Titleist 910 D2 Driver
This is exciting. I'm falling in love again. We are on honeymoon now. She has presence. The Titleist 910 D2 golf driver, I mean.
Titleist has always been known or said to be the "better players" club. It was quite true. Their 905 series was hugely popular and it took a dip after that when they attempted building a more forgiving driver in the 907 and the 909. I played with a couple of Malaysian friends in KL some time back and they were both very good golfers using Titleist drivers. No matter how straight and far I hit, they were straighter and longer. May be they are just better and can handle it I thought. I researched and found that Titleist clubs are always among the top and highly rated but there were some mention that they are for better players.
Before TaylorMade's R11 was introduced, the 910 was one of the hottest but Titleist has loyal fans and you can say that all better players who played Titleist are staunch followers. They seldom gravitate to other brands, yet their strongest point is their weakest link as high or average handicappers shun it. It should no longer be the case. This is why.....
Titleist claimed that the 910 is their most technologically advanced driver they have ever made. It comes in a 460 cc head which is the maximum size allowed under USGA regulations and a 0.5 degree open face as standard, has a 15% larger sweet spot and a traditional pear-shaped head with a black PVD finish. (PVD stands for Physical Vapour Deposition, a process that creates a very durable finish which looks highly polished but is highly tarnish-resistant).
I like my drivers with a traditional look, not the square or triangular shaped types. It has to look good and inspire confidence. At 460 cc, it does not look big at all. In fact, I can say it is one of the best looking drivers in the market or in play in the circuit today. Most people would probably rate it a 9 or 10 for looks alone and it looks and feels good at address.
It has a dark face, nothing sinister, just serious. It has one of the most springy face I know as upon impact you could almost feel the ball being sucked in bounced off in a hurry in a mid-high trajectory such that your ball experience a phenomenal rapture. I have played great drivers from Nickent's first Genex, Taylormade r5, Burner (twice), R9 (460), Ping G5, G10, G15, Cleveland Launcher and more and this rates among the best if not the best in terms of feel. Now feel is often equated to sound. It is sweet and powerful without being loud. This has been acoustically engineered to create a hot and solid sound.
To me, its accuracy level is top notch. Often, when you hit your driver and it landed on the fairways, many thought they were hitting straight. If a measuring device is there to capture data, you would realize it may not have been straight but just that the fairway is big and oblivious to the naked eye, it looked straight when it landed safely.
How forgiving is this driver? It is one of the most important things ain't it? If you wish for a forgiving boss then you need a forgiving driver for the driver is your boss on a golf course. No clubs can give you an auto-pilot kind of shot. Golf clubs are not push-button Jackpot machines and you still need a decent swing. It is not the most forgiving but after five rounds with it, I have not gone out of bounds or sent any balls to their watery grave. It means the dispersion is indeed very good, therefore, forgiving enough for many others.
I am not in pursuit of hitting longer shots by using a longer driver with a lighter shaft to promote distance. I always felt that I prefer it to be shorter than the norm in the market place. I have plundered some shots into places on the fairway that I have never been before from where to play the second shot. While some drivers are as long as 46.5 inches and the standard being 45.75 inches today, this is only 45 inches. Refreshing! And truer to my philosophy. I like that. This is probably the shortest driver in the market now.
The shorter shaft is not a hindrance to distance at all. On the contrary, I found it better and you will hit the sweet spot more often resulting in more consistency and longer drives. This is what I have always advocated. Oh yes, this club looks great at address. The alignment aid is subjective. Some may hate it others love it. It is just like the cursor of your computer mouse. The crown is chemically milled and is 17% thinner than the previous model.
This is a very good option for better players but amazingly, I can tell you that high handicappers should not run away from this club. It is easy to keep the ball in play. It is still early days and I am on honeymoon but this is probably the most consistent driver I have played and I am well pleased.
