50 Words or Less
The Titleist 915Fd is a embodiment of the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Good looks, simple design, and solid performance are all you need in a fairway wood.
Introduction
The past three or four years have been really interesting for golf nerds – and confusing for most – when it comes to fairway woods: speed slots, mini drivers, deep faces, low COG, high COG, moveable COG, you name it. Thankfully, there are a still some companies out there who understand that keeping the fairway wood relatively simple is a good thing. Titleist has done just that with the new Titleist 915Fd fairway wood. The simple lines, compact pear shape, and mid-size face paired with a few small technological tweaks make for a nice update to the 913Fd fairway wood.
Looks
Consistent with the rest of the 915 series, the Titleist 915Fd fairway wood has a plain metal flake black crown with silver alignment arrow. The metal flake is a nice touch because it gives the club some extra character, but stays away from a lot of the modern overbearing flash (note: I am not claiming to have a problem with said flash). The club head in the 915Fd is more compact than the 915F, sets up neutral when in the A1 Surefit adapter position, and would pass for a lot of previous Titleist fairway woods at address, which I mean as a good thing.
On the sole you have the signature 915 white lines, a weight toward the face, and the noticeable Active Recoil Channel. The Titleist branding is fairly minimal and may even be considered toned down from the 913 series.
Sound & Feel
The Titleist 915Fd is the highlight of the 915 wood series in the Sound & Feel category. The sound is a very quiet and “bassy” sound as opposed to the metallic ping that’s commonly heard in recent fairway woods. It doesn’t quite have an old persimmon sound or a hot melt mute to it, but it doesn’t sound sharp and metallic. The sound is compact and purposeful, meaning it’s a nice and tight sound almost directly correlated with the feel of the shot.
The 915Fd clubhead itself has a nice solid heavy feel to it. This helps keep the club in control throughout the swing. Also, the face is very responsive. This has been one of the better feeling three woods I have hit in a long time. When you really connect on a shot, it feels like the ball is getting off of the face in a hurry.
Performance
My performance numbers were average with the Titleist 915Fd fairway wood. I hit the 15º 915Fd head with the stock Aldila Rogue shaft and had to spend a little time taming the shaft. I was hitting a lot of low ropes with a lot of roll, but my trajectory was so poor that I wasn’t getting the same total distance I usually get out of a three wood. Long story short, to get a better ball flight, I was making a lot of swing changes that would normally result in ballooning shots, but actually turned out to be a fairly normal looking shot to me. I did hit the 915Fd again with a different shaft and saw better results (not on a launch monitor, unfortunately) based on distance and flight, but still feel like I wasn’t maximizing the club’s performance.
Consistent with the 915 series woods, I noticed that the face was pretty forgiving and certainly minimized the damage on off-center hits. There must be something to the Active Recoil Channel because the ball seemed to jump off of the 915Fd much like it did in the drivers.
Conclusion
If golf traditionalists aren’t happy with the Titleist 915Fd fairway woods, I’m not really sure what else they can ask for. Sure, they might say “do away with the Surefit adapter and give me a fixed hosel” but this is becoming almost impossible to deliver in this day and age when many more golfers are demanding adjustability. The basic looks and sweet feel of the Titleist 915Fd left me curious about what this club can do and optimistic that this could be one of the top overall performers of the year if I can truly get dialed in with it.
Bill Bush
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