For the best players in the world, the testing process for new equipment can be rigorous. In order to make it to the first tee Thursday, new additions to the bag must check all the boxes – and prove they’re better.
In the days leading up to the Farmers Insurance Open, Max Homa made a key change to his equipment that impacted every single shot: His golf ball.
Before heading to Torrey Pines, Homa went to the Titleist Performance Institute in nearby Oceanside, where he worked with Titleist’s Director of Player Promotions, J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, and his swing coach, Mark Blackburn, to ensure his setup was dialed in for the upcoming stretch.
It was during this session that Homa began testing the 2023 Pro V1 golf ball, putting the new model through its paces from wedges to driver.
Advanced core technologies in NEW Pro V1 help lower long game spin without sacrificing short game spin, something that caught Homa’s eye as he looked to decrease his driver spin numbers.
“With ’23 Pro V1 we saw Max’s ball speed jump a little bit off the driver with lower spin,” Van Wezenbeeck said.
With demanding tour setups requiring high-flying approaches that stop quickly on firm greens, however, the group started to focus in on the spin rates and performance with his longer irons.
As Homa detailed to Jonathan Wall last week on GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast, 2023 Pro V1 allowed him to hit a higher, more stable ball with his long irons with the stopping power required to hit it close.
“It was flying great,” Van Wezenbeeck said. “He was even more consistent with his irons and the short game performance was as good as ever.”
But there was still one final box to check. Would the performance at TPI carry over to the golf course?
Homa took a box of NEW Pro V1’s out for a casual nine-hole round with his caddie Joe and friends at Rancho Santa Fe Country Club.
“I wasn’t thinking much about the golf ball really, and then all of a sudden I got to [hole] 8 and I had like 230 way up a hill, front pin, and I hit this big high 4 iron and I stopped it real fast,” Homa told Wall. “And I looked at Joe and I was like, ‘OK.’ […] I called J.J. and I said, ‘Hey I’m going to use the golf ball.’”
On Thursday at Torrey Pines, Homa teed up his NEW Pro V1 golf ball for the first time in competition. Over the next 72 holes, he put on a ballstriking clinic, leading the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (+10.620) on his way to collecting his sixth PGA TOUR victory.
During Saturday’s final round, Homa was trailing by a shot when he stepped to the tee at the 227-yard par-3 16th, the most difficult hole of the day which was playing almost a half-stroke over par. There had been just one birdie made there the entire round.
Homa pulled his T100•S 4-iron. He took aim, then watched his 2023 Pro V1 fly toward the flagstick, stopping just 15 feet from the cup. It was the closest approach of the day on No. 16. He made the putt to get to 12 under, securing what would prove to be the clinching birdie.
Five holes earlier, on the 216-yard par-3 11th, Homa hit the same 4-iron to 12 feet, 8 inches and rolled in the birdie putt.
Over the three rounds on Torrey’s South Course, Homa gained more than eight shots (+8.387) on the field with his approach shots, better than anyone else in the field.
“Lo and behold, I hit two of the best 4-irons of my life on 11 and 16 on the final round...,” Homa said on the podcast. “But when I was done I was like, ‘Dang, that’s pretty cool to see that you could throw the golf ball in.’ I hit one on 11 where I threw it as high as I could with spin. And then on 16 I wanted one to be flat and get through the wind a little bit. I don’t know, that was great.”
As for the ball Homa rolled in on the 18th green for his two-shot win? That NEW Pro V1 is saved for someone special.
“This one was legitimately the first time I saved a ball at the end because it was my first time winning a golf tournament as a dad, so I just saved the ball and put a little note on it. My son’s name is Cam so I wrote ‘number 6 for Cam,’” he said in the interview.
Read more about Homa’s Pro V1 + T100•S combo that delivered his 16th hole birdie here.
Check out Homa’s full WITB here