TITLEIST TS Drivers... do they hold up in 2020?

[Liquid_A_45]

Interesting you say this, I was looking at some used drivers the other day and picked up an Epic Flash. I was hitting some bad slices, mostly due to a swing fault, and the shop pro took the club and slid the weight all the way to the heel and told me that would help. It seemed like it was even harder to square the face after that but I chalked it up to still swinging poorly. Went back today and grabbed one with the weight in the toe, nothing but draws and straight ball flight.

[strug'-a-ling]

I hope my TS1 isn't obsolete because I haven't hit it outdoors yet!

 

[LowCut]

Iit really comes down to the right shaft. If you've got one you like, go with the driver that looks and sounds the best. Feel is underrated and when you stand over the shot, you want to have confidence in what you are looking down at.

Personally I love the shotgun-blast sound of the TS to the sort of dull/solid thud on the TM drivers.

[FormerDimer]

UPDATE: picked up a used TS3 8.5 head here in the classifieds and threw my old Motore in it just to have a frame of reference. Feels a little different on impact (not in a bad way, just different) and I need to tweak the weight a little to get it to my swing weight, but so far the ball seems to jump off the face faster and we're just getting started. Can't wait to get this thing on a launch monitor soon! Ventus Black anyone?

[Beachbum08247]

One last time on the launch monitor with the TS3 and the SiM Max. TS3 won distance wise as well as on feel. I have been a TM player for years but this season it will be the TS3 in my bag to start off the season. SiM Max is headed to BST.

[uglande]

Just finished head-to-head between TaylorMade M5 and Titleist TS3, both with Hzrdus Yellow 6.5. On numbers it's basically a draw, so I'm going back to my TS3 because I prefer the sound slightly and a prefer the look by a mile. Plus I'm generally biased in favor of Titleist when things are otherwise equal.

[longdriver7878]

the ts3 is basically as good as anything I tried in 2020

 

[steventoo]

My old Adams driver broke late last year (the rear-mounted weight popped through into the head) after many years of bombing it down the fairway. My club had a Titleist fitting a few days later. I was fitted for a TS2 with Evenflow T1100 65/6.5. I bought it and really like it, but I kept an open mind about trying others because I knew the TS2 had been around a while. The new SIM was imminent, as was the Maverick, the SZ, etc. Since buying the TS2 I've tried many of the current crop of drivers (Ping, Cobra, Mizuno, Titleist, TaylorMade, Callaway) and I haven't found anything that is significantly better in any way than the TS2 I have. Certainly nothing compelling enough to switch.

[NikedOut]

Going on year 2 with TS3 and it’s still a great club to have in the bag. I’ve had a Titleist Driver since 913 and the TS3 has been my favorite by far.

[Tree Levino]

Just picked up an AD DI 6x to test vs my Hzrdus HC black in my TS3. I couldn't believe how much it blew everything else out of the water for me (Mavrik, Sim Max, Speedzone, EF). Only thing that came close was G410 LST. Playing the 8.5* with +2g weight at 44.75.

[ian-500]

[regiwstruk]

Love my TS3. Best acoustics I’ve ever heard in a driver. Clean crown, long as hell after tweaking the weight and SureFit.

Still believe that if Titleist would make fitting easier at the point of sale, they would get back to number one. They should offer $50 off a fitting if you buy immediately after. Beef up the in-store trainings and fitting carts. Serious golfers would be amazed and I genuinely think the people who buy off the rack would get away from these busy crowns built by a marketing team. I mean Callaway and TM both literally spell out the name of the driver on the crown. Who is that for? I bought the mf’er, I know what it’s called. /rant

[Crooksc17]

Titleist Thursdays

[Beachbum08247]

It took me years to try a Titleist driver, but once I did I was hooked. It’s amazing how good these TS drivers are, can’t imagine anything currently out there replacing my TS3. Already tried the Callaway and TM offerings and neither could beat out my TS3.

[Liquid_A_45]

Just snagged a TS2 with Ahina Stiff shaft. Didn't get to try the TS2 or TS3 out so just went off youtube reviews, hopefully the TS2 is for me.

[ctscup]

Short answer is yes. My numbers with my TS4 are only rivaled by the Sim, but The feel and look of the TS4 cannot be beat.

[pencilholder]

Still loving my TS2/Smoke 6.0 more than anything out there. I can’t resist seeing what else is out there, but I’m not tempted to make a move this year.

[MofoJones]

2020 is "The Year Of The Driver". So many fantastic options now. TS3 will have its hands full, but it still has its place in prowess as one of the top options for an anti-hook set up.

[Valtiel]

Putting the weight where your miss is and moving it for a "fade/draw" is basically the same thing. Players that hit it out of the toe tend have a draw/hook miss, and moving weight towards the toe shifts the CG in that direction which decreases the horizontal gear effects associated with missing the sweet spot heel/toe side. If your miss is in the toe AND you have a slice (or vice versa) then that is unusual and indicative of a face/path issue that is even greater than the gear effects caused by the mis hit.

