Titleist GT Driver - anyone fit into it?

[joliver233]

They had the Titleist rep at Golf Galaxy when I went in there today, and hit the GT 3 and 4. Didn't really hit the previous generation, but these were awesome. He said they were going to start taking preorders at the end of the week and they would be in stores 3rd week or so of August FWIW. Was going to buy an AI-one, but might hold off until they get the entire fitting setup in at GG/Club Champion etc. $649.99 retail, though. I guess the prices are going to continue going up.

[ajg223]

Was fit at club champion yesterday and compared to my AI Smoke triple diamond max  the GT3 gave me modest distance gains but improved dispersion with same shaft. Is it $700 better? No, but if I can find someone to trade the Ai head for one I’d make the switch. Annoying that they aren’t available until nearly the end of summer. Might wait until winter when people are after the inevitable TM latest and greatest. 

[Stu1987]

Got fitted today in the uk.  GT3 was lower spin than my TSi3. GT2 was amazing as I was hitting it all over the face (like I do with tsi3) cost is £579.  They have a 1k blue joining the 1k black lineup - so not a full Gucci 1k like the aftermarket shafts.
 

 Overall, ball speed up by 5 mph,  spin was more manageable and constant than the Tsi3 and the carry distance jumped 7-10 yards (total distance was similar but that’s due to a mix of spin rates from the tsi3). 
 

sounded good as well,  very similar to what you might know and love from titleist.  I ca say it’s worth it if coming from the Tsi or further back generation of heads. 

[tets]

Took the GT 2 and 3 for a spin today on the golf course…both very solid, put in a little range time with them tonight and will play the 3 on the course tomorrow morning.  I may play nine with each depending on how I’m hitting the 3

[bodhi555]

Haven't been fit into one but at the end of a lesson this morning lent me a GT4 to compare against my current TS4, which was a fun exercise. 

 

My TS4 has an EvenFlow White 6.5 in it, and the GT4 he gave me had a Ventus Black 6X in it so was fun to compare. I only had TrackMan Range for the comparison, so numbers taken with a pinch of salt.

 

A few thoughts:

 

- The GT4 felt superb, even better than my TS4 on impact. 

- The Ventus Black is a lovely feeling shaft, but wow it's expensive. 

- Ball speeds were identical with both heads and the same shaft. I saw a small gain with the Ventus over the EvenFlow, however we're talking 1 mph ball speed.

- The GT4 had slightly narrower dispersion L/R, but again not much in it. It did do better on off centre hits though. 

- Cost to change would have been about a grand (UK speak for a thousand pounds) for the spec I tried, so highly unlikely to happen. 

- The GT4 did look good behind the ball. 

- The only thing stopping me being more impressed with the GT4 was my old TS4, which still seems to be working pretty well for me. 

 

Overall a very impressive club I'd like some more time with at some point, but not seeing the gains currently to warrant pulling the trigger on one. 

[BirdieBob]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BirdieBob]

 

[Pnwpingi210]

Precision golf (txg of the uk) tested the gt vs tsr series and the fitter actually saw more efficiency with the Tsr heads in driver.  Same shaft and swingweight in both.  No 3-5mph ball speed gains. 
 

sounds better though

[BirdieBob]

 

[Carolina Golfer 2]

If you want to see some swings and speeds that even will make WRX'ers envious,  watch the True Spec Video with Sammy!

 

Good Lord, it was impressive

 

 

Edited August 1, 2024 by Carolina Golfer 2

[Pnwpingi210]

5 minutes ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

If you want to see some swings and speeds that even will make WRX'ers envious,  watch the True Spec Video with Sammy!

 

Good Lord, it was impressive

That dude is built like a fire hydrant!

 

my guess with that swing he’s a long driver guy as well as a decent golfer

Edited August 1, 2024 by Pnwpingi210

[Carolina Golfer 2]

1 hour ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

That dude is built like a fire hydrant!

 

my guess with that swing he’s a long driver guy as well as a decent golfer

If I was ever in bar brawl, I'd want him at my back 100%    HA 

 

Yep, I thought the same thing about being a LD.  If not he should be...ha

Edited August 1, 2024 by Carolina Golfer 2

[Pnwpingi210]

13 minutes ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

If I was ever in bar brawl, I'd want him at my back 100%    HA 

 

Yep, I thought the same thing about being a LD.  If not he should be...ha

Most guys that swing 130 mphs swing aoa neutral +\- 2 degrees.  This guy was 4-5 up!  160 feet in the air.  

[DeCuchi]

2 hours ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

If you want to see some swings and speeds that even will make WRX'ers envious,  watch the True Spec Video with Sammy!

