For almost a decade now, Titleist has been the most played hybrid across the PGA Tour, and with the new TSR3 model they continue to aim for that number one spot.
With a refined head shape and 5-position adjustable track, does this year's model live up to the tagline of 'ultimate players hybrid'?
Who Is It Aimed At?
This hybrid is for anyone looking for a clean designed, highly adjustable hybrid with an exceptional feel when struck
perfectly out of the middle.
It's primarily aimed at the better player who are able to consistently hit the sweet spot. Unfortunately, we quickly found out that I am not always that player!
The Tech
With a focus on workability and precision, the TSR3 has a tour-inspired shape to give golfers the confidence to hit a range of shot types. With this more refined shape, the TSR3 is more of a throwback to popular hybrid shapes seen in the past with more of an iron-like profile with slightly less offset.
Something that’s new however to this club, is the 5-position SureFit CG Adjustable track, allowing golfers to choose from five different settings to get their ideal set up, similar to what we saw in the Titleist TSi3 Fairway Wood from 2020.
The hybrid also features a high inertia body, helping to reduce deflection and twisting of the head across various lies and ground conditions.
Added sole relief pockets are designed to help the club move faster through different types of rough with less friction and drag across various shot types.
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Titleist TSR3 Hybrid Review
Looks
Watching some of the footage back from testing the TSR3 hybrid out makes me laugh, as the look on my face was absolute horror the first time I sat this club at address.
The head has a small footprint compared to most hybrids in the market, for example even the teardrop shaped Ping G430 hybrid I’ve been used to hitting. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the baffler shape at all as I was standing over the ball, questioning if I was even going to make contact!
I did however, like the overall design of the club. The hybrid has a very low profile, with no alignment aid and is very clean at address. This is great for the better player looking for something very simple without any flashy details getting in their way.
The ‘Titleist’ and ‘TSR3’ logos are only seen on the heel and toe of the club, so even when you turn it around to see the sole its still very simple in design. You can see the 5-position track on the sole of the club with the smallest red indicator to add a bit of design, but overall, the club has a simple, technology orientated design.
To target the better player, I can see why this is appealing, but I really struggled to wrap my head around how small the sweet spot looked to be from the playing position.
Feel
As I mentioned, the TSR3 hybrid looks to have a very small hitting area. But, when you strike it out of the screws you get a very soft, muted feel to it, which was by far my favourite out of all 4 hybrids we tested alongside the TSR3.
The only issue being that I wasn’t getting that perfect strike every single shot. That buttery feel was something I’ve yet to find with another club but given my inconsistent strike pattern and lack of forgiveness I felt, it wasn’t convincing me to get this club straight in the bag.
Performance
For me, with a hybrid I’m looking for a good mixture of distance and control. Sitting between irons and woods in the bag, I’m not necessarily looking to max out on distance especially if that means losing out on some accuracy, but equally I don’t want to be held back by the distance.
At the same time as trying out the TSR3, we were also putting it head-to-head against the Ping G430, both of which were 19 degrees in loft, allowing for a direct comparison in terms of distance.
Now some of this may come down to the apprehension I felt stood over the TRS3 because of its smaller, baffler shaped head, but we did see a drop off in distance in comparison to the G430. The TRS3 saw a 4.5-yard drop in total distance and 7.4 in carry, also falling slightly behind in ball speed at 120.8 mph compared to the G430 at 122.5 mph.
Interestingly enough, the TRS3 was most comparable in distance to the TaylorMade Stealth 2 Hybrid, which was 3 degrees lower in loft!
Now as I said, distance isn’t everything when it comes to hybrids, however we did also see that the TSR3 showed more distance dispersion in both the carry and totals when compared to the G430.
Again, I do want to preface this with the fact that the TSR3 hybrid is more of a specialist hybrid designed for better players not looking for forgiveness in their clubs.
Alongside the TSR3, Titleist did also release the TRS2 model which has a larger clubhead in comparison and sees a little extra forgiveness from the hybrid we were testing out. It has the same SureFit hosel but doesn't feature the Adjustable track - so it's not quite as customisable.
If I was looking for a Titleist hybrid to put in the bag, I think this would be better suited for me especially given what we saw with the G430, as although it was fun to test out the ‘better player’ club and experience the exceptional feel when struck at the sweet spot, it just wasn’t consistent and forgiving enough for me to use - something to bear in mind if you're not the most consistent ball striker.
Titleist TSR3 Hybrid Verdict
When testing out the TSR3 hybrid we put it head-to-head against 3 other clubs in our ‘best of hybrids 2023’ video. Although I wasn’t completely convinced on the looks and forgiveness of this hybrid, I thought the feel was exceptional.
Coming in at £259 RRP, the second cheapest of the four, the Titleist hybrid ranks well in the ‘value for money’ category with the adjustable track giving golfers the ability to choose their perfect set up so if you're confident in your long game, this is a club you haver to test!
Would I Use It?
If I was able to hit the sweet spot every shot, I’d be hitting this club all day long. But for me, I needed a bit more forgiveness to be able to consider using this club long-term… that or maybe a few golf lessons instead!
Titleist TSR3 Hybrid Pros & Cons
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