ULTIMATE REVIEW! – Titleist 910 D2 Driver

Titliest 910 D2 Driver Review

Take this for what it is, one guy’s opinion, but Titleist has been lost in the driver doldrums the last several years.  Don’t get me wrong, the 905 Series was fantastic.  I still own a 905T, and it still holds up very well against many of the newer drivers on the market today.  Then came the 907 series, and for many the release, particularly the D1 which marked Titleist first real attempt at a more forgiving driver, was a disappointment.  The 907 was followed by the 909, which marked the first time, with their DComp model, that Titleist had produced a composite crowned driver.  While my sense of things is that the 909 was generally well received (and anecdotally it was one of the longest drivers in recent memory), there really wasn’t much of what you might call buzz about it.

Enter the Titleist 910 Series:

Unlike the 909, the buzz leading up to the release of Titleist’s 910 series of drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids, was nothing less then deafening.  Until TaylorMade’s R11 was announced, the 910 was THE hot club for 2011.  And with the 910 series came some changes to the lineup.  Like the triangular D1 before it, it appears that the composite DComp has disappeared as suddenly as it arrived.  The D3 model is still around, and still features all titanium construction and a 445cc head.  The D2 model we tested features a standard 460cc head.  Both are .5° open.  Titleist claims the 910 series it’s the most technologically advanced driver they’ve ever made (would you expect anything different).  The literature says the face has a 15% larger maximum ball speed area, which we think means you don’t have to be dead center to be long.

As you might also expect from Titleist, the 907D1 not withstanding, the 910 features a traditional pear-shaped look, though the black PVD finish is something new and different for them.  Of course, the all-black paint job isn’t the only thing new to the 910 series.

It’s Adjustable:

Like the two previous releases, the 910 brings yet another first for Titleist.  This time it’s the company’s first crack at an adjustable driver.  While we didn’t test ball flight variance as part of this review (we’re mulling over a possible supplemental review on the impact of adjustability), we did come out of the review extremely impressed by Titleist’s SureFit Tour Technology.  Unlike most other adjustable drivers, the SureFit system allows for loft to be adjusted independently of lie (and vice versa).  The idea is that you can now adjust your trajectory without altering the way the ball moves left to right, or right to left, I suppose.  Titleist has also created an optional weight kit which allows the golfer to swap out weights in the sole in order to fine tune the swing weight, and adjust the feel with different shafts.

Speaking of Shafts:

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Titleist is the quality of the stock shaft offerings.  In addition to the Diamana ‘Ahina that came with our sample, additional stock (no upcharge offerings) include the Aldila RIP, Project X Tour Issue, Diamana Kai’Li, and Dimaman ‘ilima (the Diamanas being of the “Made for…” variety).  Titleist, who usually offers the most reasonable upcharge prices in the industry, also offers another 20 or so shaft options (available in various weights), so there’s very little doubt that you won’t be able to find a 910 to suite your game.

Material Composition: Titanium

How We Tested

The 6 golfers for whom we collected detailed performance data were asked to hit a series of shots on our 3Track Equipped simulators from aboutGolf.  As usual, testing was done at Tark’s Indoor Golf, a state of the art indoor golf facility located in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Detailed data for each and every shot for which we collected data is now viewable in the interactive portion of this review.  This data serves as the foundation for our final performance score.  As a supplement to our 6 performance testers, a subset of additional golfers were given the opportunity to test the Titliest 910 D2 Driver and provide feedback in our subjective categories (looks, feel, sound,  perceived distance, perceived accuracy, perceived forgiveness, and likelihood of purchase).  This information, which we also collected from our performance testers, is used as the foundation for our total subjective score.  All testing was done with the head in the standard position (9.5° loft, 58.50° lie).

PERFORMANCE SCORING

Distance

As we noted in our review of the PING K15 Driver, 46″ has quickly becoming the standard length for the modern driver shaft.  At only 45″ long, the Titleist 910 is downright short by today’s standards.  Of course, like the PING (and I believe there’s a lesson in here somewhere), the shorter shaft does not appear to have hindered distance in the least.

