Titleist GT Drivers feature Generational Technology

After three generations of the Titleist Speed (TS) Project, the company’s metalwood franchise has a new name. The GT in Titleist GT Drivers stands for Generational Technology. It signals a generational shift in materials, construction and, as you would expect, performance.

To be fair, the bones of this story aren’t entirely dissimilar from nearly any other driver story I’ve written. With that, it’s understandable that golfers might look at GT and assume nothing (other than a couple of letters) has changed.

I get it but, at the same time, I roll my eyes a little when someone looks at GT and concludes it’s the “same ol’ Titleist.”

Looks can be deceiving.

That’s especially true with the Titleist GT drivers where plenty has evolved under the hood (and I suppose with the hood itself).

If anything, the fact that GT looks more like TSR than not is a testament to Titleist’s ability to navigate the challenges associated with making the “#1 Driver on Tour” better without changing the stuff that helped make it #1.

So, while I’m sure Titleist is giddy (as much as Titleist gets giddy) when golfers experience performance gains with one of the GT drivers, I have to believe that when the first bit of feedback from average joes and Tour pros alike is It looks like my driver, the R&D team feels like they nailed it.

If GT looks like the same ol’ Titleist, it’s by design.

Make it better, but don’t change anything

The consistent mandate for Titleist’s engineering team is to make its products better without changing anything. Whatever you do, don’t screw it up.

That’s code for improve performance, but definitely don’t change how it looks or feels.

And while there might be easier ways to tackle what sounds like the impossible, the philosophy inside the walls of Titleist is that improving just one thing isn’t enough. With each release, the company strives for gains in club speed, ball speed, trajectory, consistency and even with the fitting tools that help ensure every golfer gets the most they possibly can out of GT.

Yeah, there’s something to be said for two-year release cycles.

Of course, none of this guarantees GT will be a better driver than TSR (or whatever happens to be in your bag right now). The proof (or lack thereof) will be found in your individual serving of pudding but the larger point here is that while GT might not look much different, a whole lot has changed in the two years since TSR launched.

Let’s look at why Titleist believes GT is better than TSR.

Refined aerodynamics

I get it. Aerodynamics stories aren’t particularly sexy, although we are talking about curves in all the right places, so maybe …

Anyway.

Improving aerodynamics invariably means changing the shape of the driver.

So how do you change the shape of a driver without actually changing the shape of a driver?

If you’ve played TSR, you’re probably not going to notice anything at address. All the business is happening on the underside of this particular carriage. Even then, you may not spot much other than cosmetic differences.

As was the case with TSR, Titleist has resisted the urge to litter the sole with ornate eye candy, instead choosing to maximize aerodynamic efficiency. You won’t find any unnecessary graphics or aggressive nooks and crannies. That stuff may look cool but it can disrupt airflow as the club moves through the swing.

Performance first, eye-popping sole design second … or not at all.

The aft portion of the GT Driver (in this case GT3) has been raised relative to its TSR counterpart.

What the keenest of eyes may notice is that the aft section of the driver – what Titleist refers to as “the boat tail” – has been raised relative to TSR. The change helps keep the airflow stuck to the head, reducing drag and creating more speed.

The raised aft section is found in GT2 and GT3 but not GT4. More on that in a bit.

As far as which golfers benefit from better aerodynamics goes, the rules haven’t changed. Faster players will see the most benefit but with average speed on Tour pushing 120 mph and nearly every junior who walks through the door of the studio where I occasionally take a lesson swinging over 110, it’s inarguable that aerodynamics matter more than ever.

Still, the unvarnished truth is that some of you reading this will get little to nothing from the improved aero but because Titleist was able to keep its shapes the same, you’re not paying the ugly penalty so somebody else can swing faster.

“Split Mass Construction”

The Split Mass construction of the Titleist GT Driver

Split Mass Construction is simply Titleist’s take on pushing as much weight as you can to the front, back, bottom and perimeter of the driver.

Remember COBRA’s Radius of Gyration story from RADSPEED? Same general idea.

In the driver design world, whether it’s forward, rearward or anchored to the sides, weight at the perimeter is good. That’s where stability (MOI) comes from. Center-concentrated mass is undesirable as it offers no real performance benefit.

Regardless of whether the performance objective for a given model is high MOI or low spin and maximum speed, nobody is trying to keep the weight in the middle.

