The new Titleist TS1 Driver is a great and forgiving club, but as it always goes with Titleist, the TS1 is priced near the top of the market. Titleist golf clubs last a long time. They will stay in your golf bag for years to come, and the technology will remain relevant. Still, it can be hard to justify spending $400 on a driver. If it makes you feel any better, the pricing on this club has dropped quite a bit from the $500 it was released at.
The truth is there are some players that will benefit significantly from the TS1 driver, and there are others that have no business purchasing this club. We will help to break that down for you and give you a few alternatives if you want a quality driver for much less money.
Who Should Use the TS1 Driver?
When it comes to lower handicap women, there are not many great choices for a driver. Each year the drivers get more forgiving, lighter, and better for the slower swinging golfers. For the low handicap players, they continually have to go to the men’s drivers and have the re shafted with custom lighter weight shafts or have them cut to length to fit properly. The TS1 however, is an excellent option for the lower handicap female golfer.
The Titleist TS1 driver has a very thin and fast face. If you have decent swing speed and want the ball to jump off of your driver, this is the club to accomplish that with.
Another thing we love about the TS1 is the adjustability. The Titleist fitting system is perhaps the best fitting system on the market. You can adjust loft and lie with the Titleist drivers, and it makes it an excellent choice for the lower handicap player or the mid handicap golfer seeing significant changes in their game.
The TS1 is made in a very aerodynamic design that will help reduce drag and let golfers get even more club head speed than they thought possible. If you want or need all of this performance in a club, the TS1 will be worth the money, and it will likely earn a spot in your bag for years to come.
The Alternative Under $250
If the $400 is just a bit too much and you want something priced a bit lower, take a look at the Cobra F9 Speedback Driver. The F9 Speedback is not the newest release from Cobra, but it is only about a year old.
The F9 features great adjustability and can be changed to work for a seven handicap or a 25 handicap. We love to see this type of versatility in a driver.
The Carbon Fiber crown on the F9 Speedback allows you to swing it quite fast, and it tends to be plenty forgiving as well. This F9 was a considerable advancement in technology for Cobra, and they sold many of these drivers.
When this F9 Speedback was first released, it was priced at about $450, and now it is down to a little under $250. For the combination of feel, technology, and speed you get with this driver, it is truly the best value on the market.
One thing that puts the Cobra a bit ahead of the TS1 is the Cobra Connect technology. With Cobra connect, you can track your distances on your phone. Why we love this is if you change the driver from 11 degrees of loft to 12 degrees of loft, it can be hard to tell if you are hitting it better. With the Cobra connect technology, you simply look on your phone to see if your distances have, in fact, increased or decreased.
The F9 Speedback is also a perfect alternative to the TS1 driver.
Similar Driver Under $150
If you really want to save some money, you can take a look around for a used Titleist 915 driver. The Titleist 915 driver has an incredible feel and is one of the most popular drivers that Titleist ever put out. You might see a marginal difference in distance between the 915 and ths TS1, but it will be less than 5 yards for sure. However, you will find a big difference in price between a used 915 and a TS1.
If you are playing with a driver that is more than five years old, you can upgrade to any of the drivers we mentioned in this guide, and you will likely see an improvement. If, however, you are playing with a club less than five years old, stick with the TS1 or the F9 as an upgrade.