Only one of our 6 performance testers failed to post a distance score higher than 90.  His numbers were easily offset by two of our testers (Dan and CJ) who manged to post scores over 95.  The assumption was that our new testing protocols would actually result in lower distance scores, but thus far that hasn’t proven to be the case, and more importantly, raw distance averages are actually up across the board from last year.

Though two of our 3 core testers were actually fractions of points shorter with the 910 than the previous driver tested, overall the distance numbers proved especially strong.

MGS Distance Score: 93.13

Accuracy

If there’s been a knock on Titleist drivers over the years it’s that they were designed for better players.  The implication, of course, being that higher handicap players would have a tougher time keeping the ball in play.  To an extent this thinking has helped build Titleist’s reputation as THE brand for serious golfers, while at the same time it may have hindered the recruitment of new players to the brand.

While forgiveness will be discussed below, our data suggests that the Titleist 910 D2 should not be immediately discounted by higher handicap golfers. The slightly open face could prove an obstacle for the slicers among us, but on average, our testers didn’t have much trouble finding the fairway.  You will notice from our shot chart that dispersion was much more balanced, meaning are golfers were just as apt to miss right as they were to miss left.

Though not a single one of our testers was exceptionally accurate (less than 10 yards from the centerline), not a single tester was obscenely offline either.  With most of the raw averages below 20 yards, and adjusted averages (outliers trimmed) being better still, we found ourselves being pleasantly surprised to discover that the 910D2 is more than just a “players” driver.

MGS Accuracy Score: 89.76

Consistency

From golfer to golfer, the consistency of the 910, though much better than we expected, wasn’t quite as high as the last driver we reviewed.  What I can tell you about my experience is that I sometimes struggled to get the ball in the area with the ‘Ahina shaft.  This is actually quite remarkable considering that it wasn’t all that long ago that I struggled to keep my launch angle, with any driver, below 15°. Producing an average launch angle of below 8°, it’s clear that as much as I love the feel of the shaft, it’s not the right fit for me.  As you can see on our interactive chart, when I was able to get the ball in the air, the results were extremely impressive.

Fortunately, most of our testers proved to be more consistent with the Titleist 910 than I was.  Everyone else was over 90, CJ, our lowest handicap tester ever, posted the highest consistency score we’ve seen to date (97.98).  The overall average fell somewhere between he and I which shows the overall the consistency of the club to be very solid.

MGS Consistency Score: 92.88

Overall Performance

With Titleist drivers, distance is seldom, if ever a concern.  We expected the club to be long, but what we found most surprising was how easy it was to keep the ball in play – even for higher handicap golfers.  Though my launch numbers weren’t ideal, my smash factor indicates the club is reasonably hot across the face, and most of our testers found it consistent from shot to shot.  While total performance isn’t significantly better than the last driver we reviewed, we think the Titleist 910 D2 should appeal to a much broader range of golfers.

MGS OVERALL PERFORMANCE SCORE: 91.54

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SUBJECTIVE SCORING

In nearly every category we track with our subjective surveys, the Titleist 910 posted some of the highest scores we’ve ever seen.  Whether or not the actual performance backs up our tester’s impressions (and mostly it does), our testers, save the guy who told us “typical Titleist, can’t feel the head”, came away extremely impressed with the new Titleist driver.

Looks

Some talked about the all black design.  Some talked about the traditional shape.  Some mentioned the understated graphics, but almost all agreed that the Titleist 910 is one of the best looking drivers on the market today.  We’ve never had a club receive so many 10s for looks. Those 10s (and all the 9s), more than made up for the low score (a single 7).  Realistically, we don’t expect we’ll see many scores higher this season.

MGS Looks Score: 95.21

Feel

Again…just one guy’s option here, but the 910 is a bit closer to the feel of the 905 that I love so much.  It’s not perfect, but it’s still very, very good.  Our testers called it “firm”, “solid”, “powerful”, and simply “sweet”.  Once again, allowing for the “can’t feel the head guy”, the ratings we received, including a couple more 10s, were extremely high.  Once again, a single 7 on the low end wasn’t nearly enough to offset the majority opinion.