The most obvious signs of how Titleist allocated mass can be found in the forward positioning of the GT3’s weight track and the placement of the front and back flip weights in the GT4, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

The most notable piece of how Titleist was able to rebalance its GT drivers comes from the next part of the story.

Seamless thermoform crown

For the first time, Titleist is leveraging composite crowns across entire its driver lineup. In fact, it’s the first time since 909 D Comp that you’ll find composite anywhere in a Titleist driver.

Just to be clear, Titleist GT drivers are most definitely not a reimagining of the 909D Comp (and we can all be grateful for that).

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Composite crowns are hardly generational technology. You’re absolutely right but the Titleist implementation is different in a few ways.

First, the majority of driver crowns are little more than an uncomplex sheet of fiber on top of driver. There are exceptions, of course, COBRA has featured complex carbon constructions a time or two. Likewise, it would be fair to describe Callaway’s 360-degree carbon chassis as non-standard as well.

On the Titleist GT drivers, the wraparound design is connected to the titanium body with anchor points on the front, rear, and bottom of the driver.

A graphic showing the shape and placement of the seamless thermoform crown in Titliest GT Drivers

The ledges where the carbon and titanium meet are comparably thin and lightweight but, more importantly, the placement of the anchor points (extreme front and rear, and the sole) allow Titleist to use the weight of the support structures, along with the glue that holds everything together, to its advantage.

The total weight savings from the crown and the methods used to attach it are how Titleist is able to keep inertia on par with the previous models while avoiding the higher center of gravity that would otherwise result from the raised boat tail.

Titleist GT4 Driver

The thermoform part of this speaks to the complexity of shaping the crown material.

To form the crowns of the Titleist GT drivers, the heated carbon fiber material moves through a series of steps that progressively mold the fiber into its final shape. It’s a tightly choreographed precision exercise that Titleist says yields extremely consistent shapes from one part to next.

Generally, manufacturers want parts to be as consistent as possible but it’s particularly beneficial, if not entirely necessary, as we move to the seamless part of the crown story.

On looks alone, you’d have no idea that any of three Titleist GT driver models had a composite crown. Again, it may look like the same ol’ Titleist but I think we’ve established that it isn’t.

Most composite designs (the TaylorMade Qi10 being an exception) have a visible line to delineate where the titanium ends and the carbon crown begins. Maybe that’s because manufacturers really want you to see the carbon fiber. Maybe it’s because it’s expensive to hide it.

Regardless, the Titleist crown is completely seamless and the carbon fiber weave is completely invisible.

There is a bit of extra effort involved in filling and polishing the joints where carbon and titanium meet but that’s what it takes to make a composite crowned driver look like the same ol’ Titleist.

“PMP”

Titleist GT3 Driver

While what we’ve talked about thus far has been done before (though not together), it’s the last piece of the crown story that is most divergent from industry norms.

The benefit of carbon fiber is well documented. It’s lighter and because of that, engineers can reallocate mass in more desirable places.

One area where many feel carbon fiber falls short, however, is with acoustics. While there are some that prefer the sound of carbon, I don’t think anyone would argue that it has played a role in some of the worst-sounding drivers any of us can remember.

Typically, carbon fiber is impregnated with resin or glue to stiffen things up and provide structural integrity.

A good bit of the acoustic differences are attributable to the resin material used in the crowns. The glue doesn’t conduct sound particularly well so the result is a more muted experience at impact.

Whether you hate or prefer it, I think we can all agree that carbon sounds different than titanium.

When meeting the feel expectations of Titleist players is one of your design objectives (don’t change anything), the industry standard approach to carbon fiber isn’t going to get it done.

With all three of the GT drivers, instead of the standard resin, Titleist is using what it calls PMP (Proprietary Matrix Polymer) to not only provide structural integrity but to tune the acoustic properties as well.

As is typical for an industry first-use case, Titleist isn’t saying exactly what the material is (I suppose that’s the proprietary part). The polymer is used in other industries but, interestingly, not for its acoustic properties. The most basic demonstration of what Titleist gets from the material can be found by simply dropping the PMP-infused carbon fiber onto something firm and listening to the sound it makes at impact.

Unlike traditional carbon fiber which sounds like, well, carbon fiber, the PMP crown material sounds like metal. There’s not a doubt in my mind that every one of you reading this would think the PMP crown is metal.

That translates to the sound and feel of the drivers themselves.

Not being aware of the carbon crown beforehand, my experience was that the GT2 and the GT4 were indistinguishable from titanium. Hitting the GT3, both Chris Nickel and I caught what we thought was just a hint of carbon feel. Chris described it as a bit “thackier” or not as “bright” as titanium.

