I decided its time to upgrade the driver, 3 Wood and hybrid, which are the only non-Titleist clubs in my bag at this point. Time for some new technology and getting the gapping right in the longer clubs. A couple of Titleist fitters came to my club so I booked a session for the utility iron and 3 Wood. I had a good idea of what I wanted for club heads but told the fitter to just hand me the clubs to hit and not tell me what shafts I was hitting. I did not want my bias to come into play.

Started with the U-505 with 22 degrees of loft (the 4 iron). I have a 17 degree png hybrid which left too much of a gap down to the 4 iron. I play T200 irons with 4 iron through GW and thought I might replace my T200 4 iron with the U-505 and leave the hybrid out altogether. Its a nice looking club with a lot of meat on the back of the club (which you can see at address). But still a nice profile with how forgiving the club is. I prefer the look of irons over hybrids and higher lofted fairway woods and have been thinking about the U-series option for a few years now. The U-505 is really an easy club to hit. The ball really comes off the face with speed and a high trajectory. The club does all of the work to get the ball in the air and even off center hits feel solid. The fitter was giving me different shafts, I am assuming different variations on the HZRDS Black 4G. Pretty tight dispersion especially on misses. Distance was 221-227 yards with a bad low heel shot going 206. I hit my 5 iron 210 yards so the carry distance was what i was looking for. There was no need to try any other lofts. The descent angle was 40 degrees with a high, penetrating flight. I didnt care about spin rate or launch angle since the ball flight and carry distance were spot on. Final specs were the 22-degree U-505 with the Project X HZRDS Black 4G 90 gram shaft, shaft flex 6.0. Going into the fitting I assumed that would be the shaft, either the 80 gram or 90 gram versions. I had hit prior generations of that shaft in golf shops over the years. What is really interesting is that we went with the standard lenght and lie. My T200 irons are 1" over standard and 1 degree upright. The U series standard shaft lenghts are .75" longer than standard shaft lenght in iron sets, so this club is actually .25" shorter than my T200 4 iron. The fitter said we should not mess with length and lie given how well I hit the club with standard specs and how well it gaps from my 5 iron. And the Trackman confirmed the lie angle worked. I was hitting Prov1x's outside off grass so really can't question the results. I have only had irons and wedges modified for my specs, never hybrids, fairway woods and driver so with the U series being a longer club with a graphite shaft that makes sense. But most importantly, the results were what I was looking for.

My TM 3 wood 15 degree has always been a challenge to hit off the deck. I hit it pretty well off the tee but find it difficult to launch high enough off the deck. And too much dispersion. I have always felt like the shaft has too much flex. Its an S flex 70 gram Fujikura Speeder 757. I have a Fujikura Speeder 757 in my driver which works pretty well, but not for the 3 wood. I did not do a custom fitting for the 3 Wood when I bought it 5+ years ago. Going into the fitting I thought trying a 16.5 degree head would help me get the ball in the air and a more stable shaft would fix the dispersion problem. I thought the TSR2 would be the best head as I am not the most consistent striker of the ball. I hit a few shots with my 3 wood. They were good strikes but as usual not high enough. My spin rate was 3,000 rpm which is a little on the low side. I tried a number of different head and shaft combinations. The trajectory was much higher with the TSR 2 than with my 3 wood. I was actually not able to follow the ball on most of the shots because the ball was coming off at a higher launch angle. It took about 10 shots to get used to that. Carry distance with TSR2 was 245-251 yards with high, penetrating flight. Longest shot with my 3 wood was 235 yards. The final set up was a 15 degree TSR2 with the Project X HXRDS Black 4G 70 gram shaft, with 6.5 flex. The fitter said 16.5 degree head gave me a little more height but not as much distance, and the height and descent angle with the 15 degree head was good. I'm not surprised with the 6.5 shaft flex as I thought an XS flex might be better for me in the 3 wood. I did notice the contact feels harder with the 6.5 flex vs the 6.0 flex. I could tell when the fitter swapped in the stiffer flex. But I can get used to that and I like the results. The fitter also said the 20-25 yard gap between the 3 wood and U-505 is good gapping for that end of the bag.

I'm looking forward to getting these clubs in the bag and having better weapons into the green on par 5s. The U-505 will also be a great option when I hit an iron off the tee. Additionally, I have been carrying 15 clubs in the bag and have to take one out when playing matches or other non-casual rounds. Taking out the hybrid and replacing my T200 4 iron with the U-505 now gets me to 14 clubs.

Looking forward to replacing the driver later this year. Curious on what the right shaft will be given the change to 6.5/XS in the 3 wood.