MEMBER REVIEWS: Titleist GT Driver & Fairway Wood Member Testing | See What Members Are Saying

[stryper]

I promised earlier in this thread that I would continually provide data throughout the coming months.  So I thought today that it might be interesting to take a look back at one of my first encounters with the GT3 driver and see how things have progressed from there.

 

First, from 9/30:

 

 

 

And from today:

 

 

 

 

So, not much of a change overall, which is probably to be expected, given the comprehensive fitting I received.
 

Club and ball speed were a bit down in today’s session, but there was a slight uptick in total distance, probably due to a lower launch window and angle of descent.  
 

Also, today’s numbers were taken after a speed session, so it’s possible that fatigue may have contributed to the slightly lower club speeds.  

Edited November 7, 2024 by stryper

[CanFred]

Thanks for sharing @stryper - I'm also following up with some additional data collected over the last couple range sessions.  All-in-all, more of the same from the GT driver & fairway woods - seeing meaningful distance gains but more importantly, better dispersion across all three clubs.  

 

 

 

 

Given these figures, I've already made the decision to drop the Paradyms from my bag completely - I didn't think I'd make the change this quick (I'm usually much more stubborn on decisions like this), but these results speak for themselves in many ways.  

 

Any other questions from this community on the GT?

[stryper]

8 hours ago, ChrisATL said:

Thanks for sharing @stryper - I'm also following up with some additional data collected over the last couple range sessions.  All-in-all, more of the same from the GT driver & fairway woods - seeing meaningful distance gains but more importantly, better dispersion across all three clubs.  

 

 

 

 

Given these figures, I've already made the decision to drop the Paradyms from my bag completely - I didn't think I'd make the change this quick (I'm usually much more stubborn on decisions like this), but these results speak for themselves in many ways.  

 

Any other questions from this community on the GT?

Good stuff.  Have you had the opportunity lately to get onto the course and see how the distance gains and dispersion are holding up there?

 

For my part, with the season winding down, I’ve pretty much been limited to the sim rounds and practice sessions that I’ve been describing in this thread.  Fortunately, apart from time constraints, my sim access is virtually unlimited, so there’ll be plenty more data  to come. 

[CanFred]

My only on-course time recently has been a couple work scrambles unfortunately - honestly, I haven’t seen much in the way of true distance gains (since I’m not hitting both drivers), but I have seen wholesale changes in my overall dispersion. 
 

I called it out previously, but I’ve been fighting against a fade recently (particularly in my GTs) that I’ve had to adjust to. I’ve got a couple rounds lined up in the coming weeks - so I’m looking forward to capturing a bit more there (plus including a bunch of range sessions which have been easy to throw in after work recently). 

[bigdriveandy]

Played a couple of times this week - anecdotes are all i have though. I can quickly say that the GT3 driver is not as forgiving as my G400 Max for me. It goes lower, spins less, and the dispersion is much wider. That being said, I can hit plenty of good drives with it as long as the course is not wet. I don't know where the center of mass is in the GT3 but I can tell just from performance that it must be quite far forward of where PING generally puts theirs in their MAX models. Not giving up on the driver by any means, but I would say that if you are a current PING driver player you might want to look at the GT2 or go up in loft or try a higher launching shaft than what you are used to in the GT3. 

 

The fairway woods are smaller heads than I am typically used to as well so they are more demanding as well. I can't tell overall if I am just not confident with these new clubs or if they just require more concentration/practice/precision than I typically care to invest.

 

For reference again I am a 4.6 handicap. 

[stryper]

Another sim round today.  Bad putting torpedoed what was otherwise a pretty decent round.  5-8 fairways hit with the GT3; one miss led to a bogey, another a double.  Distances were respectable.

 

 

[CanFred]

Sharing some recent stats from my last couple rounds - as with my range sessions, I'm definitely seeing improvement in my Driving stats, as evidenced by my SG increases: 

 

 As you can see, I'm still seeing a slight fade come into my swing lately, but I've been very impressed by how well the GT3 performs on mishits.  I noticed on a couple heavy toe shots, the ball would stay in the fairway (albeit not as far as a good drive).  Speaking of, sharing a couple hero shots from today - very impressed with the distance / accuracy gains still early in my testing.