Maybe that’s the material itself but it may also be the result of the forward weight track.

The summary takeaway is that the GT2 and GT4 will likely feel familiar. To me, the GT3 still feels more metallic than composite, though, to use Chris’s word, the sound isn’t quite as bright as what we experienced with the other two.

Lower, more forward centers of gravity

Titleist GT2 Driver

All of this crown and weight-saving stuff isn’t just for show. It’s done with an objective in mind.

Maximum (10K) MOI has been one of stories of the year in the driver category but it’s never been a part of the Titleist approach.

“Our goal and our philosophy is that you just need to have the right amount of stability and inertia paired with great center of gravity properties,” says Stephanie Luttrell, Director, Titleist Metalwood Development. “With that combination, you end up with a driver that is more consistently long.”

There’s universal agreement that there are diminishing returns as MOI increases. Many would also argue that there are other ways to increase forgiveness (face technologies, for example).

Within the larger picture, you can count Titleist among the brands that believes there’s only so much MOI you need and if you go much beyond that, you start sacrificing performance in other areas. For example, it’s not uncommon for golfers to swing high MOI designs slower. With that comes lower ball speeds and unless the design spec includes cheating loft to the low side, spin increases are unavoidable.

None of this is a recipe for maximizing distance.

With the Titleist GT2, GT3, and GT4 drivers, the objective was to move the center of gravity forward, down, and more in line with the neutral axis, while at the same time leveraging the split weighting to keep inertia numbers within the range Titleist believes is optimal.

Compared to their TSR counterparts, all three GT models have lower and more forward centers of gravity.

The CG change is largest in the GT4. It remains an absolute spin killer when the heavy weight is in the forward position but with the heavy weight swapped to the back, it sits between the GT2 and the GT3. It makes it an intriguing option for the guy who finds himself between models, especially if you prefer the look of a smaller (430cc) head.

The point of emphasis for Titleist isn’t pushing inertia to new heights. The more forward centers of gravity contribute to more consistent spin rates so the gap between your best-struck ball and the one that gets away from you is narrower.

You might say it’s not about MOI; it’s about functional forgiveness.

Titleist uses Cam Young as an example. With TSR, his control shot – a heel cut – would produce spin numbers in the 2,800-3,200 range. With GT, the same shot produces spin rates in the 2,400-2,600 range. He’s still getting the control he wants but he’s getting more distance, too.

Speed Ring with VFT faces

The face of the Titleist GT2 Driver

With the new GT drivers, Titleist has taken the ATI Speed Ring face from TSR3, added VFT (variable face thickness), and put it on all three drivers.

The simple explanation is that Speed Ring with VFT seeks to add speed across the face, including face center.

Now, before the drivers can’t get any faster, USGA rules … blah blah blah crowd loses its collective mind, let me (again) point out that CT (the USGA’s current approach to legislating speed) and COR (the older way of doing it) are different things. COR has a much stronger correlation to actual ball speed than CT, so when the USGA changed its test parameters, it created opportunities for more speed within the scope of the rules.

Titleist GT2

I’m not going to overstate it: we’re not talking about massive gains here but by exploiting what you might call a loophole in the rules, manufacturers can achieve higher COR with conforming CTs. With that, Titleist is able to give you a bit more speed from the middle of the face.

With VFT, you get a progressively thinner face as you move from the center to the perimeter. In simple terms, you end up with a larger sweet spot but the bottom line is that off-center speeds with Titleist GT drivers should be higher than they were with TSR.

The technology is consistent across the lineup, though the actual geometry varies based on the performance needs of each model.

New face graphics

I’m not going to be the guy who tells you new face graphics are game-changing or even “generational technology.”

That said, it’s worth mentioning that with the GT driver family, Titleist has added vertical lines (definitely not vertical grooves) to its driver faces. The update was driven by the PGA Tour where several Titleist staffers had marked the faces with silver Sharpie.

It turns out the USGA has some exceedingly specific rules about that sort of thing but, anyway, the design team felt like the lines might help golfers square things up a bit so they made them part of the stock GT design.

I kinda like ‘em.

Titleist GT drivers – Three models

As we move into the specifics on the three Titleist GT driver models, I’m going to do something unusual (for me, anyway). I’m going to provide you with, word for word, a description of for whom Titleist says each model is.

