Tour seeding begins: Titleist will seek feedback from its tour staff before releasing finalised 913 to market
Titleist tour staff were given a nice surprise when they arrived on the range of Congressional Country Club for last week’s AT&T National, where they found prototype 913 drivers waiting for them to give a spin.
The brand’s seeding and validation process for new clubs involves taking feedback from their professional ambassadors before making minor tweaks ahead of their mass-market release, and the Maryland event marked its official launch.
The Titleist golf club R&D team was out in force to walk through with the players the technology involved in the new driver and what advancements it will bring to their game.
This information is yet to be released, although golfers can expect to see noticeable developments upon the highly successful Titleist 910 model while, from the images released so far, we know the upcoming iteration retains the SureFit Tour hosel of the previous generation.
So popular was the 913 – Titleist continues to release metals under the 900 number designation with the “9″ standing for metals and the “13″ indicating the new model year, 2013 – that 14 players put it into play during its first week on tour.
Those gaming the new 913D2 prototype drivers included Bud Cauley (7.5º), Tom Gillis (9.5º) and John Merrick (8.5º).
Eleven players also made the switch to the 913D3 drivers, including Seung-yul Noh (7.5º), Nick Watney (10.5º), Brendon de Jonge (9.5º), Mark Anderson (8.5º), Ben Curtis (8.5º), Martin Flores (9.5º), Hunter Haas (9.5º), K.T. Kim (8.5º), Tom Pernice Jr. (8.5º), D.J. Trahan (7.5º) and Gary Woodland (7.5º).
World No.2 Rory McIlroy also put a 913D3 (8.5º) driver into play at the Irish Open to finish tied for tenth, kicking off the European Tour seeding process that officially begins at this week’s French Open.
Stay up to date with the latest tour news from Titleist at www.titleist.co.uk.
Originally published on bunkered on July 4, 2012.
Read the latest issue of UK Club Golfer online