 

(Just ignore the score - as you can see, my approach & short game is ATROCIOUS at the moment. 🤣

Edited November 12, 2024 by ChrisATL

[stryper]

Bump for a quick anecdotal update…played a couple more informal sim rounds today, and while there’s no way (for me) to measure this, the star of this show was the GT3 fairway, and to a lesser extent the TSR3 hybrids.  
 

Had some longer approaches and par 3’s, narrow landing areas, and while I did not have my best swing going, the top end of the bag was money.  Kept it in cruising mode, and (especially) the GT3 fairway responded very well.  Easy launch with a slight fade.  No misses, and I felt very comfortable each time the headcover(s) came off.

 

[KrazyTrain18]

The GT2 has been in the bag for nearly 3 months now and I can comfortably say it's the best driver I've played.  The fit with the 1K Black has been great as well, very consistent ball flight and great forgiveness while staying in a good spin window.  

[stryper]

Had a brief respite from babysitting duties this morning, so I went out for a quick nine hole minimalist walk.  (First time outside in a month and a half.)  Short set, seven clubs including the GT3 driver and TSR3 hybrid—the GT3 fairway sat this one out.  Swing wasn’t stellar, so scoring was up a bit, but six of seven fairways hit, the only miss being two yards into the right rough on the last hole.  Also had several nice shots with the TSR3...Titleist continues to perform!!!

[stryper]

Another sim round for those still following this thread…this was PGA National, with tight fairways and water everywhere, but still the GT3 driver kept it in play, and the GT3 fairway got me close enough to score on longer approaches. 
 

Most importantly, though, was the consistently good distance (for me) off the tee.  The feeling today was effortless.  
 

The Titleist GT3 line is truly the gift that keeps giving. 😉

 

 

[Barische]

in for info, i need to make a decision of my next driver

[AUTIGER07]

A quick update after two recent rounds

 

GT3 Driver

Averaging around 65-66% of fairways hit but the misses have been really wild, significantly more than my previous Cobra. The Riptide has definitely been  loose on full swings so I’ve been tapering back to 80-85% trying to keep the ball in play. I have an old CK Pro White in the garage I’m going to put in for the next few weeks to see if that improves the situation.

 

GT3 Fairway

Nothing new to add from my last post. Length is up and ball-flight is improved over the TSR2. Bad shots are deservedly penalized but good/great shots are rewarded. As of now it is still firmly in the bag.

[AdExec]

Went from GT2 with ventus blue 6S to GT3 with Tensei pro blue 60tx. 1st full round out yesterday after a 9 hole turkey day run. 

 

spin is notably lower and getting more consistently long yardage. Shaft is a much better fit. 
 

very surprised at how forgiving a toe miss is on the GT3. Had two drives that sounded terrible and felt like I barely hit the face but somehow carried ~ 270 yards and landed in the fairway. The feel/sound off the middle is outstanding. Still surprised at how high the 9* heads have launched in both heads. 
 

going to loft down to 8.25 and flat position on head for today in hope I can get the start line closer to my original sim and dial in the baby fade. 
 

feeling like I have the same firepower as my Original sim in a more forgiving package as of now. The sim with d+ limited has been an impossible combo to beat for several years until possibly this one. 

[stryper]

Another sim round.  6/7 fairways hit, two of those with the 19 degree TSR3.  More tight landing areas, resulting in two drives that were unplayable. Distances were down, probably from trying to squeeze a few in.  Still the GT3’s allowed me to muddle it around pretty well.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2024 by stryper

[Carolina Golfer 2]

On 11/30/2024 at 10:33 AM, AdExec said:

Went from GT2 with ventus blue 6S to GT3 with Tensei pro blue 60tx. 1st full round out yesterday after a 9 hole turkey day run. 

 

spin is notably lower and getting more consistently long yardage. Shaft is a much better fit. 
 

very surprised at how forgiving a toe miss is on the GT3. Had two drives that sounded terrible and felt like I barely hit the face but somehow carried ~ 270 yards and landed in the fairway. The feel/sound off the middle is outstanding. Still surprised at how high the 9* heads have launched in both heads. 
 

going to loft down to 8.25 and flat position on head for today in hope I can get the start line closer to my original sim and dial in the baby fade. 
 

feeling like I have the same firepower as my Original sim in a more forgiving package as of now. The sim with d+ limited has been an impossible combo to beat for several years until possibly this one. 

I have experienced the exact same thing on the toe hits.  Well not the 270 but relatively speaking the same minimal drop off.  

