Titleist GT Long Game - 2024 Forum Review

[RetiredBoomer]

There's one thing about the Titleist GT "woods" that I absolutely LOVE,
especially for their DTC-ordering customers.

If you order a non-standard length, the Titleist website actually tells you which specific weight 
to request being installed
to restore the club to original swing weight.

Unless I missed it,
which is entirely possible,
Callaway, Cleveland, Cobra, Mizuno, PXG, Srixon, TaylorMade, Wilson, and others
don't give you that info on their DTC ordering forms..

They also give you the easiest to understand guide
for requesting what sleeve setting you want,
whether or not you buy a wrench.

 

 

 

[Rearviewmirror]

Interesting round today with the GT3 3W and GT2 7W. As others have noted, the GT3 16.5º is an absolute weapon off the tee.

GT3 3W Performance:

I'm not going to count the last hole (as one of my insta-playing partners started whistling in my backswing - sigh) but my stats for it today were:

4th Tee - 222 yards (right rough)

8th Tee - 249 yards (right rough) - approach shot was into a 2 club wind, but the 3W penetrated great.

11th Tee - 225 yards (right fairway)

13th Tee - 227 yards (center cut)

As you can see, it's pretty consistent and seems to definitely have a little bit of right bias when set up neutral for me. I seemed to have a bit of a tendency towards toe contact so I have switched the weight back to T1, but will keep the shaft in A-1 to see if I can get the best of both worlds (my original fitted setup was B1 but produced too much of a push draw).

GT2 7W Performance:

Very interesting round for the 7W today, and I think I'm starting to find it just a little too hot to replace my 4H in terms of carry/total. Possibly not a fair comparison to make given the loft difference, but it does seem to launch quite a bit lower than the Ping G425/G430 fairway woods. 

Distance stats today were:

3rd Tee - 217 yards (center cut)

9th Tee - 224 yards (right fairway)

15th Tee - 234 yards (left rough and had a tailwind)

17th Fairway - 204 yards (semi-rough behind green)

The shot I was a little disappointed in was the approach shot on 17 - it was a solid eagle opportunity, and the ball landed on the green and just didn't want to hold. The trajectory was quite low, but even so it was a solid strike but ran out ~10 yards after hitting the green and running up an upslope instead of holding. I'll keep an eye on the distances on my next round out, as it does seem to come out a little "hot" compared to what I'm looking for out of it given that I'm looking for more like 205 yards with a steep landing angle.

 

I will say, today was quite windy (gusting up to 20mph, steady at 10mph) and both fairway woods seemed to really hold up well into the wind, particularly the GT3 3W. The one place I'm still struggling a little is to get the 3W to consistently launch off the deck (which was my problem with my G425 3W). That said, it is allowing me to consistently get 10-15yds more off the tee on very narrow holes, and has kind of replaced my 5W as my safety club.

The challenge I have now is the 7W/5W is making for a bit of a congested top of the bag - as I have 3 clubs all vying for a spot between 210 to 240 yards. If I can get the 7W launching a bit higher and stopping sooner it would be perfect, but I already have it set to A-4. My only other thought is whether adjusting the weight in the GT2 might dial it back a bit more.

[Golf2Much]

I had a unique situation this weekend that unintentionally gave me some insight into the Titleist driver and fairway assessment.  

Our Lower Keys Golf Association raised money to support the local high school golf team and junior golf in general.  When the next closest 18 hole golf course is 130 plus miles away, there's going to be some incremental expenses not seen with most high school teams.  Part of our efforts is a monthly scramble event.  I was part of a threesome which meant the B and C players would alternate which hole each would be able to make two shots.   I was the B player, so on the even holes I had the opportunity to hit two drives, fairway, chips and putts.  

The one thing I walked away from yesterday's scramble is how consistent the GT driver and fairway woods were.  I'd hit two identical balls, back-to-back from the tee and/or fairway and more often than not, both would be relatively close to one another even if one was a good swing and the second...not so good.  I saw that scenario time and time again through the round.  My good swings yielded good results and less than perfect swings still yielded better than expected results.  And that was with wet cart path only conditions. 

