New technology, new name: The Titleist T-Series irons.

The concept behind the T-Series started with one goal: To produce the best performing, most technology packed, playable irons, ever produced by Titleist…simply put: mission accomplished! With the launch of the new T100, T200, and T300s, Titleist is ushering in a new era of forgiveness, speed, and control with Max Impact.

What does that mean? Before diving into Max Impact, let’s start with the control part. With the launch of the new T-Series, Titleist is reminding golfers that fitting is the key to maximizing your set. From wedges to woods, each club should serve a distinct purpose and earn its spot in your bag—never carry a club because you “think” you need it, carry the clubs you know you will use.

Titleist calls this is the 3D Fitting Process

• Distance
• Dispersion
• Descent

Focusing on these factors ensures each iron in your bag is creating the proper parameters to improve scoring. Statistics prove that the closer you hit it to your target (descent and dispersion) the likelihood of getting the next shot closer (or in the hole) goes way up—it’s the strokes gained principle pioneered by Mark Broadie. Each iron in the T-Series has been designed to blend with the other models including the 620 series blades and CBs to make sure regardless of your final set make up it transitions on both looks and performance. With the new T-Series, the larger the number model 100, 200, 300, the faster the ball speeds and the higher the launch. Add the all-new Max Impact Technology, and you have three distinct iron sets designed to help any player find the performance they are looking for.

Titleist T100 irons

Built from the ground up with direct input from Titleist’s PGA Tour staff, the mission statement from the design team for the new T100 was to simply create the best performing tour iron ever—NOT “the best AP2.” With a shape that is distinctly Titleist but completely redefined as far as offset, top line, sole width, camber, and blade length, the T100 gives players looking for a tour performance iron more playability than ever before.

Co-forged with large amounts of tungsten (66g on average in the 3-7 irons) in the heel and toe, the T100 looks a lot more like a single-piece forged players cavity back than multi-piece forgiveness monster, but looks can be deceiving. It has the thinnest face they have ever built into a true forged players club, which allows designers to push more mass around the head and create greater ball speed, which is a never a bad thing especially when you consider that it still has a fully supported face.

Just like with club technology, turf conditions are always evolving with new grass types and mower techniques. This means where the club contacts the ground has to evolve too, which is exactly what has happened to the whole T-Series including the T100. Sole width and profiles have been reduced to offer more camber and radius, which through the testing process has lead players to say the same thing over and over: “they feel faster through the turf.” That’s from Marni Ines, Director, Titleist Irons Development. It’s not that they actually go through that much faster but they react through the ground much more efficiently, which means as course conditions vary, whether through the season or thanks to traveling, you are going to great results shot after shot.

(Club fitter thought break for a moment)

I can’t reiterate this enough: In the world of designing golf clubs, the rules set forth by the governing bodies along with mass totals for club heads will always create a unique challenge for engineers. Every single gram saved is valuable in creating higher MOI, better COG placement, and optimizing ball speed. Tweaks that might appear to be small can actually make a big difference for some players, for example; a simple change in sole shape. What we are seeing is the practice of marginal gains, which can be summed up by this practical application: rather than attempt to improve one thing by 10 percent, improve 10 things by 1 percent to equal better results. Now take it further and imagine if you improve 10 measurable factors by 1.5 percent, these are tangible numbers for increased performance.

So why do I bring this up? It’s because this is how engineers work to help you play better golf. All these small changes compounded together make for big improvements to your golf game. It’s about using every technology available in both production and design to create improvement. If you can change three parameters to get angle of decent two percent higher from 43 degrees to 45 degrees that’s greater stopping power to help you get closer to flags, equaling the potential to score better. Something we all want to do.

Speaking to technology jumps, this bring us to…

MAX Impact

Max Impact is a combination of technologies that pairs the thinnest faces Titleist has ever produced with structural support and polymer core behind the geometric center of the face to increase speed, launch, and improve feel.

So about the supporting polymer: It’s not some run of the mill, “Hey that sound like a good idea,” piece of just anything. If there is one thing Titleist knows beyond how to make the number one irons on tour, it’s polymers. With help from the golf ball R&D Team, the Titleist Iron engineers went through a multitude of options before settling on the what was the final variation based on density, rebound properties and finally acoustic enhancement. As they explained,

“Think of the unsupported face like a trampoline, pulled tight with a huge potential for rebound. Now take that trampoline and put an exercise ball underneath it right in the middle. You’re going to bounce higher and increase the rebound not only in the middle but also when you don’t catch the middle of the trampoline – That’s the application of the Max Impact.”