[bigdriveandy]

On 11/30/2024 at 10:33 AM, AdExec said:

Went from GT2 with ventus blue 6S to GT3 with Tensei pro blue 60tx. 1st full round out yesterday after a 9 hole turkey day run. 

 

spin is notably lower and getting more consistently long yardage. Shaft is a much better fit. 
 

very surprised at how forgiving a toe miss is on the GT3. Had two drives that sounded terrible and felt like I barely hit the face but somehow carried ~ 270 yards and landed in the fairway. The feel/sound off the middle is outstanding. Still surprised at how high the 9* heads have launched in both heads. 
 

going to loft down to 8.25 and flat position on head for today in hope I can get the start line closer to my original sim and dial in the baby fade. 
 

feeling like I have the same firepower as my Original sim in a more forgiving package as of now. The sim with d+ limited has been an impossible combo to beat for several years until possibly this one. 

I have to echo the sentiment here and the fact that the weighting is effective in making the toe miss a lot more playable from a traj/spin standpoint as well. I find that compared to my g400 max, i get a lot more drives that don't feel good at all but they still go plenty and they still end up in the fairway or just off. G400 Max everything feels the same off the face and the middle of the face is not very hot. A flushed shot on the GT3 is noticeably different sounding and feeling as though you hit the ball off a trampoline. 

[stryper]

GT3 driver is still holding its own…every shot would have been playable:

 

 

[CanFred]

As the weather has turned south down in the South (heh), golf has been a bit limited recently, but I have been able to get some good range sessions in recently.  

 

Overall, I'm still fighting a slight fade but I'm still very impressed with how well the GT3 is in the forgiveness department.  With my trusty can of foot spray, a good number of my shots have been on the toe, but I have yet to see a big degrade in the "quality" of the shot.  As with @stryper, the driver is still firmly in the bag.

 

With the fairway woods, I've been struggling with off the deck shots recently - its one of the parts of my bag I'm planning to focus on a bit more heading into the winter, but I'm still very happy with the performance of the FWs when they are hit well.  Said another way, its more of an archer vs arrow problem at the moment 🙂 

 

For the other testers, I'm curious if anyone else has started tweaking any of your settings - specifically the movable weights / collar settings.  I ask this because of the fade I've been fighting recently - curious if I need to go back to the more neutral setting to address in my driver.  

[stryper]

1 hour ago, ChrisATL said:

As the weather has turned south down in the South (heh), golf has been a bit limited recently, but I have been able to get some good range sessions in recently.  

 

Overall, I'm still fighting a slight fade but I'm still very impressed with how well the GT3 is in the forgiveness department.  With my trusty can of foot spray, a good number of my shots have been on the toe, but I have yet to see a big degrade in the "quality" of the shot.  As with @stryper, the driver is still firmly in the bag.

 

With the fairway woods, I've been struggling with off the deck shots recently - its one of the parts of my bag I'm planning to focus on a bit more heading into the winter, but I'm still very happy with the performance of the FWs when they are hit well.  Said another way, its more of an archer vs arrow problem at the moment 🙂 

 

For the other testers, I'm curious if anyone else has started tweaking any of your settings - specifically the movable weights / collar settings.  I ask this because of the fade I've been fighting recently - curious if I need to go back to the more neutral setting to address in my driver.  

Personally, I haven’t tweaked any settings, as the fade that I’m seeing is very consistent/controlled.  For me there’s a lot of confidence in knowing I can aim left-center and find the ball center or right-center of the fairway.  It’s a feeling I’d never really known until the GT experience, even though my previous self-fit TSR3 was very close to what was fit into here.  
 

Edit to add:  my fairway is also evolving into a consistent ball-mover, even though I hadn’t taken it outside during my recent minimalist rounds.  On the sim it’s showing a nice, piercing trajectory that fits in well between my driver and TSR3 hybrids, proving to be a useful addition to the bag.

Edited December 5, 2024 by stryper

[sbjinx]

Anyone find the GT3 to launch higher vs GT2 which has a lower / flatter flight.  Been struggling with the 3 so I borrowed my friends 2 (both 10* A1) and put my AD DI shaft and finding the ball flight to be much lower/flatter. Hard to tell off one 9 hole round but 2 does seem more forgiving, and my misses off the heel isn’t as punished. 

