Titleist DTR Irons Review? Still Good And Forgiving for High Handicappers?

Titleist DTR Irons Review? Still Good And Forgiving for High Handicappers?

“The Titleist DTR irons were produced from 1987 to 1993. In that era, they were considered one of the best game improvement iron sets on the market.”

When I researched the Titleist DTR irons, I was really surprised that they were game improvement irons that were regarded so highly.

Granted, I don’t have any experience with the Titleist DTR irons and have little experience of Titleist clubs from that era in general.

But I’ve always perceived Titleist to be a company that only recently got into the game improvement, well, game.

So you can imagine my surprise when I read so many accounts of people extolling the Titleist DTR irons as superior GI irons.

I was really eager to get these clubs in for testing and see if my worldview would be rocked by them.

Can old Titleist irons really be forgiving for high handicappers? Read on to find out.

Are Titleist DTR Irons Still Good?

“By today’s standard, the Titleist DTR irons have a pretty simplistic design and basic technology.”

But I can imagine the Titleist DTR irons turning heads in their era. First off, these are deep cavity backs. I mean, really deep.

You can eat your cereal out of them. But there is a mass in the toe that I imagine was placed to catch toe-side mis-hits.

The Titleist DTR irons also feature a deep notch at the base of the hosel where it meets the toe.

I’m told that the deep notch was included to help reduce the overall weight of the head.

When I first gave these irons a few test swings, they didn’t feel as light as say, modern Cobra irons; but they were light enough to grab my attention.

“DTR” stands for Distance Through Research so I was really eager to see what these babies could do at the range.

With the 3-iron, I was averaging a carry distance of 187.6 yards. That may not sound impressive but keep in mind I don’t even carry a 3-iron in my normal bag.

But with an iron I do carry, a 4-iron, I was averaging a carry distance of 179.7 yards – a considerable improvement.

Are the Titleist DTR irons as long as modern distance irons? No.

The fact is that golf club manufacturing tech has advanced a lot in the 35+ years since the Titleist DTR irons were introduced.

But there is still a lot to like about these irons.

Are the Titleist DTR Irons Forgiving for High Handicappers?

“Despite the nomenclature, the best trait of these irons isn’t distance.”

It’s forgiveness. The design is interesting and it didn’t make sense until I got these clubs on the links.

The notched-out joint where the hosel meets the heel in tandem with the weighted toe area creates a better balance at impact.

I found it very easy to hit a nice fade with these irons on almost every swing.

Affecting a near-perfect shot shape with these irons is simple even if you’re a beginner. They fly really high and generate a nice fade.

You’ll be able to get over trees and bunkers with ease while landing the ball close to the pin. The natural fade bias will also help if you tend to hook the ball.

Another design element that makes these irons easy to hit is the pronounced offset.

You can see the offset in both the short and long irons which is a big plus for high handicappers and beginners.

The deep cavity backs also help keep your shots on-target.

I wouldn’t say these are point-and-shoot irons as there is almost always an inherent fade, but the extra weight moved to the perimeter by the deep cavity backs keep your mis-hits in check.

My spin rates weren’t ridiculous on toe/heel side mis-hits and I wasn’t losing much ball speed either.

Catching the bottom lines on the face was understandably detrimental. But I was able to use the rest of the face to produce playable lies.