 

Good Lord, it was impressive

 

 

First I’ve heard mention of a fade bias in GT4. Definitely a plus for me.

[Pnwpingi210]

7 minutes ago, DeCuchi said:

First I’ve heard mention of a fade bias in GT4. Definitely a plus for me.

2nd swing video showed right/fade bias in the gt4 for the tester. 

[PNW]

10 hours ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Precision golf (txg of the uk) tested the gt vs tsr series and the fitter actually saw more efficiency with the Tsr heads in driver.  Same shaft and swingweight in both.  No 3-5mph ball speed gains. 
 

sounds better though

I did a fitting last week and while my swing wasn't on point, I was seeing the same. Currently have a TSR3 9 and hit both the GT 2 and 3. Great sound on the new drivers but I wasn't seeing much improvement. Same length and matched swing weight and head weight. The Titleist fitter actually recommended I keep my current shaft (VF 5X) but didn't really push a sale because my best hits were with my TSR. He just emailed my specs just in case I wanted to order anyway.

[TeeTime907]

Here are my thoughts on the GT3 10 driver after 3 rounds.

 

i have been playing a TSR3 10 with my graphite design IZ 6.0 shaft last two years (loved the tsr3), which I love that shaft. I'm 52 and my SS is between 102 and 108.  I put my same shaft in day one.

 

Here is what I notice from the TSR 3.  The face, it's really out in front of you.  You can see the lines etc.  the TSR 3 kinda covers the face.  I like this look, it seem to make it easy to square up. 
 

The next thing I notice is that it seems to be more open than the tsr3.  I wasn't hitting my little draw.  It could be adjusting to face angle, but it does seem like the drive is a little open then previous model. That's fine I can adjust it more if needed.

 

Sound is awesome!  Best sounding driver ever!

 

As reviews have mentioned the GT3 seems to be more arrow dynamic and it feels that way when swinging it, I do believe I will pick up a few yards because of increase ball speed.

 

Forgiveness... It seems to be the same, which I'm fine with I thought the TSR3 had lots of forgiveness.

 

I won this driver from tournament winnings, but it's hard to shell out $650 over a TSR3 for a potential 4 to 8 yards.  

 

I do believe it's better driver.  Titleist got it right with this one by keeping similar characteristics of the TSR3. 

Edited August 2, 2024 by TeeTime907

[Carolina Golfer 2]

5 hours ago, TeeTime907 said:

Here are my thoughts on the GT3 10 driver after 3 rounds.

 

i have been playing a TSR3 10 with my graphite design IZ 6.0 shaft last two years (loved the tsr3), which I love that shaft. I'm 52 and my SS is between 102 and 108.  I put my same shaft in day one.

 

Here is what I notice from the TSR 3.  The face, it's really out in front of you.  You can see the lines etc.  the TSR 3 kinda covers the face.  I like this look, it seem to make it easy to square up. 
 

The next thing I notice is that it seems to be more open than the tsr3.  I wasn't hitting my little draw.  It could be adjusting to face angle, but it does seem like the drive is a little open then previous model. That's fine I can adjust it more if needed.

 

Sound is awesome!  Best sounding driver ever!

 

As reviews have mentioned the GT3 seems to be more arrow dynamic and it feels that way when swinging it, I do believe I will pick up a few yards because of increase ball speed.

 

Forgiveness... It seems to be the same, which I'm fine with I thought the TSR3 had lots of forgiveness.

 

I won this driver from tournament winnings, but it's hard to shell out $650 over a TSR3 for a potential 4 to 8 yards.  

 

I do believe it's better driver.  Titleist got it right with this one by keeping similar characteristics of the TSR3. 

As to the two bolded parts,  you are correct on the 1st one, they added those vertical lines to help with aligning the face.   JJ Van Wesenbeek said this actually came from some Tour players who were drawing lines on their TSR to help.  

 

As for setting open, the 2 and 3 definitely all are square in the neutral setting.  I believe the 4 is as well but can't 100% remember on that one. 

[PNW]

22 hours ago, PNW said:

I did a fitting last week and while my swing wasn't on point, I was seeing the same. Currently have a TSR3 9 and hit both the GT 2 and 3. Great sound on the new drivers but I wasn't seeing much improvement. Same length and matched swing weight and head weight. The Titleist fitter actually recommended I keep my current shaft (VF 5X) but didn't really push a sale because my best hits were with my TSR. He just emailed my specs just in case I wanted to order anyway.

