Equipment

‘Put it straight in the bag’: Inside the Titleist GTS driver launch in the Houston

Published

3 months ago

Mar 28, 2026

With the PGA Tour heading to the Space City, what better place to launch a new line of drivers and get them in the hands of Tour players for the first time? At the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open, that’s exactly what Titleist did, showing off its brand new GTS lineup.

Three drivers were on display in Houston, along with a selection of fairway woods. Players were welcomed with pre-built setups to try, along with the options to get other builds made with either the GTS 2, 3, or 4 driver head. The new line sees a sleeker look compared to the older GT line. From a quick eye test, the GTS2 has an added front weight, while the GTS3 has a new rear weight. The GTS4 also sees a weighting update, with the front weight now heel-toe adjustable.

During the nonstop testing Monday to Wednesday at Memorial Park Golf Course, it was clear to see that three common areas were being picked up by players: spin, speed, and sound.

It’s definitely noticeable that the new GTS drivers’ spin consistency has been a standout focus during research and development. Players reported that across the face, spin numbers were very similar — an improvement from what they had seen in the old GT head.

“My problem with the GT line was just a little inconsistency with the spin numbers,” said PGA Tour winner Michael Brennan. “I felt like the toe balls kind of went way too far. The heel balls went too short, so that’s why I switched out of it. But I noticed with this GTS, it seems to be better again, need to go do some on-course testing, hit some shots with it, hit some more balls in the range with it. But initially, I’m hanging in the mid-3000 spin with the 3-wood, even on some kind of low face balls. Amazingly didn’t overspin, which I’m very happy about.”

Standout amateur and now big-hitting Tour pro Gordon Sargent had similar results with his testing. After struggling with the older GT line due to spin drop-off for misstrikes, especially seeing “some toe ones that were really low,” the 22-year-old had even returned to playing the previous TSR2 driver instead. With the GTS, the story is different.

“I just popped a 9-degree just like I’ve been playing and kind of hit a couple,” Sargent said. “It felt like any shot I hit was 2,600 to 2,700 spin, whether that was low or high, right to left, left to right, which for me, that’s huge, just it’s going to hang in there a little bit more. Just knowing, obviously, out of the center it’s good, but if you have a touch of forgiveness too, or if you happen to heal it or toe it a little bit and then, yeah, if I want to tee it down, hit the lower one, it doesn’t drop the spin a ton, it’s pretty consistent. So yeah, I kind of put it straight in the bag.”

With the added consistency, it was easy to see that players had more confidence to swing harder, even on the course, along with range testing. There seemed to be added comfort knowing spin wouldn’t disappear if a center strike didn’t occur.

From the first pro to test it on-site in Houston, Jeffery Kang, who saw ball speeds jump from 175 with his older GT to up to 180 with GTS, to Sargent, who ranks 12th on the tour in club head speed, there was a speed increase across the board. Sargent was seeing at least an extra 1.5 mph with the GTS and carry numbers over 320 yards, citing more comfort to swing faster knowing that his misshits were still playable.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sargent said when asked if he had more confidence to swing faster with the GTS line. “I feel like I’m swinging my best when I am swinging a little left and just knowing me just swinging is going to produce a little fade. I don’t feel like I’m trying to fade in a sense. So having that proper amount of spin, knowing where it’s going to fade versus I had a few issues with the GT of, I felt like I almost had to try and fade it and then I could get some really spinny ones and then I could hit a slight toe and it’d be less than 2000. So I’d say yeah, it naturally just fit my shot shape of a little flat cut, but then it wasn’t over-spinning at all, so I didn’t feel like I had to manipulate it, which was nice.”

It is appropriate to note that under tournament play, this may be another story, but the early signs are promising.

The final standout from three days of testing is the difference in sound that the GTS has. Plain and simple, and in the words of Brennan, the GTS is “more of a solid thud.” It’s certainly a lower pitch than the GT line.

For more on the GTS driver lineup, head to the forums to see all the heads going in play at the Houston Open and watch Inside the Ropes on the GolfWRX YouTube page.

Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

Published

3 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D LS (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100

Wedges: TaylorMade Prototype (50-SB09), TaylorMade MG5 (56-HB12, 60-LV07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

Check out more in-hand photos of Christiaan Maas’ clubs here.

Equipment

TaylorMade MySpider Tour and Tour X: More customizable build options now available

Published

3 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

TaylorMade Golf’s MySpider program underwent a substantial overhaul over the last month. Firstly, the company launched the option to customize the Spider ZT model, and now the program has returned with the MySpider Tour and MySpider Tour X.

The revamped page now gives golfers complete control over every visual and functional detail of their putter on the popular Tour and Tour X head, with every cosmetic idea thought of. In MySpider Tour, golfers can choose from four head finishes, 16 paint fill colors, nine Surlyn face insert colors, three aluminum insert options, six sightline configurations, and four hosel options — L-neck, small slant, double bend, center shaft. Six sightline options are available in MySpider Tour, including the optically engineered True Path alignment system. MySpider Tour X gives builders the option of four head finishes, four hosel configurations, and five sightline options, also including True Path alignment.

One of the more interesting features of the new MySpider program is the availability of three distinct face insert options. Along with the usual Surlyn Pure Roll insert trusted by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, which can be customized from nine colors, golfers can now also select firmer options. Two are offered with the black aluminum Pure Roll insert, slightly firmer than the traditional insert, or for the firmest feel, golfers can choose from two colors of milled aluminum inserts.

Another fun addition to the MySpider Tour is the ability to use the “Tommy Sightline.” The custom alignment aid design, which was first drawn onto Tommy Fleetwood’s putter by PGA Tour Rep James Holley, is based on the milled sightline on his Spider ZT head. There are five shorter lines on the left and right of a longer central line serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.

See below for the full specifications sheet for MySpider Tour and Tour X:

MySpider Tour

MySpider Tour X

Equipment

Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory

Published

6 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.

So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?

Driver

2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)

McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.

What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)

The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.

Fairway woods

2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X

The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.

The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.

Irons

2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0

The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.

With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.

Wedges

2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)

Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.

Putter

2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.

Ball

2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)

As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.

Grips

2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC

Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.