Titleist T300 Review (2021 Model)

[MissionMan]

Intro

Been gaming some T300s since January after a club fitting, so I thought I would put a pen to paper and write a review.
Some background on me:

49-year-old male. 6 foot, about 195 pounds. Used to break 80s as a youngen but hadn't played for the better part of 15 years due to moving countries, kitesurfing, children and a whole heap of other excuses you probably don't care about.
Got back into golf in about October 2022 after I played a golf day and hit a ball about a foot from the hole on a par 3 and got my first birdie in 15 years. You know the drug, and you know the result. It's pretty much a carbon copy of that St Andre's Golf video. My wife bought me a new set of clubs as a birthday present, and I did a club fitting.

The clubs arrived Jan 2023 after a 4-week delay due to Christmas /New Year.

Specs

• Loft: Standard Loft
• Lie: Standard Lie
• Dexterity: RH
• Length: Standard
• Shaft: True Temper AMT Black
• Shaft Flex: R300
• Grip: Golf Pride Decade Multi Compound +4 Gray

I picked up regular shafts. In reality, I'm a borderline (or was at the time of the fitting) between regular and stiff and I could game a stiff but I figured I'm only going to get older and slower.

Grips

I'll start with the grips, and I'll be short and sweet with these. They're amazing. For anyone that isn't familiar, the MCC +4 are grip's designed to have a slightly larger lower hand grip, hence the +4 referring to them being the equivalent of 4 layers of tape on the bottom hand. It makes it feel a lot more natural when you grip down. Handles the wet, no problem. would highly recommend them.

The clubs

I'll start with the myths about these clubs because I often see misinformation posted about game improvement irons in general and these clubs.

• Myth 1: The T300 clubs are delofted and therefore get added distance by hitters the ball lower. These clubs hit high, higher than the T100 and T200. The dynamic loft is a lot higher, apparently due to the tungsten weighting, so the technology of the clubs means traditional lofts don’t work. As a result, I hit them higher than any previous gen clubs I’ve hit with traditional lofts. This is supported by some of the professional tests I’ve seen where the pros confirm they also hit the T300 higher than the T100.
• Myth 2: Game improvement irons are for beginners. I got these with the idea that I would outgrow them. In reality, I can’t see myself outgrowing them for a while.
• Myth 3: You can't feel when you've mishit a T300. In reality, if you can’t feel when you mishit the T300, you’re either not mishitting it, or you have never hit the centre. A centre hit feels like butter and sounds soft; an off centre hit feels noticeable and makes more of a clack sound. If you can’t tell the difference between them, you aren’t doing one of them.

Okay, let's get into the review and look at the important stuff.

Construction & Aesthetics

First off, construction is good. These aren’t cheap and they don’t look or feel cheap. I think people often look at game improvement as cheap and player's distance as more expensive. In reality, you get cheap and expensive versions of both. The difference between the T300 and cheap game improvement irons however is noticeable. 

As a result, the quality of construction is great, and they take everyday bumps in their stride. From an aesthetics perspective, Titleist has done a good job of disguising the thickness a little so when you look down at address, it doesn’t seem that thick. I played it alongside a T100S and whilst the difference is noticeable side by side, it’s actually not that big when you play the clubs individually.

Distance & Forgiveness

I didn’t try a wide variety of clubs, but the distance on these is really good and it’s not unusual for me to be getting smash factors in the 1.4’s. I’m hitting a good 7 iron around 170 yards. That isn’t my trying to hit the crap out of it swing. That’s my 90% swing. I can hit it 190 yards at a push, but I tend to go with a slightly softer swing on my irons and reserve my big swings for the tee. For someone turning 50 in a couple of months, I’m pretty happy with that, and I don’t feel like I’m having to swing too hard to get that.

Whilst they are still forgiving for mishits, they aren’t miracle clubs. You mishit and you will still find yourself short, but you may be on the front fringe instead of in the water. So while a 170 yard is my usual carry, I find I’ll mishit around 160 which isn’t too bad.

