Maybe Cathi will see this but I bet we can get the same shaft in these irons.  The current VS proto 75 in Regular or A flex may be similar specs....I don't know off the top of my head.

At 5" shorter than standard, we may be able to get these done, but you may have to configure the grips...the tapering of the shaft may be too much for Titleist grips. 

The lighter the swingweight, most likely the better for your son.  Congrats on the fine play!

1-888-Titleist!

Shawn,

What you need to do is violate lots of clubmaking rules.  Clubmaking rules are made with adults in mind to maximize the design aspects of each component.  professional clubmakers will tell you "don't do that" but you have no choice.  They don't design 14 club sets for your son. They make beginner sets for 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 yr olds.  I guess they really don't want you to advance beyond beginner. Hank Haney is tweeting continuously lately and one of his points is that you should never cut your driver off. The shaft is designed to go with the driver.  But that is for a club tuned to hit it 300 yds.  You're going way outside the bounds of tuning.  You're remodeling.

You're on the right track.  Get a swingweight scale so you can make each club about the same swingweight.  You need to cut the shafts down. but you need to replace the shafts first.  Use the lightest graphite shafts you can find, ladies or A flex, generally they are about the same.  Then you'll want lightweight heads.  Titleist doesn't make ladies clubs so I'm about to recommend blasphemy--go to TM or Cleveland and get a set of women's clubs.  Cleveland is also the only clubmaker who makes a woman's gap and sand wedge (anyway, that is readily available).  Cleveland is now advertising drivers in lighter weights.  That is what we would probably use today.

How do I know all of this?  I too have a son who is one of the top golfers in San Diego and I've made him a few sets of clubs.  He is now 10 so maybe we'll see you at the Junior Worlds in july.

Last year's set was TM R7 ladies irons cut down.  The wedges were about 33" long so my son must be a bit taller than yours.  The swingweight was about A-6.  to get some titleist clubs in his bag (besides his Scotty Putter), I took a couple of Vokey wedges to the machine shop (I have a hobby shop in the garage) and machined quite a bit of weight off of them to get down to A-6.  I replaced the shafts with graphite and the grips with ladies grips.  One of the kids he plays against has a grandfather who played the tour and he said that was the best set of junior clubs he had ever seen.

This year he's had a growth spurt and talked me into reshafting a set of AP2s and 909s for him.  He doesn't hit them as well and would probably be better still with the lighter club but he was dieing to go Titleist so we did.  he is finally getting used to them after 3 months and finished 2nd in a superdeep field this past weekend so I think he's got his confidence back.  He won 11 tournaments in a row with the old clubs last summer.

The new clubs are about B6 swingweight and the driver is about 41" long.  I put a proforce 65 shaft in it and he is is whacking it about 180.

I'd offer to sell you his old clubs which might be perfect for your son but I'm keeping them.

BTW, where do you live?

--Jerry

Jerry, 

Thanks for all the comments.  I appreciate all the input and comments.  I will make sure to take in what you recommended at will.  Unfortunately my son wants to play what I play as well as what Rickie Fowler plays, his current role model, I am a Titleist staffer and play all Titleist equipment and that is what my son sees.

As far as Junior Worlds, we will not be there, he plays in the Future Masters in Dothan AL, the week prior to that tournament and trying to get there would be too much travel for us.  Besides, the younger kids do not get to play Torrey Pines, so that is a bummer!!!

Well good luck to you guys and hope you do well.  We live currently in FL but will be moving soon to GA.

Thanks, Shawn

Shawn,

Now that I know you are not coming to Junior Worlds, I can quit giving you misinformation and tell you to go Titleist!

Just Kidding.  I should have asked how much your son weighs.  Most of the kids that my son (Tommy) plays against at the top levels are large for their age.  your son may be younger but outweighs my son by 25 lbs.  He can probably swing a club with a full weight head just fine.  If you do want to lighten it a little, the AP2s have that large tungsten weight that can be ground down to lighten without disturbing too much of the asthetics.  One of my son's friends whose dad works at Titleist made a set of AP2s that were slightly lightened this way and it worked well.

