Titleist T350 Iron Review

What We Tried

Titleist T350 Irons. The biggest iron in the new Titleist T-Series lineup.

Your Titleist T350 Tester

Tony Covey. MyGolfSpy Editorial Director and mediocre iron player who, despite himself, is not a fan of large irons.

Yeah. This is not a match made in Heaven.

The Requisite Background

For a long time, I was a high-flight, high-spin player with every club in the bag. Envious of those able to flight the ball with a piercing trajectory, I worked to bring my ball flight down.

Somewhere along the way, I over-corrected … apparently.

To date, much of our conversation around the T-Series lineup has focused on feel. I’ll touch on that but my primary issue plays directly into Titleist’s 3D (Distance Control, Descent, Dispersion) fitting approach. Specifically, in my case, descent angle.

See, the way it works is that before something (a golf ball, for example) can come down, it must go up. In my case, it wasn’t going up quite high enough. I was maxing out at around 85 feet.

My fitter (Joey) wanted to see that number closer to 100. Higher flight should provide steeper descent so we set out to find a combination of head and shaft that would get me there.

As you’ve not doubt already pieced together, I ended up in the T350 (with my typical Nippon Modus 120 X shaft).

A couple quick points.

First, despite the strongest lofts in the lineup, with the same shaft, I hit the T350 higher than the other 3 T-Series models.

Second, remember that stock lofts are just a starting point. Eventually, we landed on one degree weak (two degrees flat). Still strong but not as strong.

About the Titleist T350

I’ll spare you the full refresh on the technology that powers the T350. If you’re new to T-Series, we cover all of it here. The abbreviated version is that the T350 is the largest, most game-improvementy of the current T-Series lineup.

It’s a hollow-body design that packs the sole with tungsten to produce higher ball flight with plenty of ball speed coming by way of Titleist’s MAX IMPACT technology.

Said another way, it’s an upsized take on the T200 for golfers who need more help than the rest of the T-Series lineup offers.

Initial Impressions

I’m going to level with you. If you laid the four T-Series models in front of me, the T350 would be the last one I’d choose and my assumption was I’d end up in T150s or T200s. T350 was out of the question.

Did I mention I don’t like big irons?

That said, as far as big irons go, the T350 isn’t all that bad. The offset isn’t huge and it’s reasonably well hidden. The topline, though thick, has some camber to it, making it appear thinner. There’s no hiding the blade length but it’s hardly the most egregious on the market.

I’ve seen way worse.

All of that said, if club fitting was just about choosing what you like best, there wouldn’t be much point. The objective of fitting is to improve on-course results … or at least it should be.

With that in mind, when I go through a fitting, I try to let the fitter do his thing and not let my feelings get in the way too much. While I might feel like there’s no chance I’ll be happy with a T350, I’ll keep it to myself and let things play out.

Let the man do his job.

As a result, I’ve ended up in some stuff I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for myself, most recently, a shorter-shafted putter with an unfamiliar shape. Keep your minds open, people.

It’s not lost on me that a perk of this job is the freedom to defer to the fitter’s recommendation without fear of regret. If I don’t love it, there’s always something else.

Full disclosure: Even though I was seeing more consistency and significantly higher ball flight during my fitting, I still didn’t love the idea of T350s and was all but convinced they wouldn’t stay in the bag.

I’d play a couple of courtesy rounds to reaffirm my disklike of larger irons and that would be the end of it.

Next.

Titleist T350 Performance

Once home, I took the T350s into the hitting bay to see how they compare to my gamers. I have nothing but good things to say about the PXG 0311 GEN5 Ts that have been in my bag since my fitting.

I love the look (they’re not big), love the feel and the results have been generally good. Frankly, I loved them when I got them and I still do but it’s true that with the long irons in particular, the flight is a bit low.

Indoors

The PXG’s aren’t a typical Tour iron (they’re not short by any means) so, for the most part, I expected performance differences to be small. That’s especially true considering we’re comparing fitted irons to fitted irons with actual lofts withinone degree of each other.

Measured with a Foresight GCQuad, I got a bit more speed (about 1.5 mph) with the T350 and about three yards more total distance.

With respect to max height – the thing we focused on in the fitting – the T350s flew about seven feet higher, though the most noticeable differences were on the ball that starts left, where the T350s retain a bit more height.

On Course

This is the part where you might expect me to tell you that the Titleist T350 are the best irons ever and that I’ve shaved 10 strokes off my score.

Let’s set some realistic expectations.

I live and die by the driver. My home course is tight (white stakes on every hole, sometimes both sides). Improvement by way of a better iron play is measured in 10ths of strokes gained, though there are times when the benefit of moving to the T350 is inarguable.

There are the obvious things. I’m hitting the ball higher. I’m hitting it farther than the indoor data suggested I would. And, while I’ll be the first to tell you that prioritizing iron distance is a fool’s folly, if you can get it without sacrificing performance in other areas, I say go for it.

No ragrets.

Little things stand out as well. There’s a toe shot (my sweet spot) on No. 8. I’ve hit the same shot 50 times over the years and I’m telling you there’s no chance it clears the bunker … except it did.

Instead of one of the scariest shots on the course (firm, nearly sand-less bunker with OB long), I’m on the fringe. A two-putt birdie instead of … well, we can’t be sure,but a pocket eight isn’t out of the question.

My 5-iron flies noticeably higher, too.

I still have the occasional left miss but the big (wrong side of the white stakes) left miss is pretty much gone. That one probably comes down to the physics of the longer blade length keeping the face from closing down when I get a little quick with the hands.

All of that said, I’m not going to tell you I’m firing at every pin and sticking it tight every time. Sure, I hit some really good shot but I did that with my other irons. The real difference is that with the T350s I get away with a little bit more and that gives me a chance to salvage something on the days when I’m sideways with my woods.

Long story short. One last round with the T350s led to one more and when the days got shorter and the leaves started to fall, the Titleist T350 irons were still in the bag.

T350 Feel

Feel is a big part of the Titleist story for the T-Series so I’d be remiss not to at least touch on it. As far as feel goes, the T350 is a noticeable step up from the prior-gen T300. I had a chance to hit them side by side in my fitting and if you’re a T300 guy, I’m willing to bet you’ll notice the improvement immediately.

Despite the best efforts of engineering teams, I’m not convinced you can ever replicate forged-iron feel with a hollow-body design but the T350 feels good for what it is – and likely better than most in its class.

It’s not as pleasingly soft as a T100 or T150 and, if I’m being entirely honest, I prefer the feel of my GEN5s,but I don’t have any real complaints.

I know when I absolutely flush one. I know when I miss, too, but that miss feels a hell of a lot better than it does with the prior-gen stuff.

The Takeaway

The Titleist T350 is one of the more surprising pieces of equipment I’ve encountered over the last couple of seasons. It’s not surprising that a Titleist iron would perform well. It’s that the advantages would be enough for me to get over my dislike of larger irons.

I still don’t like big irons but it’s hard to argue with higher flight, more forgiveness and more distance. Granted, that last one is a bonus but, again, I never expected to keep them in the bag.

As the season comes to an end here in New York State, the plan is to work on my game over the winter: weight training, Stack Systems, plenty of reps on the simulator, maybe even a lesson or two.

Maybe I’ll get to the point where the T350s are more than what I need from a forgiveness standpoint (in addition to being more than I typically prefer to look at). It’s also true that each new season brings with it new equipment temptations but I’ve established a new bar. So long as I can remain rational instead of emotional about what goes into the bag, the T350s might just kick around for another season.

Retail price for Titlesit T350 irons is $1,399.

For more information, visit Titleist.com.

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