Unofficial Review: Titleist Pro V1/V1x RCT Radar Optimized Golf Balls

[golfish!]

On 12/22/2021 at 6:46 AM, edingc said:

I'm still using the original ball I started my testing with back in November. The RCTs get a big positive mark in the durability category. I have not seen a significant reduction in ball speeds or anything like that.

As the cover has worn, and since the FlightScope firmware update, the estimated reads have gone up significantly, however. For example, from Sunday's session:

• Driver - 6/63 (9.5%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• 2 Hybrid - 2/7 (28.6%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• 4 Hybrid - 0/7 (0%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• 4 Utility - 6/18 (33.3%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• 6 Iron - 6/14 (42.9%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• 7 Iron - 5/8 (62.5%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• 9 Iron - 3/5 (60%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• Full 54 Wedge - 12/18 (66.6%) Balls captured Actual Spin
• Partial 54 Wedge - 3/14 (21.4%) Balls captured Actual Spin

Sunday's session was with the Mevo+ set 8 feet behind the ball on the concrete, on indoors mode, with about 13 feet of flight. Mevo+ was set to 18 degree tilt angle, and the ball height parameter was set to 2 inches since the Fiberbuilt Flightdeck I use is about 2 inches above the Mevo+. These settings seem to get accurate peak height and direction, but the lack of spin is a little concerning.

There does seem to be a cutoff at about 140 MPH ball speed where spin seems to be significantly more difficult for the Mevo+ to read. That's right between my 4 utility and 4 hybrid.

A good test will be for me to use a new RCT the next time out and pick a similar selection of clubs. Hoping to get out there sometime Thursday for another session.

You have 21 feet of space from the Mevo unit to the net? I must have missed the original post somewhere but are you in your garage or basement? Texas does not have basements lol so no luck for me. Also, turns out the new friend has a Skytrak so no RCT sleeve for him!

[edingc]

1 hour ago, golfish! said:

You have 21 feet of space from the Mevo unit to the net? I must have missed the original post somewhere but are you in your garage or basement? Texas does not have basements lol so no luck for me. Also, turns out the new friend has a Skytrak so no RCT sleeve for him!

Correct, 21 feet between the Mevo+ and the target. Eight feet from Mevo+ to ball. I'm lucky to have a 26 foot wide garage.

[golfish!]

14 minutes ago, edingc said:

Correct, 21 feet between the Mevo+ and the target. Eight feet from Mevo+ to ball. I'm lucky to have a 26 foot wide garage.

That is awesome! I already know that when I buy a house (currently renting) I will be looking at the garage and making sure I can get a full sim space in there lol

[ZMendle10]

Been following this topic for a while and my dozen of Pro V1 RCT's arrived last week. Anyone seeing any issues with durability at all? I'm guessing that I got around 1,500 shots in on one ball before it cracked on me. The cover also got torn up pretty quickly and knowing this I haven't been using it with my wedges to keep it from getting beaten up quicker. Not sure if this is a me problem or a ball problem.

[edingc]

1 hour ago, ZMendle10 said:

Been following this topic for a while and my dozen of Pro V1 RCT's arrived last week. Anyone seeing any issues with durability at all? I'm guessing that I got around 1,500 shots in on one ball before it cracked on me. The cover also got torn up pretty quickly and knowing this I haven't been using it with my wedges to keep it from getting beaten up quicker. Not sure if this is a me problem or a ball problem.

I would say 1,500 shots sounds about right. It took me over a month of hitting a single ball to crack my first one. I now rotate between two of them and have not had another crack on me yet. I have hit a lot of drives as well.

I can't speak too much to the cover durability because occasionally mine hit the concrete floor in my garage which scuffs them up pretty good. I did notice that one of the two balls would more frequently cause elevated spin readings for a while, but that seems to have resolved itself. My hypothesis to explain that is the reflective pattern was altered by the cover damage.

Still, worth the money to me versus the metallic dots because the balls are lasting much longer. It only took less than 200 shots with my two dotted balls to crack them.

[golfish!]

Can't really speak on durability as I have not had much time to hit in my garage but I did hit a few half wedges and full irons and did not notice any difference between the RCT and a standard ProV1x. As per edingc's testing seems like you are also on par for ball durability.

