Titleist’s new performance facility? You have to see it to believe it

When it comes to golf equipment, I have seen it all — or at least I thought I had.

Then, earlier this week, I visited golf-junky heaven: the new Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) in Oceanside, Calif. 

As I embark on this new equipment specialist role at GOLF, one of my first missions has been catching up on everything I missed while I was working at Callaway. Make no mistake, being in the Callaway eco-system for a gear nut like me was world class, but there’s a big golf world to explore beyond it, and I’m getting a full dose of that new frontier as we speak, including touring the teched-out splendors of the manufacturers’ testing facilities.

Most of the big companies have private facilities that house their R&D work, Tour fittings, VIP fittings, etc. Callaway has its Ely Callaway Performance Center; TaylorMade has The Kingdom; Ping has its WRX facility onsite in Phoenix; PXG has Scottsdale National.

I’ve spent a ton of time at all these places, and each one perfectly fits its company’s personality. The campuses amplify the manufacturers’ outlook on clubs and fitting, and provide a next-level experience that you may only get once or twice in your life. Look at it like this: If you set foot in one of these facilities, you are getting the best fitters, off the best turf, with every piece of imaginable technology at your disposal.

They’re all elite experiences, but the newly remodeled Titleist Performance Institute is like nothing I have ever seen. 

Inside the all-new Titleist Performance Institute

Even before its makeover — which is still a work in progress — TPI was incredible. Something about pulling through the guard gate and looking out at that perfect strip of grass facing the Pacific Ocean gave you that “I’m about to do something cool” vibe. So, needless to say, my expectations this week were exceedingly high.

If you’ve visited any of these clubmakers’ flagship fitting properties, you know that the treatment is no different than going to a Four Seasons spa and getting pampered. But, as I learned this week, not all spas are created equal.

While all these facilities offer high-level service, differentiating them is their ranges, which can quickly take your day from awesome to golf-dork obscene.

That was the case at TPI.

When you walk outside to the hitting area, you are confronted with an enormous, airy space that seems to run off into the ocean and stretches north to south as far as the eye can see. It’s sitting on the patio at Augusta National and looking out over the property, except this is a driving range. Digest that for a second.

TPI offers up every conceivable situation you could face on a golf course. Targets all over the place from 20 yards to 350 yards; chipping greens at every turn; fairways to pipe drives down. Hell, there even is a 9-hole routing within the range that employees will go out and play after hours. The turf is pristine, and you get bags of fresh Pro V/X balls to hit. You can shift your targets around to dial in a specific wind direction (looking at you, Rory), or aim at trees to mimic a dogleg. It checks every box I could think of — and adds features I didn’t think I needed.

There’s even more to this place that we can’t share just yet, but at some point soon, I’ll show you everything. Trust me, it’ll blow your hair back.

What I learned in my TPI fitting

This is really where it got interesting for me. When it comes to high-level fitting, I’d like to think I know what I’m talking about. If I had to put a handicap on myself, I’d say I’m a +3. In all honesty, I haven’t had someone else fit me (full bag) in probably 6 years. I tend to do it myself and save any fitter the exhaustion of listening to my babble.

The morning of my TPI fitting, though, I told myself that I was going to keep my mouth shut and listen to what my fitter, Lucas Bro, thought was best. That’s hard for me, because I pre-build my wants and needs in my head. I’m a sicko that way. But on this day, I wanted to learn.

I’d heard a lot of good things about Lucas — and he did not disappoint!. Lucas not only speaks my language but his system also leaves little room for guess work. I need that. From the moment he started the process, I was captivated by how he builds a bag.

Key takeaways:

1. Fit to a peak height: We learned my optimal peak height with a 7-iron was 105 feet, and same was true of my driver. Knowing those numbers, Lucas’ goal was to get the rest of the bag to that same number. Why? Because peak height tells us a few things, namely quality of strike and your speed tolerances. Once that number is nailed, it’s more or less a “North Star” to dial in the rest of your set. It also creates a performance vacuum that keeps a bunch of extra variables out of the equation.

2. I was playing with too little loft: This was a big one for me. Typically when you hear “you need more loft,” it relates to metal woods, but Lucas discovered that I was lacking loft across the bag. Optically and delivery wise, I need to see loft to make the swing I want to make. The fear is always losing ball speed and distance but for me it was the opposite. The more loft I saw, the more I could stay on top it, and the more I felt comfortable properly leaning the shaft. For example, it’s easier for me to hit a 34-degree 7-iron properly and consistently than it is to hit something 2-3 degrees stronger. The fix: My clubs now are 2-3 degrees weaker than what I walked in with.

