As you read this, several dozens of long, cardboard boxes, imprinted with the Titleist Script, sit in the back of a delivery truck en route to Arnonimink Golf Club just outside Philadelphia, host of next week's AT&T National PGA Tour event. They were all shipped from the same place, the Titleist Tour Deparment in Carlsbad, Calif.

On Monday morning, our Titleist Tour Reps at Aronimink will begin opening those boxes, each one marked with the name of a player in this week's AT&T field.

Inside the boxes: Prototype Titleist AP1, AP2, CB and MB irons (712 Series), which are being introduced on the PGA Tour this week for testing and seeding as part of our performance validation process.

(Please note: "712" is the series designation. Titleist has long used 700 numbers for irons, just as we use 900 numbers for metals. Accordingly, the "7" stands for irons, while the "12" stands for the new model year, 2012.)

Over the last few weeks, the Titleist Tour Department has been focused on building these iron sets to the custom specifications of our Titleist Brand Ambassadors.

This week at AT&T, members of the Titleist Leadership and R&D teams will begin working with our players to show, explain, fit and test the new irons, a process that will continue over the coming weeks across the worldwide professional tours. The feedback we receive during this validation process influences the design and specifications of the Titleist products available in golf shops around the world.

We will continue to provide behind-the-scenes information and product details here on the Team Titleist blog throughout the seeding and performance validation process.

Click the photo below to view images of the first builds and shipment of 712 prototype irons from the Titleist Tour Department and some recent testing out at the Oceanside Test Center.