Workability & Straightness

Like the above, I feel that these two go a little hand in hand. The T300’s are a lower spin clubs, which is part of the way they get the extra distance. It has pros and cons which I guess will depend on the player. I see the T300 as a good balance for me where my golf is now. 
They hit long and straight because the lower spin helps keep them straighter, they let me know when I hit the ball badly, but they’re forgiving when I do. I can hit low stingers and hook/slices when I need to. I can stop everything up to a 5 iron on the spot with Pro v1’s. I can spin my my 48, PW and 9 iron off the front of the green so I have to be careful about green slopes. I may not be able to replicate the way tiger hooks a ball, but I don’t think that’s the clubs fault. I don’t see these as being a major limitation to my game and I know of scratch golfers who game them.

How has this impacted my game?

In one word, incredible. When I first got the clubs, there was a short two week teething period where my game went down. When you do the fitting, you don’t realise back on the course, it’ll take some work to get used to the clubs because your tempo is off. After the two week period, it was game on and I shot a couple of 9’s where I was one over par for the 9 and I managed one sub-par 9.  

Since I got the clubs, I’ve won the club monthly medal (April) playing off a 9 handicap and shooting a net 68 in stroke play. I got a hole-in-one a week ago with my pitching wedge with a perfect shot, a ball that landed a yard behind the pin, with one bounce forward and spun back into the hole. I’m also in the quarter-finals for our annual pairs comp, which is supposedly the biggest event at the club and runs over about 4 months.

My handicap has been a little erratic. I got the clubs when I was a 14 handicap in January. Since then, I've been as low as 7, and I am currently 9. This is due to the low number of cards I had in the early stages (only 6) when I got the clubs. I hadn’t played in over a decade and only competition scores count. 

But it’s golf. I have days of shooting sub-80s and I can shoot a 95 the next day. I still lose my swing for a day, only to find it a couple of days later. I shot 90 a week ago and then shot a 79 on the weekend playing in 40 knot winds, where I only missed two fairways the entire 18 holes. But I think that’s why the T300’s work for me. My swing is still a little erratic and we only think about the times when we’re playing well, and forget about the bad days when having a little help is important. 

For those who are interested, my handicap isn’t because of chipping; it’s probably the opposite. If my chipping and putting were better, I’d be 4-5 shots better off and that’s just if I was a mediocre chipper and putter, my chipping and putting is poor and it's typically where I get most of my bogies. I’ve spent a fair amount of time getting my swing right and that means neglecting other areas, that’s on me, not the clubs, and the lack of practice facilities on the course, so the only practice time I get with chipping is game time. I’m working on those now, so hopefully, that should see some improvements from here
 

[Hook DeLoft]

Great review.  BTW, I agree with your statements on the myths of GI irons.  However, once a player’s swing speed drops below a certain point, the GI clubs don’t fly any higher than traditional designs. But at that point, most would be better off with a bag full of hybrids. 

[Fred Mitchell]

Loving my T300'S and I get more height than the traditional lofted clubs they replaced. I was using the MCC+4 but have switched to the Tour Velvet +4 .

[CrazyGolfNut]

I like the T300 and also agree with your review.  Thanks for taking the time to write it. 

[jbsap]

I played a set of t300's as a rental set on a vacation to Florida in February.  I found them to be surprisingly good for me if I accounted for playing a stock stiff shaft ( I game c taper lite x flex in my p770's).    I think the t300 is in the running for best looking GI iron at address.  Incredibly easy to hit, so much so that with the right shaft in them I wouldn't hesitate to say I could game them with a little bit of a loft adjustment.  

[Nolan220]

I did the 2021 T300 review for the forum and I am still gaming them and dont plan on switching them for a long time... as of lately with some swing improvement I am hitting the ball really well and a lot longer. My one big issue was I used to play Mizunos JPX HM 900 and the feel was incredible but I am starting to really like the feel of the T300s not sure its bc i am used to them more but the sound and feel are great. Good review @MissionMan