Though advanced, it is traditional in shape. Modern yet very much functional. Other than a shorter shaft, I like very much that it is adjustable. The way it can be adjusted is different from other clubs. This is Titleist's first attempt and I think they have aced it. They called it the "SureFit" system. Unlike others, "SureFit" allows the loft and lie angle to be adjusted independently. In other words, one can adjust lie angle without affecting the loft and vice versa. If you like to tinker, you can purchase an optional weight kit to swap weight in the sole to adjust to your favourite swing weight or to match the shaft.
Theoretically, if you play at a windy course or on a certain day, you can adjust it to a lower loft. I do not need this, I just wanted to experiment and discover the best results meaning - consistent, straight and long all day. Aesthetically, you can see that the adjustment ring and sleeves are nicely built-in like part of the hosel with the complete absence of a dog collar. Rory McIlroy, Ross Fisher, Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy have all put the 910 in play. This club should be flying off the shelves in my humble opinion.
Grip is the Titleist Tour Velvet 360 rubber. TaylorMade usually has loops on the grip to gives you a guide on different grip position while Ping's comes in arrows. Titleist has nothing on it for design or for guide. If you don't know your grip, you can't play Titleist. Ha ha.
The 910 D2 I have came in a Fujikura Motore F3 shaft. While I used to fancy heavier shaft and overall club weight, I decided this time to go a 55g shaft which is still much heavier than today's many lighter shafts at just slightly above 40g. The swing weight at D3 is just nice and is suitable for me. No issue. I do not need to tell you about Fujikura shaft though or the Motore.
Wait, let me let you into the driver cover. This one has socks to protect the shaft. Not only that, it comes with a useful strap which is nicely designed so that when popping up this cannon you do not have to fight with it. Just hold on to the strap and pull. Clever.
They know this one is precious so they have to get the head well padded. It looks like a crash helmet to protect that titanium club head.
If you look at the chart below, you will see the two types of settings A to D and 1 to 4 giving you a combination of 16 settings. If you bought a 10.5 degrees you can add up to 1.5 degrees more in loft to bring it up to 12 degrees or subtract by up to 0.75 degrees thus lowering loft so that you can play a range up to a maximum of 12 degrees or a minimum or 9.75 degrees. You may not know it but most social golfers are playing with the wrong loft. It may look macho wielding a 9.5 degrees driver but not everyone can handle this. It all boils down to your individual swing speed.
There is no shame to play with a 12 degrees driver if your swing calls for one. If you want a driver that shows 9.5 but you adjust it to 11 degrees you can do it with this driver. This club is not here to cure your hooks and slices but to offer you launch optimization. Just be aware that changing a club's loft will also change its spin rate. Research shows that 90% of all golfers may need to adjust their loft or lie angle by one setting from standard. It is easy to set up for your swing. If you want your shots higher and to the left then go one up the grid and to the left by merely matching the ring and the sleeve.
The standard setting by default is a A-1 which means neutral with a slight fade (remember 0.5 degrees open face) at 10.5 degrees loft. I have since tried and experimented with B-2 (10.5 degrees with a slight draw), A-3 (12 degrees with most draw),C-3 (11.25 degrees with a slight draw). My last test was at C-2 (9.75 degrees with a slight draw). I seemed to like C-2 best due to its penetrating trajectory. Just use the standard issue wrench to unlock, adjust and lock.
The Titleist 910 D2 seems to have everything in the package all in a neat bundle. Good looks that inspire confidence. Easy to set up. Very useful independent adjustability for loft and lie angle. Solid sound and feel. Straight and long. Great performance is the order of the day! The ball explodes off the face and it has good workability. This will surely be a top driver and top contender in the 2011/2012 golf driver market. As manufacturers face limits to build a better driver each year, engineers at Titleist has made that right step ahead. This is a fabulous and fantastic driver = fantabulous! This one is a winner! Bring me out for a test run. Bring the game on! Simply awesome!
If you are in the market for a driver, be sure to check this one out or you may regret it. You hear all these from the Guru. Fear not the weapon but the hands that wields it.
Golf as in life, play as it lies.
Comments