Unofficial Review - Titleist GT2

[MissionMan]

It's been a couple of weeks since I got my GT2's so this is more of a mini-review than a full review. Had a few outings, one comp. Excuse the lack of pics, I’m stuck in a hotel room after my flight was cancelled, so I had time to kill before tomorrow. I’ll put in some decent pictures when I get home. 

I was fitting as part of the early fittings with Team Titleist. I managed to get into one of the first fittings after I drove 1.5hrs to get there because I'm on an island that would only see a fitting in Oct/Nov.

I'm an 8 handicap, my game varies from good to bad. I've shot 73's before, manage to get 1 over on a 9 but haven't managed to string together two good nines on a regular basis, at least not in comp. My driving is typically good, although I do have a tendency to hook when my swing is going bad, typically not rotating enough and getting too handsy. My swing speed is around 105 with a driver so generally my drives are around 260-280 depending on run.

The fitting

I've previously done a few fittings with Titleist. I'm not tied to them specifically, I have a lab putter, but I have a preference because my local course pro shop stocks them making warranty replacements easier to deal with if I have an issue. Prior to this, I was using a TSR's (9,15,18) although I have tried the AI Smoke which I liked it. I say I was using the 9/15/18 but in reality it was 9/15 only with the 18 coming out on wet days. A 2 iron is normally my preference as a third long club.

The experience is normally really good. The guys know their gear pretty well and it's good to see them craft a set of clubs. They tend to work on a blind basis, he asked me not to look at shafts or the bottom of drivers for a better outcome so you don’t have any biases. I made it clear at the beginning I wasn't an ego golfer so they could fit me to whatever was best, even if it was a regular shaft.  There were occasions you could tell something was different because it was obvious. The GT3 has a different sound to the GT2 so the moment I hit it, I knew.

The final set for me was GT2 10 degree switched up to a 10.75 and a 16.5 switched down to a 15.75, both with Gen 5 hzrdus Black Stiff. Don't ask me why, but I hit the 10 degree switched up to a 10.75 better than the 11 degree, consistently. He tried it a couple of times to make sure. I think it’s one of the benefits of a fitting over an off the shelf. You wouldn’t think to try something like that. The extra loft helped improve my spin rate on my driver. I was running a little low on spin, around 1900 so the loft shifted me up to 2400.

From a distance Comparison perspective , I was getting about 2mph more ball speed but the improvements in spin and launch added about 25 yards to my carry. Carry and run is about 5 yards longer, but in winter that’s still 20 yards longer because we get zero run here. This came from a combination of the 2mph, increased spin rates and increased loft.

The fitter indicated his main goal was to get rid of my miss, which is an occasional strong draw and the setup he gave seem to accomplish that by the end. I’ll cover more on this in the first impressions.

Ordering and arrival

I ordered straight after my fitting, and was advised to expect the clubs to arrive mid to late August. The clubs arrived early August, a day after the official release date, much quicker than I expected given I live in a location in the middle of no where. Seems like I was lucky enough to be part of the first batch being delivered, and Titleist included some GT alignment sticks as a bonus. The heads look gorgeous and I love the look of the new headcovers.

Initial thoughts

So was 2mph worth it? If that was the only difference, I’d say no. I’m not seeing substantially more distance off the tee.

BUT…

…that not the only difference.

Without considering the carry benefits which I may have also picked up through a higher loft in the TSR2, the biggest benefit is two areas. I waited to get it out on the course to see if this was just the fitting on the day, maybe getting into a groove with my swing. Sometimes you have a good range session and you get out on the course and it disappears like Rory in the final round of the US Open.

• Dispersion

• Forgiveness on off centre hits

On the first, the GT2 is incredibly straight. It's hard to explain how much better it is than the TSR in that respect. Maybe it’s a better shaft in the gen5 Hzrdus, maybe not. I'm going through rounds where where I'm hitting more fairways in regulation than I ever have. So much so, that its not uncommon for me to hit every fairway in regulation on one nine and I'm taking driver on holes I wouldn't normally not have considered it as an option.

Does it go in the rough? Yes, but not as far. I have a couple of holes I miss on, and none of them have come into play. My typical miss was on our dog leg par 5 third hole where I would occasionally over draw into the bushes, having to drop out. I haven’t even seen anything even venture into the semi rough. The 6th has heavy trees down the left. I haven’t seen them since the TSR left my bag. We have a couple of holes where the tips force a faded tee shot. For someone who draws naturally, and overdraws more often than I would like, the fade is tough and normally results in a pull draw, or a slice, but with the GT2, I’m having no issues. Normally I have to do a cutty fairway finder instead of a powerfade but it seems more controllable for me.

The second thing I've noticed is that off centre distance improvements. On my TSR2, I'd normally lose 20-30 yards or an off centre but, where the GT2 I'd say this is less than half of it. In some cases, I'm finding my misshits have gone as far as my TSR2. The forgiveness is better in some areas than others. Hitting low on the face will lose you a lot more distance than high on the face. High on the face will lose you 5 yards (unless you sky the ball off the crown), while low on the face will lose you closer to 20. Heel and toe messes didn't have a big impact as a result of being straight than before.

