Titleist TSR3 fairway woods review

How does the most compact Titleist TSR fairway wood perform? Find out in our Titleist TSR3 fairway woods review.

NCG SUMMARY

This club has quickly become one of my favourite clubs in my bag. I love the small compact shaping and the tour-inspired design but was most impressed with the versatility.

This is perfect for good ball strikers who want a fairway wood that gives you a good level of control and workability.

PROS

Small compact tour-inspired head shape
Powerful ball flight
Easy to control ball flight

CONS

Smaller head doesn’t provide much forgiveness

Titleist TSR3 fairway woods review: First Impressions

Straight away I loved the small, compact head shape. It is definitely very tour inspired and for someone who has a preference for hybrids, I really liked this visual. The crown has that classic Titleist design with a full gloss finish which is really attractive. I tested this with the Hzrdus Red CB shaft and the matte black colour of this also matched in really well with the club head.

Titleist TSR3 fairway woods review: NCG Verdict

I first tested this at the Titleist Performance Centre at Woburn Golf Club. When comparing this to other 3-woods in the Titleist TSR line-up I wasn’t sure there was space for it in my bag. The data was good, but the club head wasn’t quite as forgiving as the TSR2 and it flew a few yards shorter. Don’t get me wrong, the performance was still good, but it wasn’t quite TSR2 good.

Then for some reason, I decided to try a 5-wood. I have never gamed a 5-wood before as hybrids have very much been my preference. But my fitter asked me to try it just to humour him. I was hooked instantly.

The smaller 175cc club head looked great behind the ball and made me feel like I could really control the golf ball. I don’t usually like fairway woods as I worry about that low off-the-club face shot that doesn’t get enough height. With this, I could also see a lot of loft behind the ball which gave me lots of confidence. There is also a lower centre of gravity in this than the previous TSi3 to help get more launch.

Overall the ball flight was great, high enough for that soft landing but controlled enough that it didn’t balloon up into the wind. This is crucial for me as it is a club I would use mainly for hitting into greens on Par-5s but also because I play a lot of links golf and need something that I can control in windy conditions.

It was actually launching so high that we used the adjustable hosel to loft the club head down slightly and make the club more upright. This gave me a little bit more draw bias which tightened my overall dispersion.

Ideally, this club needed to carry 200 yards for it to work with the rest of my set-up. The result? 199.8 yards. That’s pretty perfect.

Honestly, across the board, I was blown away with the performance, the numbers and the consistency. My fitter practically had to prise the club out of my hands before I left.

The next port of call was to get this out on the golf course to test the versatility. I had my concerns as I love using hybrids and I wasn’t sure it was going to be able to play as many shots with this. I was pleasantly surprised.

As this club head is so much smaller than many fairway woods on the market it actually works really well in a wide variety of situations. Out on the course I have found it really easy to hit off the tee, from the fairway and from the rough.

Previously I didn’t hit many hybrids off the tee as they always seemed to end up too spinny, I didn’t have that problem with this at all, and the bigger fairway wood head felt much more solid for tee shots. I even found it easy to grip down and hit three quarter shots with, which is definitely something I wouldn’t have imagined doing before.

A significant advantage of this model compared to the rest of the TSR fairway wood range is the extra levels of customisation. The sole features a SureFitAdjustable CG Track System with five different weight locations. Although each is only 0.5mm apart, each weight shift can account for around 10 yards of ball flight correction. Perfect if you want to dial in a particular shot shape or prevent the ball from missing on a specific side.

I put this straight into the bag for a 72-hole WAGR event, The English Women’s Strokeplay. I only missed one fairway, by a foot, and one green with this club all week. It was definitely the most consistent club in my bag, which is impressive for such a long golf club. I’m not sure I can give a better endorsement for this club than that. It is safe to say it won’t be coming out of my golf bag anytime soon.

If you are after a precise fairway wood, that can be really dialed into your game, I think you’re onto a winner with this.