I did exactly that and it's the best thing I ever did. Cut my Diamana ahina stiff to 44. I added the 12 gram titleist weight to the head to get back the swingweight. Feels amazing, more balance when swinging and definitley more accurate. I'm also hittin it longer as I am catching the ball more consistently off the sweet spot. I found I was heeling the ball a lot with the 45 inch shaft. For info I'm about 5 ft 9.

You can cut your driver down 1", but will lose about 5-6 swingweights. You may be able to increase your swingspeed and/or gain control, but will probably need to add a little weight to the head. If you want to experiment with all the weights, we do offer a swingweight kit at all retail stores. They may not have it in stock, but it can be ordered and will ship in 1-2 days.

Yeah well worth ordering the weight kit. I was messing around with lead tape but a waste of time. Nice to know you have the properly engineers weights in the club. Oh and by the way stroke control I'm an 8 handicap with pretty much the same driving distance range.

what is the best way to add weight to a non titleist driver standard sw is D3. powder or lead tape. and if lead tape is best how many strips should i use for the 1 inch taken off.

there's also another thing you can do to restore swingweight: change the grip from a standard 52 gram rubber grip to either Winn Excel RF (42g) or Winn Lite (25g). The Winn Excel restores 2 swingweight points. The Lite restores 5 swingweight points. Lead tape is 2 grams/point and you place it toward the sole on the rear of the head for a straight bias, toward the heel for a draw or toward the toe for a fade. If you cut the driver 1" and use an Excel RF grip, the swingweight will still be D0. The other thing is that Lamkin Crossline grips get very heavy if you use midsize (they weigh in at 63g). Winn Excel RF midsize is 43g and Lite is 27g. I keep the standard rubber grips on my Vokeys but all the rest of my clubs have Excel RF midsize. I tried the powder route on a fairway wood about 4 years ago. Remember they are putting weight on the hosel and you also have to replace the grip - it takes quite a bit of powder to add two swingweight points so you would also need a lighter grip. Lead tape isn't so bad on a hybrid but it does sometimes affect proper hitting on a driver or wood.

Usuually a good option for players - longer shots come from on center hits and not so much the length of the shaft -  Years ago we had Titleist do some testing for us as we were developing their custom fititng program. One of them was how is ball flight affected by shorter length driver shafts.  The result was this --- 3" inches longer driver shaft only hit the ball about 5 yards further.  This was a robot test. Some players might gain slightly more length. But my experience over 20 years of fitting has been that most players gain distance with a shorter length driver -- more on center hits...  a lot of them feel like they have more control with a shorter length shaft and feel like they can swing the club more aggressively.
  All of this is quite contrary to the current day "marketing schemes" by most manufacturers and their attempt to convince players that these longer length shafts will produce longer shots. That is an easy perception to sell to male golfers...  On center hits regardless of the length is critical -- assuming the launch and spin numbers are good.     Thanks to the fantastic R & D team at Titliest for doing these tests for us and  just as importantly being willing to share it with all of you guys!  Go to the bank with this bit of information !!!

steve ball

Steve, this is a great point! Thanks for sharing it!!

Jim McClean recommends a 44" driver in his book "The Three Scoring Clubs" and Don Trahan even recommends a 43.5" driver in his Peak Performance Golf System. I was also reading that a lot of pros use a 44.5" driver. There is quite a bit of bunk in the golf industry (does anyone remember the 52" drivers in the 1990s?). One doesn't need the big 90 degree backswing, 47" driver or extremely rotational golf swing to knock the daylights out of a golf ball. Some are talking about how 2 and 3 iron hybrids are the greatest things since sliced bread - just recently I did a side-by-side with my trusty 7 wood (2007 Burner) vs one of those somewhat newfangled (2009) "flight control technology" 2 iron hybrids and the wood just totally smoked the hybrid. Then there was the F2 wedge - the so-called end all to short games; the bottom line is nothing beats a good ole Vokey. In all honesty, probably the best hitting irons I have owned are the two sets I have at home - Eye 2 yellow dot 6-PW and Titleist DCI 981 4-GW. I also have three persimmon clubs from Louisville Golf (Niblick Vanguard 5 wood, Even Stripe 10 wood and HL3 34 deg hybrid). I break them out every now and then. Although the two fairway woods aren't nearly as forgiving as my 7 wood and my SQ 5 hybrid, they reward with good distance (I have hit the 5 wood close to 200 yards and the 10 wood around 170). Even the 34 hybrid goes around 160 (don't use it much since I hit my 6 and 7 irons very well now; had the Eye 2's reshafted and the Titleists +1/2 deg upright).

This sounds like something I should try. In my Modern club design post, I talked about having problems coming from a 30 year layoff to adjusting to today's drivers due to the shaft length and lie. I'm 6'1" but the shaft still seems like its a mile long. The 909F3 seems to be perfect for me in this regard. I guess the challenge at that point would be to determine the proper replacement weight.

Rory O

I did exactly that and it's the best thing I ever did. Cut my Diamana ahina stiff to 44. I added the 12 gram titleist weight to the head to get back the swingweight. Feels amazing, more balance when swinging and definitley more accurate. I'm also hittin it longer as I am catching the ball more consistently off the sweet spot. I found I was heeling the ball a lot with the 45 inch shaft. For info I'm about 5 ft 9.

I'm looking to do the samething to my D2 9.5, if i where to have it cut to 44 or 44.5" what would be the recommened swingweight to be added? also does the surefit wrench that came with my driver fit the swingweight screw?..thx

I know what you mean. When I took up the game again, the graphite shafted woods were an inch too long. I played with steel shafted wooden (laminated and persimmon) woods since 1972. I found that a driver between 44-45" is good for me. I have difficulty with a modern 3 wood so I don't carry one (besides, I have a lofted driver that I use a low tee height with). I found the perfect fairway wood is 41-42" with a 58 deg lie angle. There is only a 15 yard difference between my 7 wood and a 3 wood anyway.

Mikey

Rory O

I did exactly that and it's the best thing I ever did. Cut my Diamana ahina stiff to 44. I added the 12 gram titleist weight to the head to get back the swingweight. Feels amazing, more balance when swinging and definitley more accurate. I'm also hittin it longer as I am catching the ball more consistently off the sweet spot. I found I was heeling the ball a lot with the 45 inch shaft. For info I'm about 5 ft 9.

I'm looking to do the samething to my D2 9.5, if i where to have it cut to 44 or 44.5" what would be the recommened swingweight to be added? also does the surefit wrench that came with my driver fit the swingweight screw?..thx

Each 1/2" that you cut off will reduce the swingweight by 2-3 depending on the balance point of the shaft. The 12 gram weight is the heaviest that we offer and if you cut your driver 1/2", that weight (if you started with the red or 7 gr.)should get you back to standard. Your wrench will work on all 910 metalwood heads and for the weight screw, too.

If needed to cut more, you can change your grip from the standard 52 gram Golf Pride Tour Velvet to a Winn Excel RF. The weight diff is 10g (2 swingweight points heavier with the lighter grip). Winn Lite grips are 25g (I put this on an old TM 300 driver that I set to 43.5" a couple years ago) but I didn't like the feel. I swear by the Excel RF midsize for driver - PW. My driver is 45" and my 7 wood is 41.5" 5H is 38.75. My 6-PW are Eye 2 yellow dot and the Winn brings the swingweight to D1.

Quick question - while I like the idea of cutting my driver down and adding weight to get the swing weight back - what is the potential to impact the specs (spin, launch, etc). I ask because I was fitted at the Oceanside facility, and am nervous what cutting down the driver might do.