“Tactician” is the first word that comes to mind when I hear Brian Gay’s name. He has never been a long hitter rather finding success plotting around the golf course and letting his putter and wedges do the talking.

If you want to put Brian Gay in a bucket, he would fall in the Kevin Na, Ryan Moore, Brendan Todd, Zach Johnson category…even Collin Morikawa could fit in there. These are precision-first players.

With the Bryson Effect, players like Gay, in theory, should be dying out little by little, but that hasn’t been the case. In fact, it’s gone the other way.

The “shorter” hitters are finding advantages in other places, and I believe that the golf ball provides more benefit to these players than the big hitters.

In an interview Brian Gay did with Titleist earlier this week, he discussed the different nuances of how he chooses a golf ball and gave us a little insight into what we may expect with the new Pro V1/X series.

Titleist: You put the new Pro V1 in play at Shriners. How do you come to the decision to change into a new golf ball – the one piece of equipment you use on every shot?

Brian Gay: Great question. The Titleist guys sent some of the new golf balls to my home in September, but I didn’t really get to even test them out before I went to Vegas. I didn’t play Puntacana and then the next week was Sanderson Farms. I was intending to play there but my lower back was kind of locked up and I couldn’t go. So, I just took the new golf balls with me to Vegas, practiced and played with them for a couple of days and told the guys I’m was in, “I’m going to play the new Pro V1 this week.”

I’d been using the Pro V1x Left Dash most of the last two years or so. I did play the 2019 Pro V1 when it first came out and even the 19X a little bit. But I found the New Pro V1 incredible. It’s super soft. I love the soft feel, especially with the putter. I thought it worked very well in the wind. The other thing, like I was saying, I’ve been working on my wedge game shots, say 50 to 100 yards, and it really flights nicely. I like that. The Left Dash is a higher flying ball and I was able to hit more low spinner shots with the New Pro V1 with my wedges.

Titleist: How do you prioritize what you are looking for in a golf ball?

Brian Gay: Being more of a short game player, not a power player, it’s important to me how the golf ball reacts on short shots. However, I am still concerned about distance, and that was what I loved about the Pro V1x Left Dash when it came out. When I tested it, I hit it higher and a little further from my mid-irons on up, yet I still was getting the spin with my wedges. It was just more of a feel thing versus spin and a little bit higher flight with the New Pro V1. Honestly, it’s a combination. Does it spin the right amount with my irons? The new Pro V1 was super soft. I love that feel. And I don’t feel like I lost any distance. It’s still going as far as the other ones, so I thought it was a good mix.

Titleist: So how much does distance come into play and how did this distance compare to the Left Dash?

Brian Gay: Distance does come into play. Like I said, I didn’t get a chance to really do extensive testing at home before I went to Vegas with it. I just took it out on the course. I did hit some drivers on the Trackman on the range. I did a little bit of comparison on the course, but I loved the feel of it. I know what the best numbers are on my driver and I was getting the same numbers with it. So I didn’t feel like I was giving anything up.

It’s easy to look at the long hitters and try to emulate what they do. However, if you really want to get better, paying attention to what Gay, Champions Tour players, and the LPGA is where you will find actual real-world nuggets to implement into your own game. All golf ball makers these days have great product,t and understanding what each ball really does and how it enhances your particular game is as important as anything. For me personally, it’s always ball first, clubs second.