Concept Initiative, C16 Driver and C16 Irons

[Abu3baid]

So, who plans on testing these bad boys?

Golfweek Article

I would, but I have no interest in paying 1,000 for a driver and almost 3,000 for an iron set.

Quote

But according to Steve Pelisek, Titleist’s president of golf clubs, the Fairhaven, Mass., company wanted to give its designers a chance to go wild. With no worry about anything except function, what would they make? Dream it up now, worry about how to make it later. From such directives, the Concept Initiative was born.

 

[boogielicious]

29 minutes ago, Abu3baid said:

So, who plans on testing these bad boys?

Golfweek Article

I would, but I have no interest in paying 1,000 for a driver and almost 3,000 for an iron set.

 

Check the sofa cushions. You may have that much $$ in loose change!

[Abu3baid]

10 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Check the sofa cushions. You may have that much $$ in loose change!

Ughh I wish.. Do you know how much KG2 and Grade 1 cost these days... I did read hey are only selling them in their headquarter offices in Cali and Mass.. Right up your neck of the woods :)

You know what would be cool is if they let someone in TST do a product review on them, that's one review I would volunteer for.  Hehe

[SavvySwede]

Sounds like they're trying to steal some of PXG's thunder this season with the "money is not an object" marketing. Enticing the club ho with too much money.

[pumaAttack]

 

$1,000 is a lot to spend on a club with no shaft....

[Mop Bucket]

1 hour ago, pumaAttack said:

$1,000 is a lot to spend on a club with no shaft....

a lot? That's borderline insanity.

[billchao]

2 hours ago, pumaAttack said:

$1,000 is a lot to spend on a club

FTFY

[jamo]

Honestly, if that's all their designers can come up with given no boundaries but the Rules of Golf, I'm a bit disappointed. (With the caveat that I've not actually seen or hit them in person, of course. For all I know they're incredible.)

[pumaAttack]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

FTFY

But for $1,000 I would hope for a shaft to go along with it!   

(I am being sarcastic based off the pictures alone)

[newtogolf]

i'm guessing there aren't any lefty versions so no temptation for me.  

[SavvySwede]

4 hours ago, jamo said:

Honestly, if that's all their designers can come up with given no boundaries but the Rules of Golf, I'm a bit disappointed. (With the caveat that I've not actually seen or hit them in person, of course. For all I know they're incredible.)

They certainly didn't try too hard to go outside their usual aesthetic.

[Mr. Desmond]

This is not about expense, it's not about drivers, it's about Titleist releasing its take on the future.

Some features of these concepts will appear in the 917 lineup.

Facecup irons? Not new, but maybe their take on it is an enhancement. Driver? Driver is face cupped and is cutting edge as to thinness in terms of crown. Interesting weight design. Probably do not need the slot with facecup. New shafts developed for the line seem interesting - with lighter shafts, they've gone to counterweights in the grip.

[newtogolf]

2 hours ago, Mr. Desmond said:

This is not about expense, it's not about drivers, it's about Titleist releasing its take on the future.

Some features of these concepts will appear in the 917 lineup.

Facecup irons? Not new, but maybe their take on it is an enhancement. Driver? Driver is face cupped and is cutting edge as to thinness in terms of crown. Interesting weight design. Probably do not need the slot with facecup. New shafts developed for the line seem interesting - with lighter shafts, they've gone to counterweights in the grip.

Right and it's about a limited production run that get collectors excited.  Every new model year Ping sells a limited production run of the Bubba Watson pink drivers for $800 when they are basically just the current G model with pink shaft and head. 

Titleist knows people are willing to pay more for golf clubs (PXG, Miura, Scotty, Ping) so they are testing the water with a limited production run of clubs at a premium price to see if there's a market worth pursuing.  Their costs are probably so low that they will make money if they only sell half of their inventory at the top price.  

On the more equipment focused websites people are drooling in anticipation of getting their hands on the latest and greatest.  

[sirhacksalot]

My hole set is less than a tenth of the driver alone. No thanks.

[allenc]

I would rather go with PXG.  More unique. These seem like random titleist clubs.

[billchao]

21 hours ago, Mr. Desmond said:

This is not about expense, it's not about drivers, it's about Titleist releasing its take on the future.

Some features of these concepts will appear in the 917 lineup.

Facecup irons? Not new, but maybe their take on it is an enhancement. Driver? Driver is face cupped and is cutting edge as to thinness in terms of crown. Interesting weight design. Probably do not need the slot with facecup. New shafts developed for the line seem interesting - with lighter shafts, they've gone to counterweights in the grip.

Not a knock on Titleist or anything, but I'm pretty sure I've seen everything here in one form or another from other manufacturers, in similar combinations of components.

That Titleist's engineers seem to have been allowed to design without being constrained by pricing or market considerations and what they came up seems to be nothing really new or groundbreaking says to me that the technology has plateaued a bit and the arms race is pretty tight among the major OEMs.

[Ernest Jones]

17 hours ago, sirhacksalot said:

My hole set is less than a tenth of the driver alone. No thanks.

How many holes did your set come with?

[14ledo81]

On 4/19/2016 at 5:00 PM, pumaAttack said:

But for $1,000 I would hope for a shaft to go along with it!   

(I am being sarcastic based off the pictures alone)

 

For $1,000 you are getting the "shaft" whether you get the shaft or not......