[golfish!]

38 minutes ago, edingc said:

I would say 1,500 shots sounds about right. It took me over a month of hitting a single ball to crack my first one. I now rotate between two of them and have not had another crack on me yet. I have hit a lot of drives as well.

I can't speak too much to the cover durability because occasionally mine hit the concrete floor in my garage which scuffs them up pretty good. I did notice that one of the two balls would more frequently cause elevated spin readings for a while, but that seems to have resolved itself. My hypothesis to explain that is the reflective pattern was altered by the cover damage.

Still, worth the money to me versus the metallic dots because the balls are lasting much longer. It only took less than 200 shots with my two dotted balls to crack them.

@edingc How high is your garage? I don't have enough clearance to hit drives inside. I mean swinging slowly I can keep it under the rafters but at full speed I am afraid if I raise up even the slightest I will smack the rafters. 

[edingc]

1 hour ago, golfish! said:

@edingc How high is your garage? I don't have enough clearance to hit drives inside. I mean swinging slowly I can keep it under the rafters but at full speed I am afraid if I raise up even the slightest I will smack the rafters. 

It's 10 feet to the rafters. I feel like my garage is a unicorn because I'm in the city but lucked out with the perfect area for hitting balls.

It took a bit to swing freely, but after 100 or so balls I got used to it. I don't think I've actually gotten too close to anything.

[golfish!]

18 minutes ago, edingc said:

It's 10 feet to the rafters. I feel like my garage is a unicorn because I'm in the city but lucked out with the perfect area for hitting balls.

It took a bit to swing freely, but after 100 or so balls I got used to it. I don't think I've actually gotten too close to anything.

Hmm my garage total height is much taller than 10 feet but the rafter comes down about that much. How tall are you? Sorry I am not trying to get personal data on you lol. Just want to compare and see if I can also swing a driver inside!

[edingc]

Just shy of 6 feet tall. Standing on a 1.75" stance mat. Don't think I get that close to the rafters. I did several tests and the only way I could hit anything would be to completely let go of the club with one hand or swing basically upward. The snippet from a driver swing kind of shows where my club head gets to (although it's cut off from the frame). About even in height to the opener which sits probably 8 inches down from the ceiling. 

 

[GregGarner]

3 hours ago, golfish! said:

Hmm my garage total height is much taller than 10 feet but the rafter comes down about that much. 

I feel ya. I had exactly one spot I could stand and swing driver in my garage. I had to move a bunch of stuff around to make it work, but basically I have the door opener positioned that I would be stupidly steep on the backswing to hit it and there's enough of a gap with the rafters that I know I won't hit them. Started doing SuperSpeed training in there first and then graduated to driver swings. Non-dominant handed swings got pretty tight, but the only thing I've hit with them so far is the concrete. Oops.

[golfish!]

27 minutes ago, greggarner said:

I feel ya. I had exactly one spot I could stand and swing driver in my garage. I had to move a bunch of stuff around to make it work, but basically I have the door opener positioned that I would be stupidly steep on the backswing to hit it and there's enough of a gap with the rafters that I know I won't hit them. Started doing SuperSpeed training in there first and then graduated to driver swings. Non-dominant handed swings got pretty tight, but the only thing I've hit with them so far is the concrete. Oops.

Yeah last thing I need is to crack my driver on a garage rafter lol. I guess I could try and swing my swing trainer which I believe is longer than my driver and see if anything hits lol. 

[ZMendle10]

21 hours ago, edingc said:

Still, worth the money to me versus the metallic dots because the balls are lasting much longer. It only took less than 200 shots with my two dotted balls to crack them.

They are absolutely still worth the money. At a rate of say one ball every week that means a dozen should last 12 weeks roughly which is longer than a dozen Por V1's would last out on the course.

[BMart519]

On 1/6/2022 at 9:06 AM, golfish! said:

@edingc How high is your garage? I don't have enough clearance to hit drives inside. I mean swinging slowly I can keep it under the rafters but at full speed I am afraid if I raise up even the slightest I will smack the rafters. 

I'm 6'2" with long arms and a 45.5" driver. I am nowhere close to hitting my 9'6" ceiling in my garage. I have a wood hitting platform at leas 2.5" thick with a mat on top thats about 1" thick. 