 

To follow up on this, I just watched the Cool Clubs long review and they measured MOI for the GT line as well as TSR. Under their measurement, the TSR2 was roughly 8,300 MOI and GT2 is 8,000. The TSR3 was 8,000 and the GT3 is 7,000. I went in thinking I wanted the GT2 9 (coming in with TSR3 9) for a little more forgiveness but I didn't see any gains so these MOI measurements are interesting in hindsight. 

 

I still think there is some improvement in spin across the face, and the sound is absolutely better, but there might not be gains for a lot of people if they're coming from a recent release like TSR and they're already fit for their driver. 

[jimb]

On 7/25/2024 at 8:49 AM, KingKong said:

Booked a driver fitting at PGA SS in dirty Myrtle Beach next Monday. Surely they will have the new GT line to throw in the mix. 

I lived in MB, actually Carolina Forest, for 6 years.  Left 2 years ago.  I was a frequent customer at the PGA Tour Superstore there.  Loved the place.

[CanFred]

Planning to book a fitting soon - I'm pretty sure I'll be fit in 2, but I'd love to try out the others just to see the differences.  For those that have purchased already, I'm assuming you had the full selection of shafts to choose from as well?  I absolutely love the feel of the VB TR, but I'm curious what everyone else ended up with (and if you had a different shaft pre-fitting).

[TeeTime907]

4 hours ago, PNW said:

 

To follow up on this, I just watched the Cool Clubs long review and they measured MOI for the GT line as well as TSR. Under their measurement, the TSR2 was roughly 8,300 MOI and GT2 is 8,000. The TSR3 was 8,000 and the GT3 is 7,000. I went in thinking I wanted the GT2 9 (coming in with TSR3 9) for a little more forgiveness but I didn't see any gains so these MOI measurements are interesting in hindsight. 

 

I still think there is some improvement in spin across the face, and the sound is absolutely better, but there might not be gains for a lot of people if they're coming from a recent release like TSR and they're already fit for their driver. 

This is interesting what Titleist had to say about lower MOI.

 

 Making the case for less is more. While there has been in some circles a push toward driver designs lately with an extreme moment of inertia, including those that push a combined stability in the horizontal and vertical planes above the 10,000 grams-centimeters squared mark, Titleist’s GT driver philosophy is decidedly not in that camp. These latest models, with a more forward and lower CG, actually show a slightly lower moment of inertia than their predecessors. That’s an immaterial concession, Luttrell said flatly.

“When you focus solely on one parameter, it can oftentimes be at the detriment of other aspects of club performance,” she said. “Moment of inertia is logarithmic in terms of its benefit, and so the higher that you get, the less impactful it is to you. So where these products all live is still in a space that's incredibly stable for launch and spin stability, as well as speed stability.”

Translation: Super high MOI, in Titleist’s design brief, compromises overall performance. Moreover, the company points to research that indicates 85 percent of all driver impacts occur within a half-inch of the center of the face, a region she says isn’t going to be improved by super-high MOI designs.

 

“As you seek to design for moment of inertia, there are penalties for seeking out that max inertia,” Luttrell said. “You lose speed because of your center gravity position, because of its depth. Do you want to design a driver to be as fast and as great performing as you can for 85 percent of the time? Or do you want to design it for the 15 percent of the time and sacrifice the 85 percent?”

[PNW]

19 minutes ago, TeeTime907 said:

This is interesting what Titleist had to say about lower MOI.

 

 

 Making the case for less is more. While there has been in some circles a push toward driver designs lately with an extreme moment of inertia, including those that push a combined stability in the horizontal and vertical planes above the 10,000 grams-centimeters squared mark, Titleist’s GT driver philosophy is decidedly not in that camp. These latest models, with a more forward and lower CG, actually show a slightly lower moment of inertia than their predecessors. That’s an immaterial concession, Luttrell said flatly.

“When you focus solely on one parameter, it can oftentimes be at the detriment of other aspects of club performance,” she said. “Moment of inertia is logarithmic in terms of its benefit, and so the higher that you get, the less impactful it is to you. So where these products all live is still in a space that's incredibly stable for launch and spin stability, as well as speed stability.”

Translation: Super high MOI, in Titleist’s design brief, compromises overall performance. Moreover, the company points to research that indicates 85 percent of all driver impacts occur within a half-inch of the center of the face, a region she says isn’t going to be improved by super-high MOI designs.

 

“As you seek to design for moment of inertia, there are penalties for seeking out that max inertia,” Luttrell said. “You lose speed because of your center gravity position, because of its depth. Do you want to design a driver to be as fast and as great performing as you can for 85 percent of the time? Or do you want to design it for the 15 percent of the time and sacrifice the 85 percent?”

