#TeamTitleist is well-represented at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, as the new year kicks off in Hawaii with more of the PGA TOUR’s best trusting Titleist equipment than any other brand.
Titleist is the overwhelming #1 golf ball and most played driver, fairway, hybrid, utility iron, iron, wedge and putter at Kapalua, marking the 29th time since the start of the 2019 calendar year that Titleist has topped every major equipment count from tee to green. Dive into the numbers here.
Off the tee, a total of 17 players are using a Titleist driver – eight more than the nearest competitive brand. Twelve of those players are gaming new TSR drivers, which have won 29 times worldwide since their Tour debut in June.
Let’s take a look at the #TeamTitleist members who will be looking to add to that total this week:
Max Homa
TSR3 10.0 driver | Fujikura Ventus 6 Black X
Max Homa earned his ticket to Maui with two victories in 2022 – one at the Wells Fargo Championship in May and his second at the Fortinet Championship in September. Homa switched to his TSR3 driver at the Genesis Scottish Open, the first event he played in which the line was available. That same week, he finished first in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee.
Homa’s excellent driving continued for the rest of the season, and by the 2021-2022 season’s end, he finished 24th on tour in Strokes Gained: OTT, a leap of improvement since finishing 78th the season prior.
“I actually like the sound quite a bit. Sounds like you’re smashing it, which is nice,” Homa said of his TSR driver before teeing it up in Scotland. “I did notice that the spin didn’t change as much when you mishit it. The heel and toe strikes kept the spin a little closer to your good ones. That’s obviously something I think everybody would be happy to have. It’s a mile an hour faster for me, just ball speed (…) So it feels like a no brainer.”
Will Zalatoris
TSR3 8.0 driver | Fujikura Speed 661 TR X
Will Zalatoris’ first PGA TOUR victory came at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August, and the win at the time marked the 4th victory for TSR drivers in the eight weeks since its launch on Tour. In addition to earning his first win and recording two runner-up finishes in major championships in 2022, Zalatoris jumped 20 spots in Strokes Gained: OTT from the prior season, finishing 11th and averaging 7.3 more yards than he did in the 2020-2021 season.
“I literally took my old shaft and plugged it into the new TSR and I immediately saw results,” said Zalatoris, who finished 11th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last season, averaging 314.7 yards per drive. “The mishits for me were exponentially better. I mean, I was already seeing mishits go about seven, eight yards farther. I have a lot of distance but bringing it in left-to-right was something that was huge for me.
“I mean, it was a no brainer. It was pretty similar to my TSi and it was better, which I didn't think we could do… With being one of the longer guys on tour, the better I can do in terms of bringing it in from side-to-side and make my dispersion be that much tighter is exactly what I’m looking for. And so being able to hit shots that before might have maybe been in the left rough or the right rough, now all of a sudden I’m seeing a few more go on the fairway, which is just a couple more birdie chances a round.”
Tom Kim
TSR3 9.0 driver | Fujikura Atmos Black 6 X
Tom Kim burst onto the scene in 2022, with his stellar play over the summer and fall propelling him to No. 15 in the Official World Golf Ranking by the year’s end. In July, he finished solo third at the Genesis Scottish Open, his best finish in a PGA TOUR event. He went on to clinch his 2022-2023 TOUR card at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and wins at the Wyndham Championship in August and the Shriners Children’s Open in October saw him become the youngest two-time TOUR winner in 90 years. Prior to his high finish in Scotland that kickstarted his summer campaign, Kim switched to his TSR3 driver following a visit to the Titleist Performance Institute, where he worked with Titleist Tour Rep Dino Antenucci.
“I had been playing the TSi3 for the longest time and I thought I wasn’t going to change it, but after trying it at TPI, it was just so good that I had to put it in the bag, and it’s been working out really well,” said Kim. “My percentage in the fairway has gone up and, yeah, it’s a keeper. Missed hits, solid hits, it just stays in the wind so well for me, that’s what I’ve had trouble with before and I thought I was going to use the ‘i’ for the rest of the season, but I put it right in the bag because I gained ball speed, gained swing speed, smash factor went up and holds it really well into the wind. So it was great.”
