Visit: Titleist and TPI

Serious about Quality
From the moment you walk in the door, until you exit, you get a sense that Titleist is serious about the quality of their product.  They want to make the best product for tour players and offer that same quality to the average golfer.  Their Carlsbad facility houses their west coast team which is mainly their club R&D and production.  In this facility is much of Team Titleist, all club building, Vokey Wedges and the R&D department.  Close by is the TPI facility and Scotty Cameron’s Garage studio.
During the tour it was stressed over and over how serious they are about quality from the shipping and receiving to the build process, things were checked and rechecked more than the other OEMs from what i experienced.  Even the components that arrive from grip and shaft companies are tested for tolerances and either excepted or rejected.  The heads are all checked to for specs on arrival and also during production.  The production facilities looked like a club builders candy store.  All the big tools and well designed space makes assembling clubs quick and easy for the Titleist staff.

 

The real cool part of the factory floor is the WedgeWorks section where the Voke has a bunch of grinding areas.  He is known to hop onto the floor and work with the guys making wedges from time to time.  They are doing hand stamping and grinding for custom ordesr right there.  While Titleist does have a tour department, the products they use for tour guys are from the same bins as what the consumer gets.  They are just tested and marked for exact specs for a tour player.

  Everyone was very welcoming as I walked around and met the various people within the Titleist operation in Carlsbad.  I just noted how everything felt very serious and professional at Titleist. This isn’t a bad thing, it just goes to show you their passion of quality.

If you want to learn about Titleist go to: www.Titleist.com

The best part of the West Coast Titleist facilities has to be TPI.  It is the biggest and best fitting center of all the OEMs.  I got to see it in full operation while I was there.  They were putting on a clinic in the auditorium about fitness and the TPI program.  An LPGA tour players was working on her short game, a robot was hitting balls for testing, and there were fittings going on right next to mine.  As part of my work with Titleist was getting fit for the new 714 line of irons.  I’ve had the 712 AP-2 in my bag often and really loved them, so checking out the new irons was a highlight of my trip.  I hopped on the Trackman and just started hitting balls.  It happened to be the same day I traveled from MN to CA so I was stiff and tired, but still felt like I got into a groove after a few swings.  We started with one club and went from there.  We probably tried almost every shaft in the fitting cart and bent the clubs lie and loft a number of times so that we got the best fit.  You can find out what I got fit for once the review is up.  Not only did he get me fit for the right clubs, he also offered a couple simple swing pointers that helped out too.  It really was a relaxing, yet serious club fitting.

If you want to learn more about the Titleist Performance Institute check out:  http://www.mytpi.com/