Many touring professionals and better amateurs have long carried a Titleist fairway wood. The Titleist PT (Pro Trajectory) 970 was highly regarded as one of the best fairway woods ever made. In fact, until Tiger Woods recently put the Nike T-60 fairway wood in his bag, he “had been using a modified version of the steel-shafted, small-headed Titleist PT 970 3-wood for several years.”
Titleist attempted to follow up on the success of the PT with the 980F. The 980F held true to Titleist’s heralded design theme – pear-shaped woods that inspire silent confidence at address. Unfortunately, the 980F failed when it came to more than looks and many pros kept the PT in their bag. The 980 – a solid club in its own right – simply could not overcome its predecessor.
Now we have Titleist’s next offering, the 904F fairway woods. The 904F builds on the same traditional look while offering updated technology and a more refined function. This has resulted in superb handling and playability.
If you’re not a fan of long reviews, I’ll let you stop reading now: the Titleist 904F is the best fairway wood Titleist has ever made and is perhaps the best available from any manufacturer. If you haven’t tried a 904F, you’re doing your game – and your scorecard – a disservice.
New Technology
The 904F is built with steel, as most fairway woods (metals) are these days. Fairway metals, unlike their 400+ cc big brothers the drivers, don’t need to conserve nearly as weight for later adjustments, and their smaller heads allow for less expensive manufacturing techniques and less exotic materials. For fairway woods, steel is still “in.”
The 904F is built from 355 Carpenter steel. A 275 Carpenter steel face insert provides the properties Titleist desires in a fairway metal (namely, a hotter, forgiving face with the proper acoustics). More on Carpenter Steel is can be found in this PDF.
The slightly larger head in the 904F has enough room for a tungsten sole weight and increased heel-toe weighting inside the cavity of the club. These enhancements moved center of gravity towards the center of the club, resulting in a livelier ball speed on well-struck shots, and a bit lower and towards the face, resulting in higher shots with less spin. The result: the 904F launches a degree higher and with about 400 RPM less spin than the 980F that preceded it, allowing for a high launch with a flat trajectory. Paired with the proper Pro V1 model for a player’s swing speed, the 904F is one long fairway wood.
The 904F (right) has a flatter sole, a raised, silver crown marking, and white scorelines.
Looks and Setup
The 904F offers a dramatic change in performance without a substantial shift in esthetics. I’ve always been a fan of the pear-shaped wood/metal profile, from drivers right on through to my fairway woods, and the 904F continues Titleist’s tradition of solid-performing pear-shaped woods.
From the top, the 904F looks almost exactly like the 980F except for the triangular alignment aid. The typical Titleist triangle is painted silver and raised slightly in this year’s model and the change, though subtle, inspires confidence and aids alignment. The sole loses the two black indentations on each side side and gains a tungsten sole plug. The face is slightly deeper and the sole far flatter, which aids in getting the ball into the air from the fairway.
The scoring lines have been painted white instead of black, which marginally increases their visibility. Combined with the crown triangle and the slightly modified center markings on the face, the 904F does all it can to help you set up to the sweet spot.
Sound and Feel
Studies have shown that auditory response is strongly tied to a player’s sense of “feel,” and the 904F satisfies both the auditory and the tactile requirements. The 980F had a somewhat higher-pitched sound than the 904F, which I find to be more “belly flop into a pool” than “wind chime on a breezy day.” In other words, the 904F produces a pleasant and very solid “smack” sound that matches the club’s hot face, solid construction, and forgiveness.
Mis-hits are well forgiven, but enough feel is relayed to the shaft and ultimately the player’s hands to let him know exactly where the shot was struck on the clubface. The club reacts well to mis-hits, sending the ball a good distance and only marginally offline, and the 904F sets up nicely to shots played off the tee or the fairway. This is a workable fairway wood – high, low, left, and right – so better players are welcomed, but shots don’t get away from you, easing the pain for higher handicappers.
The 904F (left) lost the black indentations, opting instead for internal weighting and a tungsten sole weight.
Performance
I’ve played the 980F for years, and it’s served me well. To say that I was eager to get my hands on a 904F is a bit of an understatement. My 980 had a True Temper Dyanamic Gold S300 shaft – I’d always felt that a steel shaft really let me go after my fairway woods without losing them, and previous tests with the 980F bore that out.
Things changed with the 904F, however. The deeper, flatter sole and shifted center of gravity resulted in a club that took a graphite shaft without sacrificing playability at any swing speed. No club is duck-hook proof, but the 904F comes close.
