The Titleist GT3 fairway wood has some big boots to fill, following on from the extremely popular TSR3 fairway. With a tour-inspired shape and ‘generational technology’ in the crown, Titleist is claiming this fairway wood is faster and provides total performance but instead of taking its word for it, I put it through some extensive testing to see if it can be classed as one of the best fairway woods on the market.
Titleist has always done a great job in producing beautiful golf clubs and the GT3 fairway wood is no exception. This fairway wood boasts a pear-shaped, tour-influenced design that will appeal to a large number of golfers. Behind the ball this fairway wood looks incredibly inviting thanks to less curvature in the heel and sole of the club, which means the head sits completely flush to the ground and will inspire confidence to the golfer looking down.
The Titleist GT3 fairway wood features the same new Seamless Thermoform Crown design found on the GT2 fairway wood and the rest of the GT range. This crown is made from a Proprietary Matrix Polymer which is ultra-light and frees up mass to be redistributed for optimal CG placement, all while keeping the same sound and feel of Titleist fairway woods which gives them such large tour presence.
The GT3 fairway wood has been designed with much more adjustability than the GT2 with a new weight-track system on the sole that has been brought closer to the face than on the TSR3 fairway wood for even more concentrated CG placement and ultimately more control and ball speed. Upon testing I saw a decent jump in ball speed of around 2mph (160mph total) equating to around four extra yards. The ball felt really quick off the face but the soft feel through impact felt as though I had it under control.
The taller face on the GT3 fairway wood is perfect for golfers who are slightly steeper with their angle of attack and is one of the main differences between this model and the GT2. However, when comparing the two directly side-by-side, I found the difference to be miniscule. I was fearful the taller face would result in more thinly struck shots but thanks to the new L-Cup face design and VFT (Varaiable Face Thickness) I saw very little drop off in ball speed compared to shots struck from the middle. The GT3 did prove to be slightly more difficult to launch from the rough than the GT2, probably due to the more mid-launch bias.
I had fun playing around with shaping the GT3 fairway wood and it definitely lends itself to those who like to be creative and hit their fairway woods regularly from the deck but if you want a higher launching, more user friendly fairway wood, the most forgiving fairway woods or best fairway woods for high handicappers is where you’ll want to turn your attention.
Both the Titleist GT3 and GT2 fairway woods are available to purchase from August 23rd and will come to retail at $399/$349 or $599/£519 with the addition of a Graphite Design premium shaft. That said, the stock shaft offerings are really strong, especially with the likes of the new Project X HZRDUS Black 5th Gen shaft.
