf Center (Fort Worth, Texas); The Glen Club (Glenview, Ill.); Miles of Golf (Ypsilanti, Mich.); Sea Island Learning Center (St. Simons Island, Ga.) and Sleepy Hollow Country Club (Scarborough, N.Y.).To learn more about the Titleist Fitting Network and to find an authorized Titleist fitter in your area, please click here.