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.

I was fitted by Eric with the west coast Titleist fitting truck and we went from a 46" driver to a 44" on my D2.  When the fitting was done he showed me the distance numbers and they looked the same to marginally better for teh D2.  Couple that with the fact that my dispresion was greatly narrowed and I'm a believer.  I carry a 4 wood and am considering being fit for that next. 

Cathi - I assume they built my driver to the correct swing weight off the fitting Truck? Can you tell me what my swing weight would be? I need to change this grip and want to make sure I keep it the same.

D2 9.5* / Javln M8 Stiff 44" / TV 360 grip 

Thanks

Thanks Cathi!

Hi, Is the driver still working, Thinking of doing the same with my D2 (Diamana ahina stiff) Feels too long,gotta grip down just to keep it on fairway, cheers

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.

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).

Does anyone know the swingweight of the yonex ceramic head circa 1990's?, and how i could get the same feel with my d2? Seemed like the head was much heavier. I am really struggling, to feel the head working my hands.

In regards to cutting woods.....

I have a Burner HT Draw that I just shortened to 44.5" (which is 1.25" shorter than stock; I bought it 45" with Winn Excel RF grip).  I installed a Winn Lite Dri Tac Jumbo grip.  All my drivers since 2007 have been that length.  I can swing away with it and still hit it dead straight (before if I would get anxious, I would hit a push fade).  There is only a diff of 1 swingweight point vs stock.

My 7 wood is 41" and I gained 10 yards on the launch monitor by shortening it 1/2".   I use this in place of the 5W and 4H when I want to play a light bag.

I also have a couple Superfast clubs (5W and 4H) that are 1/2" shorter than stock and I hit them very solid. With a Winn Lite Dri Tac jumbo grip, they weigh in at D4.

So here we have some clubs that about 32g lighter than stock with the same swingweight - faster swing speed.   The other thing is that TM is long to begin with. 

Quite frankly, when it comes time to upgrade to new driver and fairways, Titleist is the choice (tax refund present!).  The other vendors are an inch longer and 1 degree more upright (TM and CG) and having them fit would be a bit of a Herculean effort to maintain proper swingweight (for instance, TM is using the Lite grips already on stock clubs).  1/2" from stock length on a Titleist club is not a huge deal because it is quite easy to make up 3 swingweight points.