My 980F was adequate from the fairway, but the 904F is tremendous. What’s more, I can hit any shot imaginable – high cuts, low stingers, draws, fades, slices. The 904F never let a shot get away from me, and that’s particularly important when you’re going for a long par five in two. The ball comes off the clubface on a trajectory that simply bores through any wind, resulting in minimal distance loss into headwinds and minimal deflection in a sideways breeze.
Perhaps most impressively, the 904F is miles longer than my 980F. I hit 20 balls with a DG S300-shafted 904F and compared them to 20 hit with my 980F. All but two of the balls struck with the 904F were further than even the best of my 980F shots, and the average increase in distance was 16 yards. I routinely hit the graphite-shafted (YS-6+ FW) 904F instead of my driver for the added control, and I never feel as though I’m giving up much distance. For a 15° 3-wood, the 904F is simply a bomber.
Extras and Options
The 904F comes with a Titleist 2005-themed headcover. It’s slightly larger than 2004’s and features the silver theme Titleist introduced earlier this year with the 503.H headcover. It’s attractive, stylish, and matches the other headcovers in my bag.
The 904F is available with three stock shafts: the True Temper Dynamic Gold in Steel and two graphite models, the Titleist Speeder Fairway by Fujikura and the YS-6 Fairway by Graphite Design. Several custom shafts are also available. It’s shipping now for lefties and righties in several lofts: 13°, 15°, 17°, 19°, and 22°. Consider the 22° model a 7-wood.
The 904F MSRPs at $200 in steel and $290 for graphite, though you’ll be able to find them for quite a bit less. I picked up a 904F with a steel shaft for my tests for $149.
Conclusion
The hype is real, and the 904F is arguably the best fairway wood on the market. These clubs are long. They sound great. They look great. You can hit them from the fairway or tee with impunity. They’re workable yet forgiving.
I’ll quote myself earlier in the review: If you haven’t tried a 904F, you’re doing your game – and your scorecard – a disservice.
Wow, great review Erik. Can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on a couple 904F’s later today. Heh, heh.
Erik, that was a very thorough review! I got a lot out of it for sure. It sounds like everyone needs the 904F.
Great job!
The 904 should be better. IMO there was a lot of room for improvement. I hated my 980. I had hoped to find a matching fairway wood for my 983k but that wasn’t the case.
If the 904 is that good, I’ll have give it a try.
It’s a very nice review. So complete. Good Work
Having just recieved the 904F 15 and 19 degree and taken them to the range I have to agree. These are outstanding clubs. Very easy to get into the air and the the ball just shoots off the face. I love the look at address too. Beautiful clubs.
Your review compares the 980F with a steel shaft to a 904F with a graphite. No wonder you hit longer shots with the 904. I’m still almost convinced to try the 904F, but this isn’t a fair comparison.
MrJ, please read the review more carefully:
“Perhaps most impressively, the 904F is miles longer than my 980F. I hit 20 balls with a DG S300-shafted 904F and compared them to 20 hit with my 980F.”
Oops. Apologies, I saw the graphite shaft in the pic and read that you were using the YS-6+ FW and skimmed over the part where you compared with the S300s. Now I really want one. 🙂
I also love the 904F’s. Here are my thoughts on this marvelous club.
APPEARANCE – The first thing I noticed about the new fairway woods was the more square clubface. It reminded me of Cobra fairway woods, which have a very square appearance, rather than the rounded soleplate and face of the 980F series.
FEEL – The feeling at impact is more of a metallic feel/sound to it than the previous 980F series, which had a much more muted sound quality to them. They are not nearly as “clanky” as other fairway woods, but noticeably more than the 980F’s. I love the feel of Titleist fairway woods.
PERFORMANCE – I sensed that the 904’s were a bit more forgiving, and tended to fly straighter than the 980F’s. Ballflight was very long, straight, and fairly controllable left/right. I noticed that most of my balls were long, low, with a slight fade. I’ve demoed two 904F’s, one with a Speeder 553 Fairway shaft, the other with a Graphite Design YS shaft. Both felt tremendous, and were very controllable.
I still love the feeling and performance of my 980F’s, but the 904’s felt more forgiving for most players. They feel good off the turf, are tremendously long, and seem to have a more forgiving face, and don’t get away from you (no bad slices/hooks).
any suggestions between the 13* vs. the 15*?
Thank you for the great review. I have also been doing some testing, with my 980 and 904. both are 15 degree, both of them are shafted with the Aldila NV shaft in a S flex. I ordered both of them from titleist this way.
Honestly, so far my results have been the opposite of this article. I know I may be the only one in the world who feels this way, but Honestly, it’s the truth. For now, I am going to keep my 980 in the bag.
I want to like the 904, i really do, especially since I paid for it.
