The Titleist 915H hybrid is the perfect type of club to benefit from the key advancement in the 915 range that is the ARC.
This stands for Active Recoil Channel and it enables the lower section of the face to flex more at impact to increase balls speed and reduce spin. Without the bottom half of the face flexing at impact, the crown and the top half of the face would do so alone and that adds spin and loft.
By making the crown and sole flex together Titleist say you maximise the energy transfer, so I thought I would check this out. I took a Titleist 913H hybrid along to an exclusive Titleist fitting session and put it up against the 915H and the results were quite impressive.
At around a 90mph swing speed I got an extra 5mph ball speed with 450 rpm less spin that resulted in an extra 13 yards of carry.
The sound and feel from the 118cc head was just as good as before and the ARC did its job very well as it curves across the face and down the sides of the sole. It also picks up a fair bit of debris too, but that will not affect performance and Titleist were at pains to say the fact that it is not filled in demonstrates why it is called a channel and not a slot.
Complimenting the ARC is a 2mm thinner Carpenter Steel face that is 2.1mm thin right across the hitting area and is there to assist with the increase in ball speed.
And that is not the only good thing about the 915H. It also looks much better at address too.
I liked the previous 913 model, but now she has a better looking sister whose 'subtle pear' profile looks more balanced than the toe heavy shape of her now jilted sibling. Even if it doesn't make it go left, the square looking toe on the 913H always looked like it was thinking of it, whereas the 915H sits more neutrally behind the ball and for me that is a big plus.
And that lovely balanced shape does deliver a nice straight flight, even when teed up, which is a real bonus.
Like the 913 range, the 915H comes in a variety of lofts where the Centre of Gravity (CG) moves back to keep a consistent trajectory. There are only 4 lofts now as the 17° and 19° models have been merged into a single 18° model with the same 40.5 inch shaft that the 19° 913H used to have.
Using the excellent Sure-Fit Tour adjustable hosel you can vary the loft so I was able to change the loft up to 18.75° without affecting the lie to compare against the previous 19° model.
There is a choice of 2 stock shafts in the Aldila Roque and the Mitsubishi Diamana and interestingly I was fitted into the Diamana Blue in the hybrid and not the Aldila Rogue that had been prescribed in the driver and fairway. They are both good shafts with similar launch but the Diamana just created a little extra spin than the firmer feeling Rogue.
Titleist 915Hd Hybrid Review
For those high spin players who need to take some rpm off your hybrid, there is also a 915Hd version for the first time. It achieves that by moving the CG forward in a smaller 107cc head that also features that slightly more toe heavy 'small pear' shape I was just dissing. To be fair it is not as pronounced as the 913H, but if it was down to looks then the standard model would be for me.
However as you should know by now it is never down to looks, but how it performs so you should book in to your local Titleist fitting centre so you get the right clubs in the correct SureFit Tour settings for you.
Summary
Of all the 915 woods I think the hybrid is the pick of the bunch as the ARC really comes into its own as it is played from the turf more. I much prefer the better looking head shape of the 915H and the Hd option gives a hybrid for those high spin players too.
Combine all this with the best adjustable hosel on the market and you have a hybrid that can play at a couple of lofts without the lie affecting the dispersion of your shots.
Well done Titleist.