--- title: "37 of the 51 tour bags we track play the firmer ball. Scheffler and McIlroy don't." url: "https://ifrothgolf.com/read/tour-pros-play-the-firmer-ball" type: "explainer" topic: "balls" author: "Ross Hamilton" published: "2026-09-02T18:00" publisher: "ifrothgolf" --- # 37 of the 51 tour bags we track play the firmer ball. Scheffler and McIlroy don't. > Almost every tour ball ships as a pair, and the model name tells you which half you are holding. Across the bags we maintain the split runs close to three to one — and the exceptions are the two best players in the world. ## In short - Across the 53 bags we maintain, 51 play a ball whose model name identifies which side of its family it sits on, and of those 51, 37 play the firmer sibling against 14 on the softer one — 72.5 per cent, close to three to one. Two bags are excluded because J.J. Spaun and Keegan Bradley both play the Srixon Z-Star Diamond, which Srixon positions between the Z-Star and the Z-Star XV, so the name classifies nothing. This is our maintained set of 49 tour players plus four creators, re-verified against named sources rather than a census, and bags move week to week. The finding is not that firm is better: Scottie Scheffler plays a Pro V1 and Rory McIlroy plays a TP5, so the soft minority contains the top of the game. The finding is that the tour has a clear lean and most amateurs have never tried the other half of their own family. A sleeve of the sibling costs the same as a sleeve of what you already play. Stand in front of the ball wall in any pro shop and watch what people do. Two boxes, side by side, same brand, same price, one letter between them. Pro V1 and Pro V1x. TP5 and TP5x. Z-Star and Z-Star XV. Almost nobody stands there for more than four seconds, and almost everybody reaches for the one without the letter, because the plain name feels like the default and the letter feels like it is for somebody better. So we counted what the players who are better actually do. ## The number Across the 53 bags we maintain, 51 play a ball whose model name itself tells you which side of its family it sits on. **Of those 51, 37 play the firmer sibling and 14 play the softer one.** That is 72.5 per cent on the firm side, or a shade under three to one. Two bags are excluded, and it is worth saying why rather than quietly dropping them. J.J. Spaun and Keegan Bradley both play the Srixon Z-Star Diamond, which Srixon positions between the Z-Star and the Z-Star XV rather than at either end. The name does not classify it, so counting it on either side would have been a guess dressed up as data. And the standing caveat, because a number is only worth citing if you can see its edges. This is the 53 bags we maintain and re-verify against named sources, not a census of professional golf. It is 49 tour players across the PGA Tour, the LPGA and LIV, plus four content creators who play the same equipment cycle. Bags change week to week, and a ball switch is one of the quieter changes a player makes. ## The rows, so you can check us On the firm side: Pro V1x in 19 bags, one of those the Left Dash version; TP5x in four, plus a fifth playing the TP5x Pix; Chrome Tour X in four and Chrome Tour X+ in one; Z-Star XV in three; Bridgestone Tour B X in three; and Maxfli Tour X in one. On the soft side: Pro V1 in nine, Chrome Tour in three, TP5 in two. Fourteen bags, three models, and that is the entire list. ## The reading that would be wrong The lazy version of this article writes itself. Pros play firm, therefore firm is better, therefore buy the one with the letter. That reading is wrong, and the data refutes it in the most obvious way available. **Scottie Scheffler plays a Pro V1. Rory McIlroy plays a TP5.** Both of them are on the soft side, and so are Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele on the Chrome Tour, and Viktor Hovland, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler and Max Homa on the Pro V1. The fourteen-bag minority is not the group that could not handle the proper ball. It contains the best player in the world and the man who completed the career grand slam, and you can go and read [Scheffler's bag](https://ifrothgolf.com/witb/scottie-scheffler) line by line if you would like to check. So the honest finding is two sentences, not one. The tour skews firm at roughly three to one. The very top of the game is split. Only one of those is a fact about prevalence, neither is a shopping instruction, and the second one is the reason the first one is not. ## What the letter is actually doing Here is the part that makes the count harder to convert into advice than it looks. "Firm" and "soft" are a naming convention across the industry, not one measurable property that every brand tunes the same way. Within a family the firmer sibling generally flies a little higher off the long clubs, spins a little less there, and feels firmer at impact — but which of those the manufacturer actually prioritised varies, and so does the construction. The cover, the mantle layer count and the core gradient all differ between siblings in ways that no single number captures. Compression is the number everybody reaches for and it explains less of this than people assume, as we set out in [golf ball compression explained](https://ifrothgolf.com/read/golf-ball-compression-explained). Which means the count above tells you something real about what elite players gravitate toward, and almost nothing about which box you should pick up. A tour player picks a ball by hitting a hundred of each with a launch monitor and a coach, optimising a wedge window and a driver spin figure they can name to one decimal place. You are not doing that, and you do not need to. ## One family where the rows are lopsided Bridgestone's Tour B X appears in three of our bags. Its softer sibling, the Tour B XS, appears in none of them. Three against zero is a thin base to build anything on and I am not going to build anything on it, but it is the sharpest split of any family in the set and it is worth a footnote rather than a headline. ## What to actually do about it The useful finding here is not the 37. It is that almost every amateur has played exactly one half of a two-ball family for years without ever trying the other, despite them costing the same money and sitting on the same shelf. That is a genuinely odd thing to be incurious about. So buy a sleeve of the sibling you do not play and give it nine holes, watching two things and ignoring everything else. First, your full wedges — does the ball stop where you expect, or does the change cost you a couple of yards of check? Second, your long irons and fairway woods — do they flight higher or lower than