Hitting back to back and seeing the consistency in length and position with varying swings is certainly will be a plus going forward.

[yungkory]

GT3 was so, SO, good in its debut round. 9/12 fairways -- would've been 10 if I didn't hit a line drive into the coconut tree. Feels very anti-left with the TR Black which is exactly what I requested in my fitting. Would love to hit 5y fades off the tee but most of them were just dead straight

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Sorry it's been a few days since I have posted here, gang! Haven't gotten back out on the course or range since last week but hoping to get up to the range tomorrow. Thinking maybe a bit of time off may help my brain reset back to a swing where I am hitting the ball well again with driver. 

Hoping to play Friday and Sunday this week as the weather is rapidly turning on us (freeze warning tomorrow morning )

[RichL85]

Sums up the past few days and why I unfortunately don't have any updates today. I have a round scheduled for tomorrow, so I'm hoping that the GTs keep showing the results I've been seeing. Depending on which sections of the course I'm playing, the fairways may get a lot of use off the tee so it should be a good test for them. 

[ctg44]

The GT2 and I had this little gem yesterday:



354 to the greenside bunker...in all fairness, it's a little downhill to the green and the bunker is below the green, and it was downwind, but hey, a bunker shot to a few feet and a made birdie putt = good way to end a quick 9 holes after a long weekend of freezing my rear off officiating ice hockey games.

[ctg44]

5 hours ago, RichL85 said:

Sums up the past few days and why I unfortunately don't have any updates today. I have a round scheduled for tomorrow, so I'm hoping that the GTs keep showing the results I've been seeing. Depending on which sections of the course I'm playing, the fairways may get a lot of use off the tee so it should be a good test for them. 

That was this weekend for me.  I worked 13 youth / adult hockey games during a big tournament weekend from Friday - Monday.  I saw the beautiful weather on the way in and out of the ice rink...

[Rearviewmirror]

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record here...

GT3 3W Performance:

Again, the tee performance was mostly amazing. I do feel like I was a bit conscious of the weight in the toe, and as a result left the face open a few times. I definitely felt like I got a bit more distance with it like that, so I may go back to the original fitted configuration next round out and see if that tames a bit of the left to right movement i'm seeing.

As you can see from the above tee shot image, this is a TIGHT driving hole - right is OB and there's very little margin for error as if you push it right it's behind a big tree (center bottom of the image) and if you go left of the fairway you're under some other trees). This hole used to cause me fits with driver as there's not much room for any mistakes, but taking a hybrid or 200yd club leaves a very long approach to a fairly narrow green. Today felt like an absolutely zero stress way to play it. My ball was dead center in the fairway, leaving a very simple PW into the wind. 

The wind was howling again today, mostly into, and I maintain that whatever spin the GT3 and GT2 fairway woods are imparting is keeping the ball from losing distance. 245yds with my 3W is amazing. I definitely didn't have my best stuff today, and the 3W performance was amazing. I also hit it 241yds from the rough onto the green on a par 5 (!!). Great strikes are 240-245yds and mediocre strikes are in the 215-220yd range which is totally acceptable.

This club is absolutely delivering and if I can get myself sorted with a predictable dispersion this thing will be in the bag for a LONG time.

GT2 7W Performance:

We're back up to a +0.06 strokes gained off my 9-handicap target! When I get the ball flight right, it definitely does stop and drop. I was 1/4 GIR with it today (all around 200yds out) with two misses pin high right, and one long of the green. Interestingly it does seem a bit more prone to catching a flyer out of the rough than my G425 4-hybrid - so I'll have to watch out for that in future. One of my shots went 224yds today - which would have been dead on some holes with trouble long.

 

Today was NOT a long-game clinic, but both of those clubs really shone at various moments during the round. 

[GolferXY]

Whew!!!  I finally got time to download the recent round.  Not a great round, in truth I'm not getting the distance I was hoping for.  Max driver is about 255. 