[golfish!]

On 1/11/2022 at 10:02 PM, BMart519 said:

I'm 6'2" with long arms and a 45.5" driver. I am nowhere close to hitting my 9'6" ceiling in my garage. I have a wood hitting platform at leas 2.5" thick with a mat on top thats about 1" thick. 

Thanks for that. I'll have to measure actual height from my mat to the bottom rafter. I hit a few drives at 60% speed and had no issues but still makes me nervous. Also found this on Garmin support page about spin measuring.  Looks like they specifically mention marking balls with metallic dots degrades performance. =(. I tried testing the balls again and nothing has changed.  I tried to put as much space as I could between radar and net and again had trouble picking up the RCTs. I don't think it's an issue with space rather the Garmin R10 doesn't like the RCTs. Oh well. Someday when I can afford a bigger garage with a Track man lol. 

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=kj37CgzvwM98hC9WPrIQm5

[Clayton]

Unfortunately, Titleist did not send my order for 3 dozen RCT balls to my shop in the US, even though we put the order in right away. The Pro says this is typical of that particular rep.  However, I was able to find a sleeve of V1X while visiting.  I prefer the regular ProV, but that was the only option.

I work at a Trackman Golfsim place and have been using metallic dots on the ball.  It works loads better than no dots but I never feel like Trackman can accurately replicate driver.  It's a whole different story with the RCT balls.  No matter woods or irons, it catches every shot and now my driver seems fairly realistic compared to no dots or dots.

I have chosen not to hit them with anything lower than my gap wedge (I only have 3 of them) so the ball, despite having played 5 or 6 rounds with it still looks brand new.  My "wedge" ball, however looks like a range ball now.  I guess it's time to put a new one in play.

Trackman still misses a lot of putts, even with the RCT ball.  Sometimes I have to hit 3-4 putts for it to "see" the putt but I've found that if I hold the putter up after putting it tends to see more of them.

After experiencing just how awesome playing indoor golf is with Trackman and RCT balls, I'm not sure I could ever enjoy playing on Trackman without them as it just doesn't seem as accurate or realistic (indoors).

[Clayton]

So I got an email that my ProV1 RCT finally showed up. Of course I won't be back there until late March and indoor season is nearly over by then. Oh well...

[edingc]

Still using the RCTs with the Mevo+ with adequate results. Definitely better than using the metallic dots or forgoing the dots altogether.

One thing I continue to notice is spin readings get more erratic as the cover of the ball gets more damaged. In my case the Mevo+ seems to report more low spin flier type shots when I'm using RCTs that have quite a few shots on them. No scientific analysis on this, but interesting to see. 

[ZMendle10]

13 minutes ago, edingc said:

Still using the RCTs with the Mevo+ with adequate results. Definitely better than using the metallic dots or forgoing the dots altogether.

One thing I continue to notice is spin readings get more erratic as the cover of the ball gets more damaged. In my case the Mevo+ seems to report more low spin flier type shots when I'm using RCTs that have quite a few shots on them. No scientific analysis on this, but interesting to see. 

good to know its being tested with the Mevo+. obviously there should be no issues with trackman but those cheaper launch monitors are where the biggest interest for me is. 

[edingc]

Titleist ProV1x RCT Golf Balls – Unofficial MGS Forum Review by edingc

Feb. 26, 2022

We're getting closer to spring here in Michigan, and so my testing of the Titleist ProV1x RCT golf balls is hopefully coming to an end soon! With exception to a few trips to my garage where I didn't bother to bring the RCTs out, the balls have been getting a ton of use since they arrived in November.

Since I purchased these balls specifically for use indoors using my FlightScope Mevo+ radar unit, my review is based solely on the balls' usefulness in my particular setup. In my garage, the Mevo+ is set on indoor mode at 17-18 degrees tilt. I have 12-13 feet of ball flight from tee to netting, and the Mevo+ is positioned eight feet behind my Fiberbuilt FlightDeck.

Almost all of my hitting is done on the FlightScope range through the FSGolf app.

General Impressions - 4/5 Stars

Minus the RCT logo on the side of the ball, these look and feel identical to the regular ProV1x. It is my understanding these are legal for use on course as well, though the price of them would be prohibitive.