you are used to? Those are the two places the difference shows up in a way you can actually perceive. Feel off the putter face is the thing everyone talks about and the thing you will adapt to within four holes. I will take a position on which way to lean. If you have a slower swing and already flight the ball low, the firmer sibling will usually make that worse rather than better, and the three-to-one figure above is not a reason to fight your own ball flight. If you balloon your long clubs into the wind and lose them right, the firmer one is genuinely worth nine holes of your time. And if you are choosing between families rather than within one, that is a different question, handled properly in [Pro V1 vs Pro V1x](https://ifrothgolf.com/read/pro-v1-vs-pro-v1x) and [how to choose a golf ball](https://ifrothgolf.com/read/how-to-choose-a-golf-ball). ## Who should skip this entirely If you lose more than two or three balls a round, none of the above matters even slightly, and the difference between a firm tour ball and a soft one is comfortably inside the noise of your own strike. You are choosing between two premium balls that will spend most of their lives in a hedge. Play something you can afford to lose and read [stop buying premium golf balls](https://ifrothgolf.com/read/stop-buying-premium-golf-balls) instead. The count in this piece is a fact about tour players. It is not a bill you are obliged to pay. ## The takeaway Across the 53 bags we maintain, 51 play a ball whose model name identifies which side of its family it sits on, and of those 51, 37 play the firmer sibling against 14 on the softer one — 72.5 per cent, close to three to one. Two bags are excluded because J.J. Spaun and Keegan Bradley both play the Srixon Z-Star Diamond, which Srixon positions between the Z-Star and the Z-Star XV, so the name classifies nothing. This is our maintained set of 49 tour players plus four creators, re-verified against named sources rather than a census, and bags move week to week. The finding is not that firm is better: Scottie Scheffler plays a Pro V1 and Rory McIlroy plays a TP5, so the soft minority contains the top of the game. The finding is that the tour has a clear lean and most amateurs have never tried the other half of their own family. A sleeve of the sibling costs the same as a sleeve of what you already play. ## FAQ ### How many tour pros play the firmer version of their golf ball? Across the 53 bags we maintain, 51 play a ball whose model name identifies its side of the family, and of those 51, 37 play the firmer sibling and 14 play the softer one — 72.5 per cent. Two bags are excluded because J.J. Spaun and Keegan Bradley both play the Srixon Z-Star Diamond, which Srixon positions between the Z-Star and the Z-Star XV, so the name does not classify it. This is the set of bags we maintain and re-verify against named sources, not a census of professional golf, and bags change week to week. ### Does Scottie Scheffler play a Pro V1 or a Pro V1x? A Pro V1, the softer of the two. Rory McIlroy is on the softer side as well with a TaylorMade TP5, as are Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele on the Callaway Chrome Tour. The firmer sibling is more common on tour by roughly three to one, but the very top of the game is split between the two. ### Is the firmer version of a golf ball better? No. It is different, and which one suits you depends mostly on your ball flight. Within a family the firmer sibling generally flies a little higher off the long clubs, spins a little less there and feels firmer at impact, but the construction differences vary by brand and no single number describes them. If you already flight the ball low with a slower swing, the firmer version usually makes that worse rather than better. ### How do I know if I am playing the wrong version of my golf ball? Buy a sleeve of the sibling and play nine holes with it, watching two things. Your full wedges, to see whether the ball still stops where you expect. And your long irons and fairway woods, to see whether they flight higher or lower than usual. Those are the two places the difference is large enough to perceive. Putter feel is what everyone discusses and what you will adapt to within four holes, so ignore it. ## Products mentioned - [Titleist Pro V1x](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/titleist-pro-v1x) · $60 approx — The single most-played model in the set, and the firm half of the most familiar pair in golf. **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH5NN34D?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_titleist-pro-v1x) (affiliate link) · also stocked by The Golf Shop Online - [Titleist Pro V1 Golf Balls (Dozen)](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/titleist-pro-v1) · $70 approx — The softer sibling, and the ball the current world number one actually plays. **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJVQX373?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_titleist-pro-v1) (affiliate link) · also stocked by Clubhouse Golf - [TaylorMade TP5x Golf Balls](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/taylormade-tp5x) · $60 approx — TaylorMade's firm side, counted with the Pix version of the same model. **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086WQ7FVK?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_taylormade-tp5x) (affiliate link) · also stocked by Clubhouse Golf - [TaylorMade TP5 Golf Balls (Dozen)](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/taylormade-tp5) · $60 approx — The softer TaylorMade, and Rory McIlroy's ball. **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N9LPJK5?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_taylormade-tp5) (affiliate link) · also stocked by Snainton Golf - [Srixon Z-Star XV Golf Balls](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/srixon-z-star-xv) · $50 approx — The firm Srixon, and the reason the Z-Star Diamond had to be excluded from the count. **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F171QM27?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_srixon-z-star-xv) (affiliate link) · also stocked by The Golf Shop Online - [Bridgestone Tour B X Golf Balls](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/bridgestone-tour-b-x) · $60 approx — The family where our rows are most lopsided: the firm one appears, the soft one does not. **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FNDM26LH?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_bridgestone-tour-b-x) (affiliate link) --- Source: [ifrothgolf](https://ifrothgolf.com) — independent golf-gear editorial. 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