At the Institute

Going Deep at the elite Titleist Performance Institute.

A personal story today from my trip to level up my golf game with Titlist in Oceanside, California. I wrote this story for The Old Ghosts, and if you enjoy these types of things, you should get on the list over there. Hope you like it. -MW

When it comes to golf, nothing about me screams performance. I grew up wandering around the leafy out-of-bounds on a local golf club looking for lost balls, but I didn’t really pick up a club until I was in my thirties. That late start meant that I was on a different sort of golf journey than many of the people I play with today. One thing I have always appreciated as a late-coming amateur is the importance of being fit for clubs. I know that playing with equipment that encourages the limited good tendencies in my swing is crucial. It’s a universal truth that every player can benefit from a proper fit, and the Titleist Performance Institute is where the elite players go to get into the minutia of their setup. It’s like getting invited to the Porsche testing grounds as a car enthusiast. If you’re invited, you go.

There’s really nothing like the Titleist Performance Institute. It’s 33 acres of green grass, fitness, 3D motion capture and testing facilities tucked away in a commercial office park in Oceanside, California. It’s the place where every fitter in the Titleist network goes to refine their craft. It has a locker room, a gym, offices, meeting rooms, and every other possible thing that the world’s preeminent golf brand could ever need to keep its professional golf staff at peak performance. TPI serves as a testing ground, a content hub, and a teaching center to help their network of fitters. Sometimes they even host schlubs like me at TPI. Trust me, I need every ounce of special help I can get.

If you get invited to have a fitting at TPI you are going to be dealing with the best that Titleist has to offer. The moment you arrive, your name is on the lobby TV, and you are ushered to the locker room to get ready for practice. After a quick dynamic warm-up in the fitness area, you head out to the outdoor range to meet the expert TPI fitting pro who could potentially change your life.

My fitting lasted over three hours and went through every single club in my bag and even the type of golf ball I should be playing. (It’s Pro V-1 for me if you were wondering.) The clubs I brought to the fitting were a bit of a random collection of things largly assembled by impulse and happenstance. I knew I needed to reassess things, and this was a huge first step. The big takeaways from my TPI fitting were the importance of apex for landing and holding more greens, having enough spin but not too much, the importance of distance control, and generally how my new clubs could enhance my good tendencies. I now find myself appreciating other players’ apex with their irons — which is sort of hilarious.

Titleist has evolved TPI over the years and has recently undergone a near-complete renovation of the grass range and practice areas. There’s also a series of buildings with areas for meetings, R&D, and a special space for Titleist-sponsored TOUR players. It’s a remarkable place that speaks to the Titleist obsession with performance for all golfers.

Outside of getting a bunch of new golf clubs—which is exciting in and of itself—an easily overlooked benefit of a complete bag fitting is proper gapping of your entire set. This benefit has been apparent in almost every round I have played in the past twelve months (and this is not an exaggeration). When the 235 or the 120-yard shot presents itself, I actually have the perfect club to answer the call. The best part is that it is all backed by Trackman data from TPI, rather than the guessing game I played with my old clubs. A year later and the confidence from this fitting work continues to reverberate positively through my game, and trust me, I need all of the help I can get.

One of my resolutions with my new clubs was to only play the new set I got at TPI. I needed to focus on becoming intimately close to these irons, the driver and my wedges. I’m a one-set no matter what —no random clubs need apply. The more comfortable I became with them, the more confidence I gained. I’ve learned from all of my historically bad play that confidence is everything in golf. When you have experts at the controls deciding what to put in your bag, it removes one big question in your head. There’s no doubt that you have the best clubs for your game — and it’s backed by both science and the artful skill of the fitter.

As someone who got a late start in golf, my goals were never to win tournaments or become a plus handicapper. I simply wanted to be able to play any course with competence. I wanted to be able to enjoy a round of golf with any caliber of player. Over the past few years, I have felt close to making that goal a reality. As someone who’s never afraid to skimp on equipment, I didn’t realize that the missing piece was surprisingly my clubs. By playing a hodgepodge of random clubs that I have acquired at different points in my golf journey, I was holding myself back. A few months into playing exclusively with my TPI-fitted set of Titleist clubs, I was genuinely shocked at how much my scores had improved. Some stats to back it up: In 2025, I shot my lowest career round, my first ever round under par, and the most rounds in the 70s. My swing might never look as pure as someone on TOUR, I might never be scratch, and I will still probably implode once a round, but unlocking the best version of myself feels like a gift. I’m lucky to have experienced TPI and benefited from the time and expertise of the fitters at Titleist. Nothing I have done in a decade has given me as much confidence in myself and my game.

When we play golf, we might do it for many reasons — to compete, to get outside and off our screens, or to find the camaraderie that radiates from the game. We might also do it to find the moments when we believe in ourselves. To lift ourselves up. When we step up to see a 186-yard pin tucked on the right, knowing a 6-iron cut can get right to it is a beautiful thing. Because nothing in this world could be better than seeing that shot and executing it perfectly. At least, that’s the hope, and it’s why places like TPI continue to push the envelope.