[pdaero]

On 12/5/2024 at 4:04 PM, sbjinx said:

Anyone find the GT3 to launch higher vs GT2 which has a lower / flatter flight.  Been struggling with the 3 so I borrowed my friends 2 (both 10* A1) and put my AD DI shaft and finding the ball flight to be much lower/flatter. Hard to tell off one 9 hole round but 2 does seem more forgiving, and my misses off the heel isn’t as punished. 

I didn't hit the 3 enough in my fitting - just wasn't quite striking it well enough to give it a fair chance. Wasn't spinning enough. I found the 2, with a great shaft, to be an incredible all-around driver. 

[pdaero]

On 11/30/2024 at 9:33 AM, AdExec said:

Went from GT2 with ventus blue 6S to GT3 with Tensei pro blue 60tx. 1st full round out yesterday after a 9 hole turkey day run. 

 

spin is notably lower and getting more consistently long yardage. Shaft is a much better fit. 
 

very surprised at how forgiving a toe miss is on the GT3. Had two drives that sounded terrible and felt like I barely hit the face but somehow carried ~ 270 yards and landed in the fairway. The feel/sound off the middle is outstanding. Still surprised at how high the 9* heads have launched in both heads. 
 

going to loft down to 8.25 and flat position on head for today in hope I can get the start line closer to my original sim and dial in the baby fade. 
 

feeling like I have the same firepower as my Original sim in a more forgiving package as of now. The sim with d+ limited has been an impossible combo to beat for several years until possibly this one. 

Gosh I would love to try that combo.. I've always found a low spin head with a great feeling mid-spin shaft works super well for me. 

[stryper]

While doing a speed training session today, I saw my best driver numbers to date.  Can’t say enough about the GT3:

 

 

[CanFred]

5 hours ago, stryper said:

While doing a speed training session today, I saw my best driver numbers to date.  Can’t say enough about the GT3:

 

 

Impressive @stryper - curious, what speed training program are you doing? I’m considering the Stack but worried it could exacerbate some bad swing tendencies currently. 

[stryper]

20 minutes ago, ChrisATL said:

Impressive @stryper - curious, what speed training program are you doing? I’m considering the Stack but worried it could exacerbate some bad swing tendencies currently. 

I’m actually kinda winging it with the speed training, not really following any established program.  Nothing against Sasho or the SuperSpeed folks—no doubt they’ve added much to the speed training discussion—but the science is far from settled.  No one protocol seems to be better than any other.

 

So, based on everything I’ve read, I’ve cobbled together a routine using the MaxSwingSpeed stick.  No swing radar while training, just all out swings using varying weights, once or maybe twice a week. To keep myself engaged, I’ve been cross posting over on the Instruction subforum on this site.

 

As far as exacerbating bad swing tendencies, I’ve found the opposite to be true.  In order to swing the heavier weight/stick efficiently, my body is finding a way to self organize and weed out any unnecessary moves.  

[CanFred]

Thanks so much for sharing @stryper - will check out!

[stryper]

Final sim league round before Christmas.  This was on The Old Course at St. Andrews.  Fairway hit was the story of the day:

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2024 by stryper

[AUTIGER07]

On 11/29/2024 at 8:47 PM, AUTIGER07 said:

A quick update after two recent rounds

 

GT3 Driver

Averaging around 65-66% of fairways hit but the misses have been really wild, significantly more than my previous Cobra. The Riptide has definitely been  loose on full swings so I’ve been tapering back to 80-85% trying to keep the ball in play. I have an old CK Pro White in the garage I’m going to put in for the next few weeks to see if that improves the situation.

 

GT3 Fairway

Nothing new to add from my last post. Length is up and ball-flight is improved over the TSR2. Bad shots are deservedly penalized but good/great shots are rewarded. As of now it is still firmly in the bag.

Quick update after a few range sessions since the CK Pro booted out the Riptide.

 

In a word...better. Much better. Dispersion is significantly improved and the driver doesn't feel near as loose as what it did before. I did switch the surefit settings from B1 to C4 to get the launch up a little bit but otherwise 4 sessions later this seems to be locked in place for the time being.

[stryper]

No real update here, but I brought the clubs in for a good cleaning this afternoon, and when we were done they lined up so nicely I couldn’t help but smile…absolutely love the top of my bag right now.
 

So once again, a huge thank you to GolfWRX and Titleist (Matt and Jacquelyn, especially) for this amazing opportunity.  
 

Hope everyone following this is having an awesome Christmas.  🎄🎄🎄