You won't find a home more dedicated to Titleist that my home.   Tommy has forbidden me to wear a TM hat and there isn't a club in either of our bags that isn't Titleist, Vokey, or Scotty.  FJ shoes and gloves.  So I know what you mean about wanting to go Titleist.  kids often want to go Titleist at a young age.  Cathi can tell you that I've lobbied Titleist to build a ligher set of irons--not necessarly womens irons but irons that can be customized for women, kids, and seniors.  I've noticed that whenever you see a kid at a tournament who has stepped up to full weight irons too soon, then generally it will be a kid playing Titleist.  The bug bites them young.

So I still recommend women/senior flex graphite shafts.  This will actually slightly increase the swingweight but will decrease the overall weight and hopefully get some flex into the shaft.  keep in mind that shortening it stiffens it so it will be stiffer than it is designed to be.   I made the length changes from wedge to 4 iron the same increments as adult clubs and this resulted in pretty consistent swingweights. I also bought him for christmas some Vokey TVD wedges with his name on them. They can put a nice women flex graphite shaft in them for you.  Cathi helped me with that.

Good luck,

Jerry

Ryan

Thanks so much for the input.  I was considering the VS proto but I am really leaning toward the Steelfiber shaft since he has had great success in his wedges.  I have some GolfPride junior grips on his wedges and they work great.  I think a lighter swingweight is definitely the key however I want to make sure that the total clubweight is not too heavy as well.  When I contacted Titleist custom they told me they will only go 2" shorter from standard.  I have sent an email to my rep, Jim Ahern, to see if Tour Department may be able to do it?  Not sure, however, if only going 2" then I will cut them to length when I get them.  Thanks for the input and keep up the good work on the Titleiest site!! 

Regards, 

Shawn

Very nice.  In my opinion, junior fitting comes down to "club ejection" rather than club fitting.  Testing every club in the bag to determine playability will be a huge confidence builder for you and the player! 

First of all when questions are asked here and then responded to the responses can at best be general in nature since I cannot see your child swing, skill level, size.... so I am tempering this answer with that.

  GENERALLY SPEAKING --  cutting down clubs 4" is a great way to ruin a childs golf swing. A child playing with clubs that are too long, too heavy or do not have enough loft is a disaster and I have seen it negatively affect a childs swing for a long time.  I have never seen a 9 year old able to hit a 5 iron with normal 5 iron loft be able to take a divot after impact and get the ball high enough to stop on the green - thus they will figure out a way to hang back, lift up, chicken wing ... in order to get it up.  Swing weights - no affect on the ball.  Final club answer - get them fitted by a really good fitter that works with kids and stay with something light weight and plenty of loft.

 Secondly,  too much golf and only golf sport activity is a great way to burn him out on golf.  Find a TPI Junior certified golf professional in your area and enroll your son in their classes. Develop fundamental sport/movement skills such as balance, strength, agility, speed... before anything else. He has plenty of time to work on golf swing stuff AFTER these other skills are developed.
Steve Ball

Steve,

Thanks for the input, all very valid points.  In regards to your comments on clubs.  This is the very reason I am trying to get him some equipment that is right for him.  I will not allow him to play with something too heavy that will hurt his swing.  I have been a golf professional for 15 years and served as a Director of Instruction at one of the top Junior Golf Academies in the US.  I see it happen all the time with kids that I have taught.  I do not want this to happen to my son and ruin his swing that we have been working on for the past 5 years.  I agree, "most" 9 year olds cannot hit a 5 iron with a normal 5 iron loft, however my son is not the typical 9 year old.  He is 4'7" and 100 pounds, pretty big 9 year old.  He has no problem swinging something that is a little heavier than normal.  The US Kids clubs he has now are way too weak in the shaft department as his clubhead speed exceeds what they can handle.  I am a certified clubfitter with several different OEM's and I am the one fitting him so that is not an issue.  I put this up on Team Titleist to get some good feedback like yours.

In regards to getting "burnt out", he actively plays basketball with a travel team and plays baseball and football as well.  Although golf is his passion, I make sure that he is a well rounded athlete.   He is not a "golfer", he is an athlete and excels at all sports he plays.

Thanks again Steve for the comments and best of luck to you!!

Shawn