Gear: Titleist T150 irons
Price: $200 per club with True Temper AMT Tour White steel shafts and Titleist Universal 360 grips; $216 per club with Mitsubishi Tensei White AM2 graphite shafts
Specs: Dual-cavity design with SUP-10 stainless steel body, 17-4 stainless steel cradle and internal tungsten weights.
Available: August 28
Who They’re For: Low-handicap golfers seeking more distance, but who still want the look and feel of a compact iron.
The Skinny: Designed like the T100 irons, the T150 delivers extra distance thanks to a polymer-filled muscle channel bar and lofts that are 2 degrees stronger than on the T100, but Titleist focused on making them sound and feel better than the T100•S irons they replace.
The Deep Dive: For a decade, before Titleist developed the T Series irons, many golfers enjoyed playing the brand’s AP irons, especially the AP2, which was the iron of choice for Jordan Spieth. Many of those golfers have transitioned into the compact T100 irons, and some found they liked the T100•S, a stronger-lofted version of the T100. But for AP2 loyalists, the company’s T200 was simply too big.
With the release of the new T150 irons, which replaces the T100•S, Titleist has tried to thread the needle and develop a club that fits between the T100 and the T200, offering accomplished golfers the feel, control and looks that they love, but with some distance-enhancing help.
The T150 and the T100 are built in the same way, but the T150 has a blade length that is a few millimeters longer and a topline that is a few millimeters thicker. You need to hold the clubs side-by-side and study them carefully to see the difference.
Both clubs utilize a forged SUP-10 stainless steel face and body with a 17-4 stainless steel capsule on the back. Inside the capsule, Titelist has added a pair of tungsten weights, one in the heel and the other in the toe, to increase stability and help the T150 resist twisting on off-center hits.
While the T150 line has lofts that are 2 degrees stronger through the set than the T100, the biggest difference between the two irons is the addition of a muscle channel in the T150 that is in a bar connecting the toe to the heel. It is filled with a silicone-like polymer that absorbs some of the vibrations created at impact and encourages a slightly higher launch. It also helps the hitting area flex more effectively. The last version of T100•S had this feature too, but in the T150 irons it has been pushed slightly closer to the hitting area, which lets it work more effectively.
At the same time, Titleist made the lower portion of the face slightly thicker. Brands often tout thin faces to help golfers generate more ball speed on mis-hits, but thicker faces can create more-pleasing sounds and sensations at impact. It’s a paradox that designers have to deal with in every club. In this case, Titleist wanted to change the vibrations and the frequencies created at impact, and thickening the lower part of the hitting area does that.
The combination of the polymer bar being moved forward and the lower part of the hitting area being made thicker, Titleist said, allows the T150 to have the sound and feel of the T100, which Titleist knew golfers wanted, while maintaining the ball speed of the T100•S.
Finally, Titleist designed the T150 with a curved trailing edge that bends upward more than the back edge of the T100•S. This should help the clubs get in and out of the turf more efficiently, so golfers can maintain speed through the strike.
The price of the T150 and the T100 are the same, $200 per club with steel shafts, and they look similar. Titleist made them that way so players can work with a custom fitter and easily create blended sets.
Below are several close-up photos of the new Titleist T150 irons.