THanks.
so, how does the 904 compare to the 906F2?
The 904F are great clubs, 15 & 19 degree have surpassed anyhting I have hit previously, mainly MacGregors.
Good review
I haven’t hit the 906f2 yet but I can tell you that the 904f is loooong. I’m hitting the 19* further than I was hitting the 15* cobra F speed 3 wood.
Wonderful clubs!
Getting hard to find the 15* in a regular flex shaft anymore but I’m still looking. 😕
Simple the best fairway wood I’ve ever hit. Long and accurate and hitting feels so solid. Because of the feel I bought a 905R driver expecting the same solid feel but was dissapointed. But as for the farway clubs, I’m going to buy the 5 wood.
hired the 904f with ys-6 shafts in vegas and was amazed at the performance , the club let me take them home to uk ,i thought it was the shaft i had found but the head really works as you say , good looking club and 3wood really makes you think \do i really need adriver\ but i have since bought a titleist 907r with same shaft and yes i think you probably do but marginal?
It must be a boring day for me to read up on a fairway wood that is now two generations removed (906 and 909). The 904f is a nice club, but in my opinion it is not a better club than the 980f. I will be entering what now will be my 6th year with my 980F 15 Strong wood and it has been a solid performer through and through. I did have a 904f 19 wood and it too was a solid performer, but it has been replaced by a 585H 21 degree, which more than picks up the slack.
As always, a great review but I will have to respecfully disagree with one assessment, the 980f, in my opinion, is better than described in it’s performance. Opinions are a great thing, no two are really perfectly alike. I just happen to believe that the 980f is the better club of the two.
I bought my 15* 904f strickly for the shaft that was in it and was going to pull it to put into another club head. It was an Accra SC75 M5($250) and I got the club for $55 w/shipping used(gotta love ebay), but it wasn’t hit more than 5 times. Well I figured that I would at least try & hit the Titleist since I had never hit a Titleist club before, I guess that I was intimadated by the “players club” persona that I’ve always heard about. Well I hit my first ball and I knew this club was going into my bag. Long, long ,long and right where I was aiming too, unlike my last 3 wood, a Callaway BB Fusion w/Bassarra shaft which was >30yds shorter and I sprayed the ball everywhere – but the fairway. And it wasn’t 10 balls until I was able to start working the ball either way, it was AMAZING, I had never been able to work the ball before(except for the wicked slice that I sometimes have) and now I was able to make the ball go the way that I wanted it to, AT WILL. By the way did I mention that the 904f is long, I now use it on 10 of the 13 holes where I should be using a driver because of it’s length, I’m averaging >270 off the tee and can easily hit it 255 off of the deck. I’m 50YO just over 100MPH clubhead speed and shoot in the mid to upper 80’s so don’t let this one scare you just because they call it a “players club”. It’s the most awesome club that I’ve ever hit, 2 1/2yrs later and I’m still saying I LOVE IT!!! Usually I’m ready to move on to something else after just 3 months or so but now I’m looking for another one for when I wear this one out. As far as the 980 that other people have mentioned,I didn’t like it, I had a snap hook with it. And the 906 series as far as I’m concerned are junk with a capital J. I have or I should say had the 906f2 5 wood and it was short and didn’t have the solid sound of the 904’s. Also after 1 badly struck ball there was a huge scuff were the crown meets the face, 1 bad ball. I have hit dozens of bad shots with the 904 & it still looks as good as the day I got it, no scuffs what-so-ever. After doing some serious digging I found out why, the 904’s were the last year that Titleist drivers & fairway woods were made in the USA. This explains why the 906’s seemed so cheap(and I don’t mean money either) and I think that the 909’s are even cheaper looking and they fell even less solid than the 906’s did. Titleist quality has gone down hill over the last 5yrs and it shows in their clubs, even their irons aren’t as good anymore.
I’m a typical bogey golfer, inconsistent sometimes left and sometimes right with enough down the center to keep me swinging clubs the past 35 years. I picked up a used 904F 22degree and hit a few in the simulator and decided to give it a try. WOW! Everything I swung went straight with incredible distance. Then to the range, where this club continued to put the ball out there, right where I intended. It was love at first swing. I’m going back to buy the 19 and 17degree I saw. At long last I can toss out my 3 & 4 irons and hit long with confidence!
Followup: first time out I shot an 82 – that’s 13 below my handicap and my best round in a few years. New (for me) TaylorMade R7 driver off the tee, 904F’s off the turf and I stayed out of trouble and let my short irons put me on the green and in position to score well – especially for a 52 year old bogey+ golfer. These clubs felt like they were an extension of my body. I am impressed!