I remember reading an article about the challenges that Titleist has to deal with when designing new products. Touring professionals are notoriously conservative with how the clubs look at address and their instructions to Titleist inevitably boiled down to "make it better, but don't change anything."
I'm hard pressed to remember another product that executes this design brief as well as the new GT line of drivers and fairways.
Titleist extracted every iota of performance out of an all-titanium club head. Their TS/TSi/TSr products were industry leaders in every metric of performance. The TSr, in particular, was so good that it remained competitive even at the end of its two-year life cycle.
But Titleist had to bite the bullet to move on from there. The TSr was the pinnacle of what could be achieved by the all-titanium clubhead. It was time to bite the bullet and move to a composite product. The burning question was how Titleist was going to achieve that while keeping their tour staff happy.
The answer was a proprietary carbon polymer. The new Seamless Thermofrom Polymer crown is made from a composite that's been christened Proprietary Matrix Polymer. Like all carbon composites, the material is a third of the weight of titanium, freeing up enough discretionary weight for engineers to play with to achieve the performance gains they sought. But its superpower is that it sounds just like a titanium driver.
Drop a piece of normal (if there is such a thing) carbon composite and the sound is usually a dull thud. Drop a piece of Titleist's wonder composite and the result is a distinct metallic "ting". The Proprietary Matrix Polymer used in the GT provides the best of both worlds; the seamless construction makes it impossible to tell that the crown is made of composite material and works to optimize the center of gravity of the clubhead without compromising the feel so beloved and sought after by the best players in the world.
The new line deserves the acronym in its name - Generational Technology.
Titleist then used the discretionary weight freed up by the crown to optimize the performance of the clubheads like never before. Titleist's Split Mass Construction moves some weight forward, to create higher ball speeds and some to the back of the clubhead for forgiveness. The application of weight varies from model to model, enhancing the abilities of each head to perform for the intended demographic.
The ATI face has been improved. The speed ring implemented on the TSr3 has found its way on to all of the driver models together with variable thickness to enhance ball speed on all hits, both on and off-center. Titleist calls it (unsurprisingly) the Speed Ring VFT face. The pattern on the clubface is also new and allows the golfer to frame the ball more clearly and aim more accurately.
The clubheads are all more aerodynamic. Now, this tends to benefit higher swing speed players more than slower players, but if you have the speed, the GT line will help you get the most out of your swing. Then to help you fine tune the driver, adjustable weights are available on each of the three heads, the application of which varies as we'll get into next.
GT2 - Replacing the TSr2, the GT2 is the most forgiving driver of the three. The trained eye will see a more refined shape, not as deep from face to skirt as the TSr. The reconfigured internal weighting with more weight closer to the face make the GT2 faster and slightly lower launching than the TSr2 while remaining easy to use. As a result, quite a few pros that previously played the TSr3 have switched to the GT2. Titleist expects the GT2 to fit the widest range of players.
GT3 - While the headshape remains largely the same, the moveable weight track has been moved closer to the clubface. This forward CG location all but guarantees more ball speed while retaining the GT3's abilty to control ball flight to help eliminate one side of the golf course, allowing the golfer to swing more aggressively.
GT4 - The slightly smaller 430cc GT4 remains the super low spinning solution in the GT line. It has one weight port close to the clubface and another on the back end of the clubhead. This allows the golfer to dial in the amount of spin that fits best. With the heavier weight close to the clubface, you have a low spinning monster. Flip the weights and you have a smaller clubhead with spin and forgiveness characteristics closer to the GT2; a GT2.5, if you will.
The downside to all this goodness? Price. While it's unclear what the new GT line of drivers will cost in the Philippine market, the MSRP Stateside is a nosebleed inducing $650 and that's before you get into premium shaft territory.
Does the price of these bad boys make them worth it? That depends. If you have a driver that's one of two years old, the gains will most likely be marginal, but your mileage may vary. If you're looking to get the most out of your game off the tee, then back-to-back the GT line with your current gamer to see for yourself. Hit at least two of the GTs to make sure you're getting the one that suits your game the best.
As for me, I'm looking forward to a proper fitting. I'm not sure that any of them will outperform my current gamer, but it's going to be fun finding out.