The actual official statement from Titleist is “please, go get fitted”, but it’s not lost on anyone that some of you aren’t going to do that and even those who do still might like a sense what type of golfer each GT model is for.

But, again, go get fitted.

Titleist GT 2 Driver

For the player who doesn’t always find the center of the face and needs the stability of a higher MOI driver without sacrificing speed.

Said differently. GT2 is the safe bet. It doesn’t have the adjustability of the other two but if you tend to utilize the whole of the face, GT2 should serve you well. While both GT2 and GT3 are 460cc, it’s going to be the biggest-looking of the three models.

The Titleist GT2 is available in eight, nine, 10 and 11 degrees.

Titleist GT3 Driver

For players with a relatively consistent impact location, GT3 offers a precisely adjustable CG track to max out distance and lock in your desired amount of directional control.

The key thing to understand is that consistent impact location doesn’t mean consistently centered impact. If you’re consistently banging the heel, for example, the track weighting is going to allow you to align the center of gravity with your impact location and you’ll get more speed for it

The other shot shape corrections still apply so you can also use the weights to mitigate a slice or hook.

Compared to the GT2, the GT3 is lower-spinning but it’s not an absurdly low-spinning head.

The Titleist GT3 is available in eight, nine, 10 and 11 degrees.

Titleist GT4 Driver

For players losing distance due to spin rates above 3000 RPMs, GT4 offers Titleist’s most aggressive spin-reducing driver- packing immense power into a more compact driver.

So there you go. It’s the small one and it eats spin like Shooter McGavin eats shit for breakfast. When the heavier weight is forward, it should easily qualify as one of the lowest-spinning models on the planet.

Swap the lighter weight to the front, and launch and spin should fall between the GT2 and GT3, albeit with a stability penalty.

The GT4 doesn’t offer the aerodynamic shaping of the GT2 and GT3. That’s the trade-off for pushing spin really low but the upside is that you’ll get some of the speed back from the smaller head.

Titleist GT4 Driver

Enticing as it may be, Titleist expects that only six to eight percent of golfers will fit into the GT4. Maybe you’re one of them.

I wasn’t.

(Sad face emoji)

The Titleist GT4 is available in eight, nine and 10 degrees.

Hands on

I know you’re on pins and needles here so I’ll save you the suspense. I got fitted into the GT3. It didn’t come as much of a surprise given that I was fitted into a TSR3, TSi3 and a TS3 before that.

Still, just because you were fitted into one model previously is no guarantee that you’ll be fitted into the same one this time around. It’s certainly not unusual to see Tour players move to a different model than they’ve played previously.

There was a moment when I thought I’d end up in the GT2 and, frankly, after being fitted into an F Grind wedge and a Pro V1 ball, I had genuine concerns that Titleist was trying to turn me into the golf version of a basic bitch (no offense). There was no small amount of relief after ending up in a driver that looks like my driver.

In my case, I benefited from the lower spin and track weighting of the GT3. There’s no shame in putting the weight in the heel (is what I tell myself so I can sleep at night). Moving to a shorter shaft with a lower balance point also helped take the right miss out of play.

So consider this your friendly reminder to go into any fitting with a clear objective. While we tend to think about driver fitting (and buying new drivers in general) as the means for more distance, my explicit goal was to reduce the big miss. I trust the distance is going to be there. If I can straighten things out and narrow the gap between the best and worst, I’ll be in a better place for it.

The takeaway

To put a bow on all of this, what you can expect from the Titleist GT family of drivers is a bit more speed and greater consistency, all wrapped in a familiar package.

Inarguably, a lot has changed between TSR and GT. The new models will likely perform better for a majority of golfers but they still look, sound and feel like you’d expect them to.

I suppose you can call it a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” If that qualifies as the same ol’ Titleist, more than a few golfers will be plenty good with that.

Specs, pricing, availability

The stock shaft offerings for the Titleist GT driver lineup are the PX Denali Red (high launch), Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue (Mid launch), PX HZRDUS Black (low/mid launch) and Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Black (low launch).

This year, the premium Graphite Design lineup includes the Graphite Design Tour AD VF, Tour AD DI and Tour AD UB.

A full catalog of additional shafts is available through custom.

Retail price for Titleist GT drivers is $649 with a stock shaft and $849 with one of the premium options.

If that’s a bit more than you want to spend, the excellent TSR driver lineup has been discounted to $449.98 ahead of the GT launch.

Pre-sale and fittings are available now. Full retail availability begins Aug. 23.

For more information, visit Titleist.com.

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