MGS Feel Score: 93.68

Sound

It’s a bit cliche, but there’s something to be said for “it just sounds like a Titleist”.  While I wouldn’t say the same about the 909, or the 907, again, the 910 is a step closer to what I loved about the company’s earlier drivers.  Though not perfect, overall our testers rated the sound highly.  There were more 7s on our surveys, and fewer 10s, but when the results were tallied, the prevailing sentiment is that the Titliest 910 driver sound pretty darn good.

MGS Sound Score: 90.61

Perceived Distance

Unlike last time around, it seems our testers had a much better sense of what the realities were when comparing perceived distance to our actual data.  Though one tester for whom we didn’t collect data rated the club a 5 for distance, a majority of testers actually rated it a 9.  There was a single 10 (oddly enough from a guy whose numbers indicated he should probably have scored it an 8 or 9), and a few 8s and 7s, but overall, our tester’s beliefs are, for the most part, supported by our data.

Tester Perceived Distance Score: 90.61

Perceived Accuracy

As with distance, perceived accuracy ratings were more or less in line with the actual data we collected.  We can’t explain why the numbers were so much better this time around, except to say that it appears that people’s perceptions about golf club performance sometimes have almost no correlation to reality.  The Titleist 910, however, may be the exception, as once again, we think our testers were spot on in their evaluations.

Tester Perceived Accuracy Score:  90.61

Perceived Forgiveness

When we survey for forgiveness, we phrase the question like this; “How forgiving is the club on mishits?  Do you feel it performs consistently from shot to shot?”.  Sometimes we think our testers buy into the extreme fringes of some of the marketing that is out there.  No club is going to produce dead straight shots for every swing.  It’s just not reasonable.  Still, our testers seem to believe that the Titleist 910 performed well enough.  While it wasn’t rated extremely high for forgiveness, I wouldn’t call the rating extremely low either.  As tester Mark put it, “slight mis-hits were still in play.  Gross mis-hits are gross mis-hits, enough said”.

Tester Perceived Forgiveness Score: 82.93

Likelihood of Purchase

LOP consistently returns the lowest score of any of the questions we ask in our subjective survey.  While in most categories, 80-85 proves to be the average, Likelihood of Purchase seems to consistently return results in the low 70s.  This tells us that even if a tester likes a club, at least in today’s economy, there’s very little certainty that that tester is actually willing to part with his money.

In the case of the Titleist 910, that’s probably true, though perhaps a bit less so.  While there were a couple of 4s (there always are), we also received a couple of 10s (which is highly unusual for this category).  While many of the testers indicated they’d definitely consider the Titleist 910 before their next driver purchase, we had one tester emphatically tell us that he would “bag this driver in a New York second”.

Tester Likelihood of Purchase: 81.39

Given the affection our testers seem to have for the Titleist brand, and more specifically, the 910 driver, it isn’t surprising to see the highest subjective score we’ve posted to date.  Granted it’s very early in the season, but our scoring system is one of the stingiest out there, and it’s extremely difficult for a club to even get a sniff at 90.  For the Titleist 910 to not only get a whiff of 90, but to actually exceeded it, albeit by just a hair, we can’t help but believe Titleist has managed to create a driver with near universal appeal.

TOTAL SUBJECTIVE SCORE: 90.38

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CONCLUSION

Before we even started testing with the Titleist 910D2, we were reasonably confident that it would prove to be a very solid offering for above average players.  What really surprised us is how well our higher handicap golfers were able to keep the ball in play with this club from a manufacturer who has a reputation for producing product almost exclusively for more accomplished players.

While I’m not suggesting that high handicap golfers should run right out and buy the Titleist 910, what I am saying is there is absolutely no reason (based on our tests) why higher handicap golfers should stay away from the Titleist 910D2 either.  By every reasonable measure it performed admirably in our tests, and did so across a range of handicaps.  If you are in the market for a new driver in 2011, and particularly so if you’re looking for an adjustable model, the Titleist 910 D2 is well worth the time it takes to demo the club.

MGS TOTAL SCORE:  91.25

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