Welcome to GOLF.com’s ClubTest Proving Floor, the place managing gear editor Jonathan Wall places the newest designs and groundbreaking know-how within the gear area to the check on the vary and the course.
The instruments: Titleist GT2 and GT3 drivers
The check: To see how GT compares to the gamer driver in a head-to-head competitors.
The outcomes: A number of years in the past, I sat down with Tiger Woods to debate his gear testing course of and walked away with a worthwhile piece of perception: By no means check if you’re scraping it across the course. As a lot as all of us need to consider rust will be knocked off after a half-bucket, it at all times takes longer than you think about.
“I’ve at all times examined once I’m really hitting effectively,” Woods instructed me. “I don’t need to check once I’m hitting poorly as a result of then I feel you will discover a membership that’s going to Band‑Support it, and you actually don’t know what really goes to occur when your sport turns round. And so I might push off testings till I labored on my sport.”
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$649
GT3 – Velocity-Tuned Distance & Management
GT3 presents Titleist’s boldest mixture of energy and personalization. With a speed-tuned design that lets you exactly match efficiency to your most frequent contact location, you may make your greatest drives even larger whereas taking complete management over flight and shaping.
For gamers with a comparatively constant affect location, GT3 presents a exactly adjustable CG Observe to max out distance and directional management.
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Cut up Mass Building
A breakthrough in inner weighting unlocks longer drives and enhanced directional management in GT3. The Adjustable CG Observe now sits nearer to the face for extra dynamic CG management, whereas extra discretionary mass is pushed to the again of the membership to take care of optimum stability by means of affect.
Superior Aerodynamics
GT3 includes a new raised tail contour that represents a dramatic shift in driver aerodynamics. Beforehand unimaginable to execute attributable to design constraints, this superior shaping leads to a driver that swings sooner whereas nonetheless offering optimum CG management.
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That is me outing myself for not following Tiger’s recommendation throughout a latest journey to TPI (Titleist Efficiency Institute) for GT driver and fairway wooden testing. Life bought in the best way and I couldn’t put within the vary time earlier than leaving time. It occurs.
My worst fears have been realized shortly after I linked up with my becoming guru, Joey Saewitz, and began making some driver swings. Clubhead pace was down in an enormous manner — I’m used to registering 110-plus mph however was hovering round 103-105 — and I couldn’t discover face middle. To maintain me from spiraling, Saewitz pulled me over and supplied some sage recommendation.
“We’re not as environment friendly as we must be,” he stated. “Should you hyper-focus on effectivity, that to me would imply you’re going to search out middle extra incessantly. If we are able to get there first, I might think about launch and spin goes to turn into much more constant.”
Should you’ve by no means heard the time period “smash issue” earlier than, it analyzes the quantity of power transferred from head to ball at affect. Merely divide ball pace by membership pace to get your quantity. The nearer you will get to 1.5, the extra environment friendly the strike. I’ve appeared on the quantity earlier than when testing, however I are inclined to fixate on ball pace (significantly on mishits), dispersion and spin fee greater than smash.
To flip the testing script, Joey handed me a GT3 driver — I additionally examined GT2 as effectively, however the adjustable CG observe within the sole made it simpler to get rid of the appropriate miss for this lefty — with what I might shortly inform was a shorter shaft. However he didn’t reveal something in regards to the construct past the mannequin. The primary swing felt pure. So did the subsequent.
“Let me present you this actual fast,” Saewitz stated. “This will probably be actually cool so that you can see.”
Joey wasn’t kidding. The mixture of GT’s new design, extra loft (11 levels) and a shorter 44.5-inch shaft produced back-to-back 1.5s. In different phrases, completely environment friendly driver strikes.
From that time ahead, I might really feel my confidence rising as I continued to take extra cuts and watched my ball speeds normalize. For somebody who has traditionally performed a forty five.5-inch driver, going to a shorter, heavier construct didn’t sap my ball pace. Throughout latest at-home testing, I produced nearly the identical ball pace numbers as my gamer with tighter spin charges throughout the whole face that ranged from 2,300 to 2,700 RPMs on most strikes. (Within the curiosity of full transparency, I left my gamer at dwelling attributable to some journey situation and wound up testing a unique TSR head whereas I used to be at TPI, which is a part of the rationale why the preliminary ball pace features, over 6 mph, have been so excessive. So once I speak about my ball pace numbers normalizing, I’m evaluating it to latest testing I performed at dwelling.)
Whereas the tight spin fee deltas have been spectacular, the largest win in my eyes was discovering a solution to preserve the numbers playable on high-toe misses. Normally, I’m used to seeing spin dip to 1,200 and under because the ball knuckles arduous to the appropriate. There’s a sense of helplessness that comes with a high-toe miss because it’s leaving the planet.
Nevertheless, I by no means noticed the standard shot form replicated with GT3. As a substitute, I watched in amazement because the ball hung within the air and crossed the middle line with a mild draw form at 2,000 RPMs. I’m unsure I can ever recall testing a driver that each one however negated my snap-hook. To say it’s been an absolute game-changer could be an understatement.
If something, the GT3 has made it simpler to swing freely with out having to fret in regards to the “massive miss.”
Conclusion: Over time, I’ve come to prioritize ball pace retention on off-center misses and dispersion greater than pure ball pace out of the middle. If it’s constant and doesn’t expose my greatest flaws, I’ll most definitely take into account it for future testing and a spot within the bag. Pure distance is good, however I’m not prepared to make sacrifices for just a few extra yards.
Jonathan Wall/GOLF
Because the becoming at TPI, I’ve seen the identical outcomes play out throughout preliminary on-course testing. My fairways hit proportion has ticked up and I’m letting it rip doubtless creeping in on when the snap-hook will floor. Each of these make the sport extra enjoyable, which is all that issues lately. Lose fewer balls, shoot decrease scores and embrace the quiet hours spent on the course. What a life.
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