Andrade not only had to execute countless shots on three different courses, he also had to fend off a certain swashbuckling left-hander during the final round. After making the turn in even par, Andrade reeled off three birdies in four holes to get within one shot of the lead.

That's when he noticed the name "Phil Mickelson" right below his on the leaderboard. Until that moment, Andrade had no idea Mickelson was even in the field that week.

“I never saw him that week,” Andrade said, “but I guess that's what happens when you play three courses in five days."

With Mickelson adding some additional pressure down the stretch, Andrade never wavered — even when he knocked his tee shot on the 18th into a desert canyon. Andrade managed to hit his approach shot on the green and two-putt for the win with Mickelson watching on from the scorer's tent.

"I still remember seeing [Mickelson] up in the tent behind the 18th green and it was like impending danger hanging over the edge looking down on me, wondering if I was going to blow it,” Andrade said. “I had about a five-footer for the win and there was no way in hell I was going to miss, because I felt like it was my time."

Andrade wasn’t the only one who thrived with the new ball. Of the top 11 finishers that week, six played with the Pro V1 – Andrade, Mickelson (2), Jonathan Kaye (T3), Chris DiMarco (T5), Tom Byrum (T9) and Joe Durant (T9). Kaye shot a closing-round 62, low round of the week. The top two players in driving distance that week also played the Pro V1.

Morgan aptly called it the “eureka” moment. Riding the wave of publicity, Titleist quickly moved up its Pro V1 market launch schedule from March 2001 to December 2000.

Less than a month after Andrade's win, Mickelson used the Pro V1 to claim the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. Afterward, he essentially warned players that they were "at a distinct disadvantage" if they weren't using the ball. (To be fair, Mickelson would eventually switch to Callaway, his ball of choice for his last four major wins after winning the 2004 Masters with a Pro V1).

Four months after Andrade's win, at the then-Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Durant posted a five-round total of 36 under, the lowest score (relative to par) that has ever been posted on the PGA TOUR. In his next start two weeks later at Doral, Durant won again.

With the new Pro V1, Durant had added 13 yards off the tee and was reaching par-5 holes in two that he had previously never been able to reach. “For me, it has made a big difference,” Durant said back then.

In the first Masters after the launch of the Pro V1, 42 of the 45 Titleist players in the field used the new ball.

On the Champions Tour, Tom Kite was hitting it farther than he ever did on the PGA TOUR.

On the LPGA Tour, Juli Inkster was one of the early converts, putting the ball in her bag in 2001. “I can’t get a grasp on how far I am hitting it,” she said.

That was how most of the 47 players in the field that October week in Las Vegas felt 15 years ago.

Since then? The Pro V1 and Pro V1x have become the best-selling golf balls in the world, with two out of every three players across all professional tours putting it into play. The Pro V1 franchise has been the winning ball for 406 PGA TOUR events and the ball of choice 56,811 times for players teeing it up each week on TOUR.

Since 2001, 28 majors have been won using a Pro V1 or Pro V1x, including the two by Jordan Spieth and The Open Championship by Zach Johnson in 2015.

And according to data released by Titleist, the Pro V1 has been the best-selling golf ball for 175 consecutive months based on Golf Datatech research.

"Did we expect Pro V1 to be this successful? You always hope," Morgan said. "Anytime you're working on a product, you always hope this is going to be the product that replaces all the ones before it.

"For whatever reason, the particular design we came up with really resonated with TOUR players. It was finally the one that did move the needle, so to speak.”

With the win, Andrade instantly became a golf trivia answer as the first player to ever win a TOUR event with a Pro V1. Almost 15 years to the day after his victory, he still has an original Pro V1 from that week in Vegas sitting in a case in his home.

The thought of being the first to win a TOUR event with a particular piece of equipment is something many players might forget more than a decade later. But when it happens to be the most successful ball in golf history … well, Andrade said it's something he'll always remember.

"To be honest, I'm honored to have been the first to win with Pro V1," Andrade said. "I had no idea at the time when I put it in play that I'd win that first week. Golf is a funny game like that. I still believe I had to hit the shots that week to win, but there's no question that ball played a big part in the victory."