2020-2021 Season Recap: The World's Best Players Trust Titleist

By Zack R., Team Titleist Staff On 8 September 2021 Balls Tour Clubs

When it came to competing on golf’s biggest stages, the world’s best players overwhelmingly chose Titleist.

There were 50 events played this season on the 2020-21 PGA Tour, the most since 1975. Over those 50, a total of 641 players competed in at least one event, with over 80% of them putting at least one piece of Titleist equipment in play.

Among them was the FedEx Cup Champion, Patrick Cantlay, who trusted a Titleist Pro V1x golf ball and 14 Titleist golf clubs to a TOUR-leading four victories, including the season-ending BMW and TOUR championships. All added up, Cantlay earned $4,401 per shot this season (more than $22 million).

Titleist was the most played golf ball, driver, hybrid, utility iron, iron, wedge and putter this season on the PGA TOUR, where more winners used a Titleist equipment than any other brand.

At five events – The Genesis Invitational, Charles Schwab Challenge, The Memorial Tournament, Rocket Mortgage Classic and John Deere Classic – Titleist swept every major equipment category (golf balls, drivers, fairways, hybrids, utility irons, wedges and putters), a feat that has never been matched by another brand. Since 2019, Titleist has topped every equipment category at 23 events.

GOLF BALLS

  • Titleist golf balls were played 4,686 times this season on the PGA TOUR, more than eight times the nearest competitor with 557, with nearly three out of every four golf balls in play at each TOUR event (more than 71%) bearing the Titleist script.
  • Over the season’s 50 events, a total of 475 different players trusted their success to a Titleist golf ball, compared to 58 for the nearest competitor.
  • And those 475 players – including Sungjae Im, who broke the PGA TOUR record with 498 birdies this season – combined for 49,800 total birdies or better. Titleist golf ball players ended the season a combined 5,242 strokes under par.
  • Thirty-six events were won this season playing either a Titleist Pro V1, Pro V1x, Pro V1x Left Dash or Pro V1 Left Dot golf ball, compared to five wins for the nearest competitor’s models. That includes four-time winner Patrick Cantlay (Pro V1x), as well as two-time winners Harris English (Pro V1), Stewart Cink (Pro V1x) and Jason Kokrak. 
  • Cantlay (Pro V1x), Justin Thomas (Pro V1x), Paul Casey (Pro V1), Viktor Hovland (Pro V1x) and Will Zalatoris (Pro V1x) all finished among the TOUR’s top 10 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green.
  • Thomas, who switched to the 2021 Pro V1x model, became the first PLAYERS champion in 21 years to hit 17 greens in regulation in the final round. “Probably one of the best rounds of my life tee to green, I had total control of the ball,” he said.
    • Said Thomas on his new golf ball: “I feel like (the new Pro V1x) is able to kind of pick up on some of the areas that I was trying to improve in terms of I was trying to get a little bit more height on the ball, trying to be able to hold greens a little bit better when they get firm or with long irons, and I feel like this ball has been able to do that for me.”

  • Cantlay topped led the TOUR in Scrambling (the percent of time a player misses the green in regulation, but still makes par or better) at 67.3 percent, 9.4% better than the TOUR average. In fact, every player in the Top 19 in Scrambling on TOUR played a Titleist golf ball.
  • Titleist golf balls also led the way in Hole-Outs from off the green or fringe, with Titleist golf ball players occupying all of the Top 14 positions in that category. Troy Merritt (Pro V1) and K.H. Lee (Pro V1x) tied for first with 24 hole-outs apiece, while Jordan Spieth (Pro V1x), Tony Finau (Pro V1 Left Dot) and Kevin Na (Pro V1x) tied for third with 22 each.