Max 3 wood is about 220 - I've occasionally hit the Calloway Epic Flash 3 wood 240ish. 

And I'm struggling to square up the 5 wood, with most everything going left and as with the 3 wood, much, much shorter than I'd hoped.

I have hit the 5 wood good a couple of times, most notably a second shot on a par 5 that carried 220 and gave me an eagle putt last week, but over-all I'm kinda lost with that club.  Sunday I hit a couple of nice shots with it, but I'm toe-ing it a lot.  Again, back to my last post I need to get some range time in, to iron out [no pun intended] where to place the ball in my stance and possibly get more consistent results.  With the height I'm getting great stopping power when I make good contact.  However, and this is true for all three clubs, I'm not feeling the power with these clubs.  If I hit it on the screws, it's great.  Anything outside of the dime-spot on the face feels weak and out of control.

I am seeing consistent distance and direction with the driver, though I see a tendency to leave the ball out to the right instead of the draw I normally play off the tee.  I've decided to hit the range tomorrow and tweak the lofts on the fairways to get a bit more length.  I get plenty of height with these clubs, just not happy with distance and consistency.  This doesn't surprise me because the fitting was primarily for the driver, with only a handful of shots with 3 wood and one or two with the 5 wood.  None of the shots in the fitting were particularly good, and I don't really understand how I was fitted into the GT2 fairways except to suppose that since I was fitted into the GT 2 driver, the fitter wanted to be consistent.  I can't help but wonder if I would have hit the Gt 3 fairways better.  Also, I am wondering if the lie of these clubs may be negatively affecting my ability to square the ball up with them.  Again, off to the range for some data and tweaking.

I'm really not complaining, here.  Helene and Milton have ravished the southeast of our nation, war and rumors of war, blah blah blah.  But for testing purposes I'm trying to be honest.  The real problem as usual is my short putts, so scores and attitude are a non-positive result of the gap between my ears, not the clubs in my hands.  I'm having fun with the testing, and with 4 days off I plan to be hitting a bunch of balls and hopefully dialing in the new sticks.

Lastly, I want to reach out to our Spies on the Atlantic coast.  Here's wishing those affected by recent events my best wishes.  

[RichL85]

Would have loved to give an on course update for the GT3's today, but unfortunately, plans changed due to my daughter being sick. Ended up on sick kid duty for most of the day and I was only able to hit the range for a bit in the afternoon. I had to work through a small swing issue, so it may have been a good thing in retrospect. I'm still hitting the driver and 5 wood well with the 3 wood being a little more hit or miss. By the end I was hitting it better, but I don't have the same confidence in it off the ground that I do the 5 wood yet. Another sim round scheduled on Friday and then a couple outdoor rounds next week.

[Rearviewmirror]

I'm looking forward to getting out for my round tomorrow - it's a very tight course and so there'll be ample room to test out the 3W off the tee on real pressure drives, and a couple of long par 3s that are perfect for the 7W. 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Getting in 18 today and tomorrow, and then have 18 booked down in Jacksonville next weekend Saturday when we go down for the Packers game! Probably will be my last few strong runs of on course testing with the GT woods, at which time I'll look to book a sim session at Golf Galaxy to get on Trackman. 

[Rearviewmirror]

57 minutes ago, GolfSpy_KFT said:

Getting in 18 today and tomorrow, and then have 18 booked down in Jacksonville next weekend Saturday when we go down for the Packers game! Probably will be my last few strong runs of on course testing with the GT woods, at which time I'll look to book a sim session at Golf Galaxy to get on Trackman. 

I'm considering doing a Swing Catalyst session with my coach in the next 6-8 weeks as well. I'm kind of fascinated to see what it says!

[GolferXY]

Well, I delofted the fairways and got some extra yardage on them.  Meanwhile, the driver is consistently around 250 with bad strikes losing up to 30 yards on those toe-ey crapfest drives.  The driver also feels significantly heavier than my Qi10, with slightly lower swing speeds and longer carry numbers.  I was happy to see 105 swing speeds, with a pully smash that went 107 mph and 270 but 40 yards off target.  THAT won't hold too many fairways!