Tom Hoge
TSR3 9.0 driver | Fujikura Ventus Black 6X
Tom Hoge locked up his spot in the field this week after a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2022, the first PGA TOUR win of his career. More recently, Hoge switched into his new TSR3 9.0 driver at the QBE Shootout, winning the team event in his first start with TSR. Hoge tested TSR this off-season virtually with Titleist’s Director of Player Promotion J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, getting dialed into the TSR3 9.0 head on the D•1 SureFit Hosel setting, while remaining in the Fujikura Ventus Black 6X shaft from his prior generation TSi. “Tom immediately saw his speed jump and was just amazed by the distance and control he was seeing on miss hits,” Van Wezenbeeck said.
“Yeah, you know, what J.J. had told me from the start was that my mishits would be a little bit better primarily,” said Hoge. “And I certainly feel like that's the case. You know, if I catch out of the heel or the toe a little bit, I get a little more distance out of it than what I might have seen in the past and a little bit straighter. So that's what we're always looking for is a game of your misses. I would say it's a little bit faster, maybe on average across the board. And, um, you know, I'm always looking for more distance. Anything I can do to get a little bit more.”
J.T. Poston
TSR3 9.0 driver | Mitsubishi Diamana BF 60 TX
J.T. Poston became a two-time PGA TOUR winner this past summer with a victory at the John Deere Classic. With the win, he also became the first player worldwide to win with TSR, just one week after the new TSR2 and TRS3 models made their PGA TOUR debut at the Travelers Championship. Working with Titleist Tour Rep Jim Curran, Poston saw a 2 mph increase in ball speed with TSR from his previous gamer. He put his TSR3 9.0 in play immediately in Hartford and went on to T2 finish, his best of the year before winning the following week.
“[I] put it in play right away at the Travelers and had a good couple weeks and capped off with a win at the Deere,” said Poston at the Open Championship, shortly after his win. “Can't say enough about it. It looks, feels, sounds awesome, and picked up a little ball speed right away (…) My accuracy has been up. I mean, swinging it well, but even the mishits are ... They're going straight, which is nice, but they're also getting out there just about as far as the ones that are hit out of the center. It really, really helps you kind of zero in on accuracy and the distance too.”
Justin Thomas
TSR3 10.0 driver | Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX
Justin Thomas made headlines at the FedEx St. Jude Championship as he made the switch to his TSR3 driver before the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Despite earning his second major championship victory with his previous gamer earlier in the year, Thomas put TSR in play after seeing noteworthy improvements in testing.
“It’s obviously an interesting time of year to make a driver change, heading into the playoffs, but after some really great testing early on with TSR3, JT was able to spend some more time with it after the Open Championship,” said J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s Director of Player Promotions.
“He clearly had great results with TSi, he won a major with it this year, but with TSR he’s seen an uptick in ball speed with just incredible consistency off the face. He keeps mentioning how consistent his speed, launch and spin numbers are on off-center hits. For a tour player who’s trying to hit a variety of shots on these very difficult golf courses, it’s that consistency that really allows him to perform at his best.”
Thomas went on to finish T5 at the FedEx Cup Finale and record four points in the Presidents Cup with his new driver set-up.
Billy Horschel
TSR3 8.0 driver | Ventus Black 6 X
Billy Horschel began the 2022-2023 season with a new club in the bag: a TSR3 8.0 driver. Horschel made the switch at the C.J. Cup in October, finishing T7 in his first event with the new driver. His previous gamer, a TSi3 8.0 driver, was in the bag for the entirety of the 2021-2022 season, including his victory at the 2022 Memorial Tournament. Testing during the break between the TOUR Championship and the C.J. Cup showed Horschel the improvements to put TSR in the bag.
Cameron Young
TSR3 10.0 driver | Tensei 1K Pro White 70 TX
2021-2022 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Cam Young punched his ticket to Kapalua this year after a stellar 2022 campaign that saw him finish the calendar year at No. 16 in the Official World Golf Ranking and the ‘21-22 season 19th in the FedEx Cup. Young recorded five runner-up finishes last year and finished one shot out of a playoff on two occasions. With his TSR3 10.0 driver set-up, Young finished the season 2nd in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (.914) and 3rd in Driving Distance (319.3 yards). Perhaps his most memorable shot of the year was his 72nd hole eagle at St. Andrews, his drive finishing 17 feet from the cup to lock up a solo 2nd place finish in the final major of the year.
“I’ve loved it. I put it right in play last week,” he said. “It feels very much like the old one, but just a little faster. And I feel like especially the toe miss for me, I haven’t gotten as much curve out of it, which is obviously a good thing. It seems to be a little bit more consistent on my misses. I’ve put it right in play and it’s been great.”