So what do we do about all of this speed? The one thing players often talk about is the inconsistency in distance they see from irons with unsupported faces (“hotspots”) that occur on shots hit around the face. During my discussion with the engineering team, I asked if these “hotspots” still really exist on modern irons and to my surprise I was told in one way or the other “YES…BUT.” These shots that go further don’t actually come from the face being hotter in one area, they come from gear effect from shots usually hit high on the face above the center of percussion…

Center of percussion? Let’s explain that before going any further (Thanks Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture) “The center of percussion (COP) is the place on a bat, racket, or golf club where it may be struck without causing reaction at the point of support. When a ball is hit at this spot, the contact feels good and the ball seems to spring away with its greatest speed and therefore this is often referred to as the sweet spot.”

Just like with a driver, shots hit above that area will launch higher with less spin—that creates parameters for shots to go further. But if you can prevent that from happening or shrink that area, the likelihood of those shots occurring goes WAY down and you get a much more consistent ball flight. That’s part of the genius of Max Impact, not only does it help create greater speed but creates more consistent speed and launch conditions all over the face. Everything you want in an iron built for speed in a players package.

• More photos of Titleist T100 irons in the forums.

Titleist T200 irons

The first thing you’ll notice that makes the T200 unique from any Titleist iron before it is Max Impact Technology. I realize this sounds very different from any Titleist iron before it and…well…that’s because it is.

Thanks to new materials and manufacturing techniques, along with lessons learned through the introduction of the Concept Series and Speed Project, the T200 has an unsupported (by metal) Forged L-Face that not only feels great but flexes for more ball speed. Thanks to the weight savings of the thinner Forged L-face, more tungsten (average of 90g from the 4-7-irons) can be placed low and on the perimeter of the club to increase forgiveness and overall total stability where players need it.

That’s part of the reason stronger lofts are required—these things really do LAUNCH. Max Impact isn’t found in every T200 though, it has been placed in the 4- 7 irons because Titleist player testing and data crunching proved time after time that as players get away from their scoring clubs distance gapping and dispersion becomes an issue. This is where the 3D fitting process makes sure every club in the set has a purpose and hits a proper flight and distance.

• More photos of Titleist T200 irons in the forums. 

Titleist T300 irons

If you just look at the spec for the T300, I already know what you’re going to say “WOW, these lofts are jacked, no wonder they go so far.” That’s not the full story, and at this point in golf technology, I’m completely over hearing that as an excuse for players to NOT trying a club. This comes from the perspective of a fitter rather than a player—not the other way around.

The T300 is the hottest and most forgiving Titleist iron ever made. Just like its smaller brother, the T200, it uses the same Max Impact Technology to both add rebound and improve overall feel. The unsupported face is stretched across a larger area thanks to the bigger face size, wider sole, and undercut perimeter to push the COG low and away from the face—if the T200 launches, then the T300 REALLY Launches! This deep COG and thin fast face is what makes this club launch so high, it’s also the reason stronger lofts are necessary. If it wasn’t for strong lofts, then with the speed and spin they would create at “standard” lofts, ball flight would end up uncontrollable. Basically the exact opposite of what you want in an iron.

Part of how they were able to make the T300 the most forgiving Titleist iron ever is by actually eliminating a part of the club that was beneficial in previous models (like the AP1)—hollow-body construction. Even with a hollow-body design, there is unnecessary weight placed high along the back of the club.

Generally for many designs this is fine because the wall thickness is minimal, and thanks to smarter people than me, this allows for more flexing of the body of the club to enhance ball speeds. But if given the option between the two, a fully undercut iron would have a higher MOI and help create that same trampoline when engineered properly and free up more discretionary mass. For the T300, Max Impact is found in the 4-7 irons to again help with launch and speed and create proper set gapping.

• More photos of Titleist T300 irons in the forums. 

Stock Shafts & Availability

Titleist has one of the largest available shaft matrices available through custom order, but the stock shafts for each model are as follows.

Steel

T100 – True Temper AMT Tour White AMT White
T200- True Temper AMT Black AMT Black
T300- True Temper AMT Red AMT Red

Graphite

This is a new one for Titleist. Just like with the original True Temper AMT, they will be the first to offer the Mitsubishi MCA Tensei AM2 (stands for ascending mass) shafts that will come in  versions White, Blue, & Red.

T100 – Mitsubishi MCA Tensei White AM2 | Low launch, low spin | 94-108g (2g per club)
T200- Mitsubishi MCA Tensei Blue AM2 | Mid launch, mid spin | 74-88g (2g per club)
T300- Mitsubishi MCA Tensei Red AM2 | High launch, mid-high spin | 54-68g (2g per club)

T-SERIES AVAILABILITY: New Titleist T-Series irons will be available in golf shops worldwide beginning Aug. 30, with fittings beginning Aug. 8. With Pricing of the T100 and 200 set at $175 per club with steel ($1,399/set of 8) and $187.50 per club ($1,499 /set of 8) graphite

T300 will be $125 per club ($999/set of 8) Steel & $137.50 per club ($1,099/set of 8) graphite

• More photos of Titleist T100 irons in the forums.
• More photos of Titleist T200 irons in the forums. 
• More photos of Titleist T300 irons in the forums. 
• More photos (including cutaways) in the forums.