With the lofts now adjusted I get similar distance on the GT 3-wood as I do on my Calloway Epic Flash, but straighter and more consistent.  The 5-wood is now coming along nicely, with some consistent distances and more accuracy.

I'm heading back out to the range today to get some numbers on the grass.

[RichL85]

Tried my luck at Spyglass on the sim today. For my skill level, I am pretty happy with the score.

I still think I have some setup issues indoors compared to outdoors. No matter how much I try, I just cannot get the sim to recognize a fade with the driver. It's probably something small like standing too far away or something of that nature, but it can cause issues on some holes. Longest drives of the day were 260 and 269. I personally have some work to do on the swing front, but hit 9/14 fairways and one of those misses was all of about 4 inches off the right side. Best part is that I'm not seeing that pull hook miss much with the GT3. 

On a non-golf related note, the CG weight in the GT3 is a bit of a pain to reposition. I can't really explain how it might have happened, but there was some water inside the clubhead when I took the first few swings. Took the head off the shaft and the weight cover off to make sure it was emptied out. Since I have the weight at the T1 position, that happens to be very close to the "entry point" for the track that the weight slides along. In the process of loosening that cover off, the weight moved out of the track and took a bit to get everything set back correctly. 

Edited October 18 by RichL85

[Rearviewmirror]

Bit of a weird round today... I recently put the Autoflex back in play (in my G430 10K) and I've come to the conclusion that I think it messes up my swing tempo on both approach shots and drives. 

As a result I don't think I can blame the GTs at all... The 3W was producing great distance (232, 237, and 247 yards) but I couldn't keep it on the map today. I don't think I was swinging the clubs well enough today to really give much insight into it, but it was a little bit disappointing as only 1/5 tee shots with it was what I've come to expect (bullet straight out to 237yds).

Despite hitting some great 7W shots at the range, the miss today was a pull left (with anything longer than a 6i, so again, me not the clubs). Distance consistency remains amazing - and I'm seeing it consistently get out to ~190/200yds when well struck off the deck. It's back to level pegging on strokes gained, but that's pretty great compared to the 4h it replaced which was -0.12 SG. 

I'm going to get out for a range session on Tuesday morning and really focus in on getting my tempo back to normal. This was a "it's me" day, not the clubs.

[rkj427]

@Rearviewmirror just a question to compare your 4H to the 7 wood.

Off the grass do you hit them the same distance as one another?

Reason I ask, is I go driver, 3 wood, and then 4H, and the 4H is shorter than a 5 wood distance wise, but longer than my 4 iron.

For me, fairway woods or hybrids off the grass are not an issue to make good contact with, looking more for some information on distance gaps for myself.

 

[Rearviewmirror]

23 minutes ago, rkj427 said:

@Rearviewmirror just a question to compare your 4H to the 7 wood.

Off the grass do you hit them the same distance as one another?

I think probably pretty similar - maybe 5-10yds less but that's mainly from a thicker lie. One thing I have noticed that I have never experienced with my Ping hybrid or fairway woods is the likelihood of catching a flyer. I have hit the 7-wood 224yds, which is a good 15yds more than normal and I think was entirely down to the lie. It makes me wonder if the Ping faces are differently coated, or the groove pattern sheds water more effectively.

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Had a bit of a mixed bag over the weekend with driving success with the GT3. My swing has seemingly decided to play hide and seek with me, and it is winning in the hiding department. However, I was able to hit three strong drives this morning with distances of 309, 297 and 280. I also had one go 304 on Friday afternoon. I have never in my life hit multiple 300 yard drives until putting this club into play. I know that once my swing is ironed out, which I plan on putting A LOT of work into over the winter offseason, it will become a regular strong point of my game.