Obvious not many people hit driver off the deck, but if you do, I found it really good due to the added forgiveness. I use it a lot into the wind. Being coastal in winter, we have that cold heavy wind that drains every ounce of strength out of a shot.

Compared to the GT3 /GT4

Im not going to spend to much time in this area, suffice to say a few things:

The GT3 is longer than the GT2 but not nearly as forgiving. It has a different feel, hard to say exactly what it was as it’s been a couple of weeks since I got fitted but hitting back to back, the sound was noticeable. I'd say the GT3 offers about 10 yards of distance over the GT2. It comes at the price of dispersion. The GT4 issimilar to the GT3 but lower spin. As someone who has a low spin numbers on my driver, it offered no benefit for me.

Negatives

Not many at this point. Only one I had was not being able to get my Gripmaster grips fitted at the time of ordering.

Conclusion

This isn't a love letter to Titleist despite what it may seem. What Titleist has done with the GT2 is amazing, but isn't unusual in the market. The only unusual thing is not naming their driver " AI something". This year, models like the GT2 (and it's competitors) have been focussed on forgiveness and straightness, where models, like the GT3/GT4 (and its competitors) are more performance focussed. I have tried the Callaway AI Smoke and found it pretty good, but I couldn’t test them side by side to make a call on whether it was better or worse. It was just better than my TSR2.

That said, I have been blown away by the accuracy of the GT2. The first day my driver arrived, I took it onto our first two holes for a test run with 5 balls. I hadn’t had a practice swing on the range or in the nets. The first hole saw 4 balls on the fairway, and one in the semi rough because it went too far. The second saw 5 on the fairway. Whilst I would love some extra distance, the accuracy I'm experience is definitely worth the compromise in distance over the GT3.

 

 

Edited August 27 by MissionMan

[Vertical]

Thanks for the excellent review. I have a TSR2 lofted up to create a draw bias and absolutely love it. My miss is the opposite of yours…a fade that, on a bad swing, goes hard right. It seems based on your review, that the GT2 is more fade biased. Is this your experience?

[Braehead]

Interesting review.  Did you set your TSR2 as close as possible to the GT2 settings and see how it went?  I'm also a bit surprised by lofting up the 10 as that would close the face a bit and possibly contribute more to your "strong draw".  I thought the feel of the GT2 was better than the GT3 too and think it's because the weight track is now at the front compared to the back on the old TSR3.  The new GT2 really is like the TSR2 and TSR3 got together and had a baby as it has all the best features of both.  

I thought the fairway woods were particularly good and could certainly see one of them in my bag at some point!

[Vertical]

Just tested the GT2 driver 10 degree. Definitely more fade biased for me than the TSR2 with the same loft, shaft and grip. I measured the face height and width (heel to toe), and the GT2 has a sightly shallower and wider head. Hence, greater MOI and tighter dispersion. I prefer the TSR2 because of the deeper face and all-titanium build. Both great drivers.
 

 

[PrayingForPar]

On 8/27/2024 at 6:03 AM, MissionMan said:

The only unusual thing is not naming their driver " AI something".

So thankful they didn't go with this branding. Honestly, feels like they are just so confident in the technology they didn't need to make it look crazy different or give it some ridiculous name. 

Thanks for the review not just on the club but on the fitting.

[MissionMan]

On 9/7/2024 at 12:09 AM, Braehead said:

Interesting review.  Did you set your TSR2 as close as possible to the GT2 settings and see how it went?  I'm also a bit surprised by lofting up the 10 as that would close the face a bit and possibly contribute more to your "strong draw".  I thought the feel of the GT2 was better than the GT3 too and think it's because the weight track is now at the front compared to the back on the old TSR3.  The new GT2 really is like the TSR2 and TSR3 got together and had a baby as it has all the best features of both.  

I thought the fairway woods were particularly good and could certainly see one of them in my bag at some point!

I'm lofted up on C4 setting which gives a slight fade bias. I hit it straight with the occasional baby fade that is pretty consistent. Last Saturday comp I only missed two fairways

[MissionMan]

On 9/7/2024 at 12:09 AM, Braehead said:

Interesting review.  Did you set your TSR2 as close as possible to the GT2 settings and see how it went?  I'm also a bit surprised by lofting up the 10 as that would close the face a bit and possibly contribute more to your "strong draw".  I thought the feel of the GT2 was better than the GT3 too and think it's because the weight track is now at the front compared to the back on the old TSR3.  The new GT2 really is like the TSR2 and TSR3 got together and had a baby as it has all the best features of both.  

I thought the fairway woods were particularly good and could certainly see one of them in my bag at some point!

I'm lofted up on C4 setting which gives a slight fade bias. I hit it straight with the occasional baby fade that is pretty consistent. Last Saturday comp I only missed two fairways and both were marginally off.