NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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The next generation of the PGA Tour’s most-played irons made their official debut at the Memorial Tournament last week in Ohio.
It was the grand opening for the third-generation T-Series (T100, T150, T200 and T300 models), which marks the start of Titleist’s tour seeding and validation process for the new clubs. In each of the past nine tour seasons, Titleist has been the top iron of choice. One reason why is because of how painstaking and meticulous the company’s club-creation process has become.
At Muirfield Village, Titleist reps were working with players, fitting them into the new iron models and gathering their performance feedback. Titleist will continue to solicit feedback from touring pros – this week, the clubs will be available to use on the LPGA and Korn Ferry tours – before working their way through other levels of the game, including club professionals and elite amateurs.
There were 13 players in the Memorial field who had at least some of the new T-Series irons in their bag during competition days. Cameron Young, Lanto Griffin, Peter Malnati, S.H. Kim and Brian Harman were among the players to jump into tournament play with the fresh sticks.
“The vast majority of our players at least hit them on the range or took them on the course,” said Josh Talge, Titleist’s vice president of marketing. “In Lanto Griffin’s case, he’s like, ‘I got seven new golf clubs; I'm playing all these; I'm really excited about these.’ So that’s what about half the guys do. And then the other half say, ‘Geez, I like everything about this; don't change a thing. I'm going to take these home, and I'm going to call you this week and let you know things are going.’ And if we have to make any tweaks, we’ll do that.”
This is an important milestone in a process that takes more than two years. In fact, this past week marked the beginning of Titleist’s work toward the prototype creation for the next generation of irons, which we likely won’t see until we’ve reached this spot in the calendar in 2025.
How does it all work? Titleist starts by asking tour pros myriad questions. That includes inquiring about spin-rate dispersions out of certain lies, whether players like the look of the clubhead and how consistent trajectories are in different situations. Any detail you can name.
All summer, Titleist will solicit feedback. That leads into two lengthy and rigorous periods: design and testing. Motion-capture technology can help confirm certain theories or concepts held by the Titleist club-developing team, and there are always new ideas about what can be done. For example, this past week Young experimented with a prototype set of irons that had different center-of-gravity placement and some changes to the sole. Feedback from sessions like that one often helps get the ball rolling.
From there, a relatively small number of the irons are produced. Some players will get a sense for them before this week; for others, it’s like a movie debut in which they are seeing them for the first time. Even in cases where players may not directly test the latest generation of equipment beforehand, Titleist is constantly working with its staff members to understand their needs.
In the case of this current T-Series coming to tour, there was some “tightening up” of the sole to improve turf interaction and a slight change to how the grooves were cut. Those changes have been about 18 months in the making. Once the irons have reached this point in the process, there won’t be any massive changes – anything in that category will go into the ensuing generation of irons. However, alterations to lie angle, swing weight or other smaller adjustments can be made.
“When we get to a point where it’s a week like this, all we’re really doing is saying, now we’ve got the product in place; we think it’s really good and we can make enough of it,” Talge said. “So we’re ready for you guys to use this. And we’ll support you with it going forward.”
Something that is vital to note is that an iron seeding and validation is a lot different than when a driver is introduced. There are more variables with irons, which usually creates a more complicated feedback process.
“It’s a little different than a driver launch where it has this kind of Christmas kind of feel that your drivers are out,” Talge said. “And it’s so easy with a driver to just do that all via launch monitor work right on the range. Whereas with irons, not only do we want to introduce them on the practice grounds, but then we really want guys to go out and play with them and get real holes in.
“Driver, you look at the numbers and you’re like, ‘Yeah, this is a no brainer.’ But you’re asking irons to do so many different types of things. It’s different types of shots. With a driver, it’s just kind of standard. Most players play one type of shape for their driver, and they’re really looking at the launch, the spin, the speed. You check those three boxes, and you’re kind of good to go.”
The feedback last week was overwhelmingly positive. It’s always a mix of excitement and relief when the tour launch is successful.
“We felt pretty confident in the shape and look of these products, that when we post some pictures and when guys start seeing, they’re going to be excited,” Talge said. “But you never really know. And as a team, we take so much pride in (the positive response). At first, there’s kind of a relief of, ‘Yes, this works.’ But then quickly, there’s that pride of, OK, we've got something really special here. How do we make sure we bring this to market?’”
And that is where it all comes back to in the end. Eventually everyone will be able to take advantage of the new technology. Titleist normally releases its new irons in the fall.
If you get to play them, remember all the work behind the scenes. It takes a village to raise an iron.
Sean Fairholm