DRIVERS

  • Titleist was the most played driver on the 2020-21 PGA TOUR with 1,980 players teeing up a Titleist driver, compared to 1,336 for the nearest competitor.
  • A total of 229 players teed up a Titleist driver in a TOUR event this season – combining for approximately 18.58 million yards of drives for the the season. That’s longer than travelling back-and-forth from Titleist’s Manchester Lane Test Facility in Acushnet, Mass., to the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, Calif. – twice!
  • Titleist was the winningest driver on TOUR this season with 15 victories, while Titleist driver players combined to win a total of $117,599,430, over $30 million more than the nearest competitor.
  • Titleist TSi3 was overwhelmingly the most played driver model this season on TOUR. TSi3 drivers were put in play 1,254 times this season, more than double the nearest competitive model.
  • That includes the World’s 22nd ranked player, who switched to TSi3 from a competitive model.
  • “I put a new driver in, and I don’t often talk about equipment, but I put a Titleist driver in the bag,” he said. “I feel like I’m driving the golf ball like I did when I was playing my best golf, when I was 3 in the world or whatever, and that’s — I feel like this rejuvenation.”
  • Titleist TSi drivers were also the #1 choice of players who qualified for the 2020-21 PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs, with 36 players teeing up a TSi2, TSi3 or TSi4 model. That list includes Justin Thomas (TSi2), Jordan Spieth (TSi2), Cam Smith (TSi3), Max Homa (TSi3), Adam Scott (TSi4), Sungjae Im (TSi2) and the World’s 22nd, 26th and 28th-ranked players (who all play TSi3).

HYBRIDS & UTILITIES

  • Titleist continues to be the most played hybrid and utility iron on the PGA TOUR. Titleist hybrids were played a total of 979 times this season, compared to 725 for the nearest competitor. There were more than double the amount of Titleist utility irons (1,197) in play than the nearest competitor (506).

IRONS

  • Titleist is the longstanding #1iron on the PGA TOUR, and the 2020-21 season was no different. Players put Titleist irons in play 1,880 times, compared to 1,090 for the nearest competitor. Titleist irons were also in the bags of 12 winners this season, tied for the most wins of any brand. 
  • T100 models – the choice of players like Jordan Spieth, Cam Smith and Will Zalatoris — were the most played iron model on TOUR this season.
  • “I don’t understand why you’d play any other iron to be honest,” said Spieth, who switched to the new T100’s in his first opportunity. “I joke around, ‘I’m not good enough to play the blades,’ but in reality, I think we’re just being smarter. I think we’re just like, ‘Oh, we can actually hit every shot that a blade can hit.’ But that chance that we mishit them – which we’re going to mishit a few shots in a round, even in a great round, the idea that it does carry that bunker and you make birdie on a hole where someone has to get up and down for par – I mean, it could be the difference in a tournament.”
  • Spieth gained seven times more strokes with approach shots (+27.01) than last season, while averaging 1.6 more greens in regulation hit per 72 holes. He was 49-under-par when 125-175 yards away in fairway this season – a 35-shot improvement over 2019-20. 

WEDGES

  • Vokey Design wedges were the most played wedges this season on the PGA TOUR, as they have been since 2004 and counting, with nearly three times as many Vokeys in play (9,424) as the nearest competitor (2,545).
  • Thirty winners this season had at least one Vokey Design wedge in their bag, including the winner of the Open Championship. The gold medal winner in Tokyo – currently ranked 5th in the World – also plays Vokey wedges.
  • The leader in Strokes Gained: Around the Green (+.702) played a Vokey wedge and Pro V1x golf ball. Six other Vokey players including Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Ian Poulter and Webb Simpson finished in the category’s top 10.
  • The leaders in Scrambling (Cantlay) and Sand Save percentage (The 2017 & 2018 U.S. Open Champion) were Vokey wedge players. The Olympic gold medalist, who ranked second in sand saves, also plays Vokey wedges. 
  • A Vokey wedge was in the bag of the 2021 Open Champion, who also led the TOUR in proximity to hole from 20-30 yards (6 feet, 10 inches).
  • A trio of Vokey wedge players, including Webb Simpson, led the TOUR in proximity to hole from 10-20 yards (5 feet, 7 inches).

PUTTERS 

  • Scotty Cameron putters were used to win 18 TOUR events on the 2020-21 PGA TOUR, six more than the nearest competitor (12).
  • Patrick Cantlay, the FedEx Cup champion, recorded the TOUR’s all-time putting performance at the BMW Championship with his Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5 tour prototype putter. Cantlay gained more strokes putting (+14.6) than any player in a single tournament since they began tracking the statistic in 2004. He made 537 feet of putts over the 72 holes of regulation, the longest of any player on the PGA TOUR this season by a margin of 30 feet. Cantlay added another 33 feet, 6 inches of putts in the playoff, putting him over 570 feet (longer than 1 ½ football fields) for the week. 
  • At the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Cam Smith tied the TOUR record for fewest putts in a round (18) during his second-round 62 using his Scotty Cameron 009M tour prototype.

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