Also hit one of the best off the deck three wood shots of my life Friday afternoon with the GT2. I had snapped a drive into the right rough on the par five 7th and needed to lob a wedge over some trees to get back to the fairway. I was left with about 205 yards to the middle of the green into a STRONG headwind. I hit an absolutely perfect 3 wood that carried just long of the green and into a backstop and rolled down to the fringe. I also hit some very good tee shots with the three wood over the weekend as well.

All three of these clubs will become weapons with more time and practice, and I can safely say I could not be happier with their performance. My season is nearing it's end, and the GT line has put a high note on it for me for sure.

[GolferXY]

I wish I could say this is my normal shot, but no.  This is the best shot out of 50 drives at the range.  However, the average is around 250 and getting more comfortable with the driver. 

 

 

I used to hit a low driving draw that turned into a hook on mis hits.  The new trajectory is welcome since it is adding about 20 yards to my carry numbers, from 220 to 240, but roll out is significantly less.  Overall, I hit it between 240-260 with the new driver where I would often hit them 270 with the lower trajectory..  But those longer drives where less controlled and only one or two a round.  Hitting it 250 on 14 driving holes and hitting from the short grass instead of out of trees works out to a big change in scoring opportunities!

Edited Tuesday at 07:30 PM by GolferXY

[Rearviewmirror]

On 10/20/2024 at 11:38 PM, GolfSpy_KFT said:

My swing has seemingly decided to play hide and seek with me, and it is winning in the hiding department.

Seeing my coach on Sunday for this very reason... The Autoflex is out of the driver so hoping that I can get back to normal. Playing a round right after my lesson so we will see how I go on a brand new course post-lesson haha.

[Golf2Much]

I'm still gathering on course data and feelings on my Titleist driver and fairway woods.   From an anecdotal perspective, here are a few high-level observations:

• Even with extremely wet fairways for the last month (basically cart path only for three weeks) I'm getting equal to longer drives with my new Titleist driver.
• More impressive is that the ultimate distance with good and let's say not so good swings yields less differential in observed distance as compared to my previous Ping G430 Max HL.
• We had to pick two fairway woods for this assessment.   I carried a Callaway three wood and five wood (delofted Heavenwood) and a Ping seven wood.  When we got to the decision point, I brought up going with the four and seven wood.  After some discussion, he agreed.  I really only used the three wood once or twice a round, so it seemed like a good compromise.  Turns out, the four and seven wood combination is working great.  I get a little extra yardage with both, I don't miss not having a three wood and it opens my bag for an extra club.
• My biggest challenge for this Titleist Long Game assessment was knocking out my delofted Callaway Epic Heavenwood which basically acted as my "go to" fairway wood.  I used it 12-14 times a round.  Even though I'm still collecting data, I think it's safe to say if the on course performance continues, the Heavenwood will be relegated to my shed for my back up set of clubs.  The Titleist four wood has become even more trusted that the Callaway Heavenwood.  It goes exactly where it's aimed with more distance and less dispersion.  With our course's hazards and optical squeezes, I definitely finding the fairway more with the Titleist fairway woods than my previous Callaway fairway woods.

Probably the best feedback I've gotten since my assessment started came from my common playing partner today.  He said, "I used to be able to keep up with your drives when you hit your old driver, but now you are just blowing your drives past me!"  

[GolferXY]

On 10/19/2024 at 2:21 PM, Rearviewmirror said:

I think probably pretty similar - maybe 5-10yds less but that's mainly from a thicker lie. One thing I have noticed that I have never experienced with my Ping hybrid or fairway woods is the likelihood of catching a flyer. I have hit the 7-wood 224yds, which is a good 15yds more than normal and I think was entirely down to the lie. It makes me wonder if the Ping faces are differently coated, or the groove pattern sheds water more effectively.

Not aware of how the grooves are cut on the woods but they don't look as deep or wide as the irons.  The Ping irons have more grooves, and U-shaped, and of course the Hydropearl finish which I have never heard being used on the woods.  However, if any company knows how to deal with moisture, it's Ping.