3. Gap to a carry number/height/spin not to a loft: This one I knew going in but Lucas was the first person I’ve seen off Tour who explains gapping in this way. Loft gapping is irrelevant vs. what the ball in the air is actually doing. In some cases, you might have a 24 degree 4-iron that flies 215 yards and a 25 degree 5-iron that flies 200. Point is, even though the lofts are only a degree apart, it’s the actual result that matters. Phil Mickelson has a set up like this. All he knows is how far and high his shots go — the loft is not the priority. The rest of us should look at it this way: I need a 205 club — and not My 3-wood is 15-degrees so I need an 18-degree. Make sense?

After the woods/irons session we moved onto wedges, which secretly was what I was most looking forward to. This entailed Lucas handing me wedge after wedge (without looking), and me just hitting shots. He wasn’t looking for anything, he was listening. The prefect wedges all make a certain click when they are struck properly. When I had a wedge in my hand that consistently made that “snap” sound of proper bounce, Lucas would put it aside and keep cycling through the rest.

The best wedge philosophy: give yourself options. If your LW is low bounce, make sure the 56 has a ton of bounce, and vice versa. This is no different than what Aaron Dill does on Tour. If you look at all his bags, you’ll see a low bounce 58 or 60 and a mid wedge with around 12-14 degrees of bounce. This is common to see on Tour but not elsewhere.

Lucas is a wizard fitter. His approach is very much expert-to-student, and I loved how far down the rabbit hole the guy can and will go to find answers. I also appreciated his ability to assess good shots as a step in the right direction vs. simply dumb luck. Sometimes in a fitting good shots can be interpreted as something that is working whereas Lucas will look at those shots and say, “Yes, it was good, but look at it from this angle…”. He’s more or less acknowledging that sometimes players make something work as opposed to clubs working on players’ behalf. That’s called fitting for needs and not wants.

This is huge. It’s a spidey sense that I see on Tour ranges, and it always fascinates me.

What I landed on:

Driver: GT2 9.0 (A/1)
Ventus Black 6S (45 EOG)

Titleist GT2 Custom Driver

$649

GT2 — Speed & Forgiveness Across The Face For players who don’t always find the center of the face and need the stability of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed. Speed & Forgiveness Across The Face Delivering impressive distance from any impact point, GT2 extracts maximum performance through forgiving design. Get the stability and added confidence of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed. Seamless Thermoform Crown A reimagined ultra-lightweight design, born from a new Proprietary Matrix Polymer. The tunable acoustic properties of this unique composite allow Titleist engineers to realize new material gains while maintaining our signature sound and feel. All wrapped in a clean look that inspires total confidence. Split Mass Construction GT2 delivers a powerful balance of forgiveness and speed thanks to a breakthrough in internal weighting. Mass is shifted to the back of the clubhead to increase MOI for better stability, while also pushing weight low and forward to optimize speed and spin. The result is a driver that frees you to swing with confidence.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore | Titleist

3-wood: GT2 15 (A/1)
Ventus Black 7S (42.5 EOG)

7-wood: GT2 21@20
Ventus Black 7S (41.5 EOG)

Irons: (4) U505 23 (5-9) T100
AMT Tour S400

Titleist T100 Custom Irons

$199.99

The preferred iron for more touring pros now rewards players with an even more solid feel, along with subtle refinements that continue to make T100 the standard for modern Tour iron performance. Feel is essential for the best players in the game. The refined, fully forged dual-cavity construction of Titleist T100 produces a more solid feel at impact, while the precision CNC face milling process leads to more consistent contact for greater control. ENHANCED FEEL The latest evolution of the T100 dual-cavity forged construction features an enhanced back bar to produce a more solid feel at impact. Informed by modal testing and Tour input, T100 irons are tuned to provide the exact stability and sensation the world’s best players desire from a well-struck shot. REFINED FOR GREATER CONTROL In addition to the improvements made to the body construction, T100 benefits from a new precision CNC face milling process. Combined with a subtle shift in CG the result is more control and consistent ball flight, especially when moving from fairway to first cut. EFFORTLESS TURF INTERACTION Working with Tour Pros and the grind experts at Vokey Design, our engineers were able to further improve our Variable Bounce Sole by smoothing and softening the trailing edge to allow the club to flow faster through the turf, even after contact. A simple but surprisingly meaningful improvement. BETTER TUNGSTEN FOR BETTER FLIGHT By utilizing dense D18 tungsten and a 2000º aerospace brazing process, Titleist engineers can eliminate weld points and be more precise with CG placement to give you the benefit of modern engineered performance with a solid forged feel.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore | Titleist

Wedges: SM10 Raw 48F, 52F, 56S, 60T
AMT Tour S400

Ball: Pro V1X

Bottom line:

The last time I had a reaction to a facility like this was when I visited the Titleist ball plant in 2019. Titleist has a sneaky way of taking cool performance ideas and leveling up a couple of notches past everyone else. There is just a level of specificity that they hit that is unique to them.

To say I was impressed with what I saw is an understatement. When this place is fully operational (later this year), I hopefully will go back and give you guys the full video tour.

It’s outrageous by every metric.