Titleist Tour Prestige Golf Balls

The Titleist Tour Balata ball was the premier golf ball for low-handicap players and professionals for generations. A three-piece ball with a liquid center, the balata was available in 90 or 100 compression versions, spun fast, worked left or right and had a cover that could be cut by a sharp look. The next step in the early '90s was the Titleist Tour Professional, basically balata that didn't cut as easily. Then Titleist unveiled the Tour Prestige in the late-'90s. A direct predecessor to the current Pro V1, the Prestige was still a three-piece, liquid-center ball. But it didn't cut, spun hard on the irons, carried far off the driver and still putted like that wonderfully familiar marshmallow, the Tour Balata. The Tour Prestige is a strong link in the evolutionary line of the Titleist golf ball brand.

The Tour Prestige is a classic three-piece ball design. The center is liquid, surrounded by a small rubber core. Hundreds of feet of rubber band windings make up what is known as the "mantle" of the ball--the space between the core and the cover. At the surface, the Prestige has what Titleist described as a "shear resistant" cover--it was soft and easily scuffed by a club or cart path but didn't cut nearly as easily as its predecessors. This ball could be worked left to right or right to left very easily.

Feel is one of the strongest points made by golf ball companies through the 1990s. As eyes focused on maximum yardage, golf balls got firmer and harder and less satisfying from a feel perspective. Titleist countered this trend with their top-tier balls by making soft-cover golf balls that did not cut easily. The Tour Professional and Tour Prestige fit the bill before the Pro V1 was introduced. The Prestige also spun slightly less than the Tour Professional, making it a bit more controllable.

Despite the firmer, more durable cover, the Tour Prestige is still a classic three-piece ball with rubber windings. This means that as it gets hit repeatedly with a high swing speed, the ball can get struck out of round. While in the current market, a player can play the same ball for 36 holes or more without seeing a change, the Tour Prestige, for a player with a swing speed of 100 mph or higher, might go out of round in as few as six holes.

Since the Titleist Tour Prestige is no longer manufactured or even mentioned on the Titleist we site, it is more than a little difficult to find. But some retailers and discount stores still have boxes in stock, and when it can be found, it will cost between about $24 and $35 a dozen.