The reason the TS3 benefits from toe weighting is that it is already a pretty draw biased driver. In terms of CG location it is pretty similar to many drivers with their adjustable weights in the draw setting and the various "SFT" versions of PING models. Toe weight helps to neutralize that draw bias a bit and helps with the fact that it is also not terribly high in terms of MOI, meaning it is less forgiving but also potentially lower spin than many of its competitors. Think of it as 2019 "SLDR" in that respect as it relates to other 2019 drivers. If the SLDR is on one end of the forgiveness spectrum and the PING G400 MAX is on the other, the TS3 falls right in the middle, as well as sharing the SLDR's draw bias. So the same "fixes" apply for those that are struggling with the TS3; get more weight back and toe side.

[FormerDimer]

Ventus Black 6x on its way, please baby Jesus let this combo be the one lol.

 

[agood3putt]

I've tested everything under the sun including the most recent OEM offerings for this year and nothing has beat my TS2 9.5* w/ Tensei Pro White combo. Just an amazing driver from Titleist.

[Tree Levino]

 

I'd not say it is known as a draw bias driver at all, in fact it has a reputation for being almost fade bias. In standard it is neutral and the surefit CG cartridge can create slight draw/fade bias according to M G S report from last year.

[sofla]

I have not found it to be draw bias either. I put the weight in the draw position and do not see much draw. By comparison, when I put the weight in the draw position in my Ping LST I save more draw as compared to it in neutral.

[moorebaseball]

Definitely not a draw bias driver. Straight bullets for me 90% of the time. With that said, I can work it either way, but even the draws and fades are minimal. This thing is a straight cannon.

[storm319]

According to the MyGolf$py 2019 CG/MOI test, all settings for the TS3 resulted in the CG being heel side of the center line. The TS2 was actually closer to the center line than all TS3 settings. This is of course based on their measurement methodology, but in comparison to the rest of the OEMs the TS3 was one of the most heel biased overall.

[TCZ]

5 of 8 guys in our weekend group are playing the TS3 (the other 3 guys play TM). I've tinkered with TM and PXG but kept coming back to the TS3. Love how it looks, sounds and sets up. I won't look elsewhere until Titleist's next release.

[golfaddict07]

Big TS3 fan. Been playing all Titleist for a long time, but always try out other brands to see what they are doing. Sim 3 wood beat out my F915, but nothing beat out my TS3. I switch in between the Oban Kiyoshi White 05 and Fujikura Motore Speeder 7.3, depending on the course.

Long story short, TS3 beats out anything in the market driver wise for me, but hit as many as you can with proper shaft options to see what works best for you.

[Valtiel]

Subjective experiences are fine for your own testing purposes, and are ultimately the only thing that matters for YOU, but internal CG bias is not a matter of subjective experience, it is objectively measured. Here are the CG positions per M.G.S. I've labeled it to be more clear.

The center of the face is 0.00, labeled "NEUTRAL" in blue. Everything to the left represents a fade bias and right, a draw bias. We can see that the PING G410 has a very wide range of adjustment capability, which makes sense given the design, but leans towards being a fade biased driver (the sweet spot is 5mm toe side in the "fade" setting). The Draw setting is only half a millimeter right of Neutral. The TS3 lives between that and the extremely draw biased Callaway Rogue Draw and in line with the PING SFT models as I mentioned. The only rub here is that the other weight settings weren't measured, but based on the 917 series which DID have the fade and fade weights measured, they only influence a little less than 1mm in either direction. Therefore the light blue and light yellow dots on either side of the grey TS3 dot would be pretty accurate representations of the standard "fade" and "draw" weight cartridges respectively. We can also see the Taylormade M5 being similarly fade biased like the PING G410, with the "draw" weight position putting it exactly dead neutral. This is why guys that want to work the driver both ways like Tiger and Rory used the Draw setting (actually neutral), and guys that preferred a fade like Rahm and DJ used the neutral setting (actually fade biased).

Now there are of course other factors that determine a drivers flight bias based on the individual; Shaft type/flex/length, grip size, swing weight, face angle, lie angle etc etc, but those are all variables that create differences on a player by player basis. CG bias however is measured and objective. And given the stock 16g moveable weight on the PING G410 and how much it influences CG bias based on the 410's weight track design, I would guess that in the standard weight setting, the TS3 would need somewhere around 10g of hot melt out in the toe to achieve a neutral bias.

[TIM929]

feel of the TS3 at impact is classy as it gets, sound is superior as well (vs any other brand I tried).

 

Titleist means title holder... and yes it does.

[Beachbum08247]

Was there more to the color key at the top that got cut off? TS3 isn’t listed in it, key stops at TS2.