I'm deducting one star for the price of the golf balls, which carry a decent premium from the standard Titleist tour-level balls. Currently, Titleist has the indoor radar-trackable ball market cornered. Unless another manufacturer chooses to invest in this niche segment, I don't know that the price is a deterrent to purchasing, especially since most indoor golfers have already sunk at least $2,000 into their setups.

Durability - 5/5 Stars

I've logged thousands of shots using the RCTs this winter. I ordered the RCTs after cracking three metallic-dotted balls within 200 shots each a few days after setting up my hitting area for the off season. In the time I've had the RCTs, I've cracked three total. I estimate each of the cracked balls sustained well over 1,500 strikes, including at least 200 driver swings each. 

Obviously, as the number of strikes goes up, the cover does start to degrade a bit. It is accelerated in my garage because the balls sometime contact the bare concrete. But that is of no fault to Titleist.

Functionality - 3.5/5 Stars

Indoor golf is definitely not perfect, especially with the cheaper Mevo+ radar. I'd estimate the Mevo+ is extremely accurate in the mid-irons, but I think it struggles with high ball speeds and in high launch scenarios (i.e. longer clubs and wedges).

The RCTs performed admirably with the Mevo+ and helped improved the consistency of readings throughout my bag. When the RCTs were new, the overall data and the ball spin readings of the Mevo+ felt spot on with the strikes.

I'm a lower spin player, and combined with the Fiberbuilt mat my measured spin was a little lower than I'd like to see on the course. It will be interesting to compare distances and numbers once I get back outside.

I mentioned above that the readings with the RCTs were very good when the balls were newer. I noticed the readings became more erratic as the cover sustained damage. I'd get more shots with 10,000+ measured spin and more estimated (italicized) readings. My hypothesis is that the metal implanted just below the cover also becomes damaged and reduces the Mevo+'s ability to correctly measure the spin.

My favorite part of the RCTs is not needing to use a metallic dot. Not only do balls last a lot longer when you spread the strikes randomly, it is much faster to simply put a ball on the mat rather than needing to perfectly align a small dot. Additionally, in my setup I found the dots to be especially finicky.

Overall Rating - 4/5 Stars

Not much to say here other than the balls are an expensive, but seemingly necessary investment to get the best numbers out of the Mevo+ indoors. I gave one to my instructor to test with his Trackman and have so far used five myself, leaving me with two new sleeves left. If I can make it through a winter using less than three sleeves of golf balls they are definitely worth the price. I imagine I will buy another dozen at the beginning of next off season as well.

[Micah T]

Good stuff @edingc! I’ve been using the rct ball all winter at an indoor studio using trackman, but I just stumbled on this thread. My take is that the trackman accurately captures spin about 95% with the rct ball. Like you, I find that at my 2 iron ball speed and up the accuracy declines, and I’ll start to see italicized spin numbers. As far as durability; both myself and my buddy that I split the membership with both have new irons( i59’s for me and p790/770 for him) so we split the first ball after about 2 weeks, and used a new ball every 3-5 sessions( each session was 2-3 hrs) My opinion? Worth it for anyone using a Doppler-based(radar) launch monitor.

[edingc]

7 hours ago, Micah T said:

Good stuff @edingc! I’ve been using the rct ball all winter at an indoor studio using trackman, but I just stumbled on this thread. My take is that the trackman accurately captures spin about 95% with the rct ball. Like you, I find that at my 2 iron ball speed and up the accuracy declines, and I’ll start to see italicized spin numbers. As far as durability; both myself and my buddy that I split the membership with both have new irons( i59’s for me and p790/770 for him) so we split the first ball after about 2 weeks, and used a new ball every 3-5 sessions( each session was 2-3 hrs) My opinion? Worth it for anyone using a Doppler-based(radar) launch monitor.

Glad to hear. Definitely worth the money, in my opinion.

I got a little more life out of my balls (one of mine is now a few months old), but when I play sim rounds (rather than FlightScope range), I switch to a newer ball. I really should get some indoor outdoor carpet for my garage to help prolong the life even further - the covers get chewed up when they occasionally touch concrete.