They talked about this point in the Cool Clubs video and I do think there’s merit to it as a generalization. 
 

That being said, I still find the TSR3 is a really nice balance of these factors. 

[Phebus]

I’m planning on doing a fitting and hitting it head to head against my G43010k. I love the Ping, so I have high hopes the Titleist can beat it. If I can improve on what I currently have I’m all in. 

[LongNwrong27]

7 hours ago, TeeTime907 said:

This is interesting what Titleist had to say about lower MOI.

 

 

 Making the case for less is more. While there has been in some circles a push toward driver designs lately with an extreme moment of inertia, including those that push a combined stability in the horizontal and vertical planes above the 10,000 grams-centimeters squared mark, Titleist’s GT driver philosophy is decidedly not in that camp. These latest models, with a more forward and lower CG, actually show a slightly lower moment of inertia than their predecessors. That’s an immaterial concession, Luttrell said flatly.

“When you focus solely on one parameter, it can oftentimes be at the detriment of other aspects of club performance,” she said. “Moment of inertia is logarithmic in terms of its benefit, and so the higher that you get, the less impactful it is to you. So where these products all live is still in a space that's incredibly stable for launch and spin stability, as well as speed stability.”

Translation: Super high MOI, in Titleist’s design brief, compromises overall performance. Moreover, the company points to research that indicates 85 percent of all driver impacts occur within a half-inch of the center of the face, a region she says isn’t going to be improved by super-high MOI designs.

 

“As you seek to design for moment of inertia, there are penalties for seeking out that max inertia,” Luttrell said. “You lose speed because of your center gravity position, because of its depth. Do you want to design a driver to be as fast and as great performing as you can for 85 percent of the time? Or do you want to design it for the 15 percent of the time and sacrifice the 85 percent?”

Well seeing as those 15 percent of misses can be highly detrimental to your score, I will take the ping and TM approach to this. Think this is just marketing schpiel 

[cw1209]

8 hours ago, TeeTime907 said:

This is interesting what Titleist had to say about lower MOI.

 

 

 Making the case for less is more. While there has been in some circles a push toward driver designs lately with an extreme moment of inertia, including those that push a combined stability in the horizontal and vertical planes above the 10,000 grams-centimeters squared mark, Titleist’s GT driver philosophy is decidedly not in that camp. These latest models, with a more forward and lower CG, actually show a slightly lower moment of inertia than their predecessors. That’s an immaterial concession, Luttrell said flatly.

“When you focus solely on one parameter, it can oftentimes be at the detriment of other aspects of club performance,” she said. “Moment of inertia is logarithmic in terms of its benefit, and so the higher that you get, the less impactful it is to you. So where these products all live is still in a space that's incredibly stable for launch and spin stability, as well as speed stability.”

Translation: Super high MOI, in Titleist’s design brief, compromises overall performance. Moreover, the company points to research that indicates 85 percent of all driver impacts occur within a half-inch of the center of the face, a region she says isn’t going to be improved by super-high MOI designs.

 

“As you seek to design for moment of inertia, there are penalties for seeking out that max inertia,” Luttrell said. “You lose speed because of your center gravity position, because of its depth. Do you want to design a driver to be as fast and as great performing as you can for 85 percent of the time? Or do you want to design it for the 15 percent of the time and sacrifice the 85 percent?”

 

Nothing in this statement is new. It is the foundation for every "Low spin" driver out there. Moving the CG lower and forward will give you higher ball speed, lower spin, less forgiveness. Moving the CG up and back will give you lower ball speed, higher spin, more forgiveness. Some manufactures have a very consistent driver design philosophy. Others evolve a bit with time. Titleist's statement is consistent with what Cobra has been doing for years. 

[BirdieBob]

 

[Bad9]

On 7/9/2024 at 10:50 PM, Kai Slater said:

Can a regular 80s shooter like me use the Titleist GT or even the TSR series drivers?  I 've always been under the impression that only the most accomplished, talented, and elite golfers can play with Titleist clubs; like they're so difficult to hit that only the best of the best players can use them.

 

Despite their advertising in the past Titleist has always made clubs for non accomplished, untalented and non elite golfers.

[BirdieBob]

 

[JungleJimbo]

On 8/1/2024 at 11:03 PM, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

If you want to see some swings and speeds that even will make WRX'ers envious,  watch the True Spec Video with Sammy!

 

Good Lord, it was impressive

 

 

Wow... Look at those numbers (and it was Sammy's first hit with the GT2 here... 128 CHS, and Ball Speed 184mph...  timestamp ~2m05s).