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Headed up to the range to get some time in with newly acquired irons (more info to come ) and then got out on the course for 5 holes to practice a little. GT3 was absolutely working today. Used it on 4/5 holes I played and hit long, playable drives on each hole. What is funny is I didn't hit the fairway once, but was never in too bad of a spot where I didn't have a second shot. Felt good to crush some drives again, and played those 5 holes at +3.

[yungkory]

On 10/22/2024 at 9:19 AM, GolferXY said:

I wish I could say this is my normal shot, but no.  This is the best shot out of 50 drives at the range.  However, the average is around 250 and getting more comfortable with the driver. 

 

 

 

I used to hit a low driving draw that turned into a hook on mis hits.  The new trajectory is welcome since it is adding about 20 yards to my carry numbers, from 220 to 240, but roll out is significantly less.  Overall, I hit it between 240-260 with the new driver where I would often hit them 270 with the lower trajectory..  But those longer drives where less controlled and only one or two a round.  Hitting it 250 on 14 driving holes and hitting from the short grass instead of out of trees works out to a big change in scoring opportunities!

Still in the honeymoon phase with my GT3, but ho-leeeee is this thing good. Very similar results that you're seeing as well -- I used to hit mid-height draws with duck hooks being my miss. After my fitting and now with the GT3, it's harder for me to turn the ball over (my preference) and I'm typically either hitting a straight ball, or a 5y fade, with more height. I told my fitter I wanted anti-left and I got it. Hit 67% of fairways on Sunday, and 85% the week prior. The fairways I missed weren't by much, though I did hit one OB on Sunday trying to cut the corner on a dog-leg right. Just blocked it completely, but that's not the club's fault.

[RichL85]

First outdoor round for the GT's today. It wasn't the best driving day, but still managed a decent round. Ended up only hitting 21% of fairways, but only two big misses. Everything else was within about 5 yards of the fairway, just slightly off, mostly from not correcting my aiming quite yet. Honestly, putting saved me quite a bit today with 29 putts, The GT's kept me in play, and putting kept my score down.

Surprisingly, found that I can use the 3 wood to punch under the trees, as I had to do to pull off a par save on 18 today. Pulled the drive left and got it over the trees, but I didn't have a look at the green. Punched the 3 wood under the trees, leaving a wedge and two putt to finish up the round under 80, which I will always take.

[Josh Parker]

On 10/18/2024 at 5:57 PM, RichL85 said:

On a non-golf related note, the CG weight in the GT3 is a bit of a pain to reposition. I can't really explain how it might have happened, but there was some water inside the clubhead when I took the first few swings. Took the head off the shaft and the weight cover off to make sure it was emptied out. Since I have the weight at the T1 position, that happens to be very close to the "entry point" for the track that the weight slides along. In the process of loosening that cover off, the weight moved out of the track and took a bit to get everything set back correctly. 

When you say water in the clubhead, do you mean dripping out amount?  

I have moved mine a couple times just to test a few things and haven't had any issues on moving the weight. 

[RichL85]

30 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

When you say water in the clubhead, do you mean dripping out amount?  

I have moved mine a couple times just to test a few things and haven't had any issues on moving the weight. 

Basically, yeah. Maybe something wasn't quite fully tightened, but I used some water to clean up the club head one day, didn't think anything of it. The next day I took the first swing and noticed some water droplets on the crown. Heard some water moving around inside the club head when I shook it after that. Once I loosened the clubhead a small amount of water came out of the club. 

It was weird, and the CG track thing, that's probably more of a me thing. Since the weight track doesn't have specific notches for the 5 positions, I probably get a little OCD about the placement of the weight. The T1 position is very close to where that opening in the track is, so while I was trying to position it and then tighten the cover down, it would slide just far enough to the side to slip out of the track occasionally. 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Drive of the day yesterday. This a 340 yard par 4, and my ball rolled through the fairway to 290. Again didn't hit the fairway, but had a little low punch to get to the green and two putt save for par.