1932 founder philip e. young headquarters fairhaven massachusetts usa website www.titleist.com titleist pronounced ta t l st title ist is an american brand name golf equipment and apparel products produced by the acushnet subsidiary which is headquartered in fairhaven massachusetts united states . it was founded in 1932 by philip e. young and is a subsidiary of the south korean company fila . 1 2 3 the name titleist is derived from the word titlist which means title holder . 4 several marketing mottos have been promoted for the titleist brand including the 1 ball in golf serious clubs for serious golfers it s not how you mark your golf ball it s how you mark your titleist . acushnet is best known for its titleist golf balls . it also produces clubs such as irons drivers putters under the scotty cameron brand other equipment and apparel and accessories under the brands footjoy and pinnacle . contents 1 history 2 golf balls 3 reputation 4 tour players 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit phillip e. skipper young a graduate of massachusetts institute of technology founded the acushnet company as a rubber processing business . when playing a round of golf with his dentist young missed a sure putt that seemed to be caused by the weight of the ball . he then asked his dentist friend to x ray the ball and the film showed that the rubber core was off center . after this initial discovery young took x rays of more golf balls and found that most were poorly constructed with off center cores and prone to erratic shots . this inspired young to produce his own line of golf balls which would become known as titleist . 1910 phillip e. young and two partners formed acushnet processing company . it was the world s largest supplier of recycled uncured rubber by the end of world war i. the acushnet process company focused on deresinating latex and supplying rubber to industry and over time began to make their own rubber based products including water bottles and bathing caps . 1920s the company began focusing on making molded rubber products.over the years the company shifted its focus eventually getting into golf due to young s fondness for the sport and his frustration with the performance of golf balls . 1930 young developed a machine that could uniformly wind rubber string around a rubber core making a dead center golf ball . he named the ball titleist noting it was the winner of the quest to create the best for the game . 1935 the golf division in of the acushnet process company produced the titleist golf ball which had consistently been the company s most successful product . 1948 introduced dynamite thread to increase the yardage of their balls . 1949 titleist becomes the most used ball at the u.s. open tournament . 1976 titleist was purchased by american brands now known as fortune brands . 1985 fortune brands sold off the acushnet company s acushnet rubber division which was acushnet s original business circa early 1900s . 2002 titleist reaches the 1 billion mark in annual revenues for the first time . on december 8 2010 fortune brands announced that it would soon sell or spin off titleist and some other brands . 1 2 3 it was then announced on may 20 2011 that a korean group associated with fila korea ltd. and mirae asset private equity would purchase acushnet for 1.23 billion in cash . 5 6 7 8 golf balls edit titleist a member of the acushnet family currently produces the following golf balls titleist pro v1 titleist pro v1x titleist nxt tour titleist nxt tour s tour s yellow titleist dt solo dt solo yellow titleist velocity the pro v1 made its debut on the pga tour at las vegas on october 11 2000 the first week it was available to the pros . a longtime titleist user billy andrade won that first tournament with the new ball . the pro v1 was available to the public by december . the pro v1 was a dramatic departure for the brand which had traditionally used a wound ball construction with a liquid filled core center for its top of the line golf balls . shortly after its introduction the titleist pro v1 became the most played ball on the pga tour 9 10 11 and three years after titleist s initial breakthrough with the pro v1 came the pro v1x a ball with 60 fewer dimples . the combination of a larger firmer core a thinner cover and 60 fewer dimples resulted in a ball that retained the same soft feel of the pro v1 while reducing spin and increasing distance . 12 in december 2007 acushnet lost a patent infringement suit brought by callaway . 13 the following november callaway won an injunction in a delaware court ruling that sales of the pro v1 golf balls must be stopped from january 1 2009 with professionals being able to continue with their use until the end of the year . acushnet immediately announced that they would be appealing the decision . 14 acushnet somewhat redesigned the pro v1 during the dispute . on august 14 2009 the court of appeals for the federal circuit vacated the judgment against acushnet and ordered a new trial . on march 29 2010 a federal jury ruled in favor of acushnet titleist and found that the callaway patents were invalid . 15 reputation edit titleist is a respected and popular golf brand with such players as adam scott steve stricker bill haas geoff ogilvy and jordan spieth under contract . tiger woods rory mcilroy matteo manassero and nick watney were also contracted to use titleist before moving to nike . when the nike contract began woods refused to use the nike drivers for a long time and continued to use his titleist one . up until the 2010 british open woods carried a titleist putter but has since switched to a nike method putter . however after the third round tiger switched back to his titleist putter scotty cameron . phil mickelson was also a contracted titleist player shortly after his 2004 masters tournament . tour players edit a number of tour professionals have endorsement deals for titleist and are contracted to use their equipment including the following ian poulter victor dubuisson steve stricker jason dufner geoff ogilvy scott piercy adam scott tim clark ben crane noah siman kevin na jordan spieth kim kyung tae michael sim jack heydon s ren hansen bryce molder jason bohn bud cauley bill haas gr gory bourdy marc leishman anders hansen jay haas george coetzee ben curtis kenneth ferrie andrew dodt d. j. trahan daisuke maruyama greg chalmers brendon de jonge charley hoffman graham delaet jos mar a olaz bal andrew armstrong webb simpson rafael cabrera bello thongchai jaidee titleist also has a number of players who endorse their golf ball only including the following ryan nolan david toms p draig harrington bubba watson sergio flores lopez bo van pelt louis oosthuizen robert karlsson jeff overton hunter mahan ngel cabrera aaron baddeley mike weir d. a. points lee westwood luke donald rickie fowler yani tseng solomon bramble see also edit acushnet company scotty cameron references edit a b aaron smith jim beam neat is company s new strategy cnn money december 8 2010 . a b fortune brands announces intent to separate company s three businesses the wall street journal december 8 2010 . a b fortune brands to split into three companies lake country news sun december 9 2010 . http www.merriam webster.com dictionary titlist fortune brands to sell titleist golf unit to fila korea for 1.23 billion cotten timberlake and lauren coleman lochner bloomberg may 20 2011 . acushnet to be sold to korean group led by fila gene yasuda golf week may 20 2011 . fila set to buy fortune brands golf unit for 1.2 b dow jones newswire may 20 2011 . fila takes swing at golf biz with titleist buy cbs news may 20 2011 . http www.worldgolf.com newswire browse 6664 titleist overwhelmingly trumps ball count at pga championship http www.thetourvan.com http 3jack . blogspot.com 2011 06 61011 golf ball data pga tour.html http www.worldgolf.com products titleist pro balls.htm callaway wins patent infringement suit over acushnet . international herald tribune . december 15 2007 . retrieved 2008 11 21 . callaway wins court order to halt sales of titleist s pro v1 golf balls . usa today . november 12 2008 . retrieved 2008 11 21 . acushnet wins golf ball suit after 4 years . pbn dot com . march 30 2010 . retrieved 2010 06 19 . external links edit titleist.com official site pinnaclegolf.com official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title titleist & oldid 743751745 categories sportswear brandsgolf equipment manufacturerssporting goods manufacturers of the united statescompanies established in 1932hidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact 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