Philippines Golf Academy

There was a time when Titleist dominated the bags of professionals and serious amateurs with the 905 series of drivers. That all seems like ancient history now. The product that supplanted the mighty 905, the 907 range was not well received and Titleist lost their market share. The 909 family was only slightly more popular and they lost even more ground to their Carlsbad neighbors, Taylormade Golf. The 910 aims to change all this. With ground-breaking adjustability, the 910 aims to reclaim the dominance of the 905 days show players that Titleist can still make awesome drivers. To introduce this level of adjustability, these clubs are made to more than twice the normal level of manufacturing tolerance to be the best drivers that they have ever made.

The aberration of the 907 D1 aside, Titleist have never really made an ugly driver. The 910 D2/D3 are no exceptions. With the all black PVD finish and classic pear shaped lines, both the 910 D2 and D3 heads look great from any angle. The D2 is the larger at 460cc while the D3 is only 445cc but unless you have them next to each other they are almost identical in appearance. While how the shaft is attached to the head is normally a technical issue but because of how some systems work they can have cosmetic impact.

The 910′s system locks the shaft via a screw on the bottom of the head. This means that the hosel avoids the spiked collar look that dogs neck locking systems and looks very similar to a normal hosel, so of course it looks great at address. The alignment marking on the top of the crown might not be to everyone’s liking but that is a tiny quibble and all in all, these clubs are gorgeous.

I had a serious session with the D2 and D3 drivers at the Pinoygolfer/Titleist EB at the Logcomm Driving Range at Camp Aguinaldo. I’ll say it again; Titleist makes beautiful drivers and the 910 series is no exception. In fact this is probably their best work since the 905 series. The head shapes are just gorgeous. Perfect pears; a slightly smaller, svelter D3 paired with the fuller figured D2. I’d be happy with either at the end of one of those premium shafts. Feel off the clubface is typical Titleist; superb! I’m not sure you could fault either on this front. Both launch the ball well and I kept Alex, the product specialist, real busy swapping heads and shafts back and forth. That’s the beauty of this system; like the R9′s (and the coming R11) a wrench is all you need to either of the two heads with the array of shafts in the huge Titleist tour bag.

The system is the most comprehensive I’ve tested thus far (although the R11 on the horizon should give the 910 a real run for its money) and works as advertised. The main issue with the other technologies has been that as you open or close the face, the loft changes along with the face angle. Ideally of course, you would want to change the loft without changing the face angle and vice versa. Enter Titleist’s SureFit system.

Unlike other hosel technologies, the SureFit system has two mechanisms for changing how the shaft sits in the head, the sleeve at the end of the hosel and a separate ring that sits between the sleeve and the head. The result is that you can finally change the lie (and so the face angle) and the loft independently for 16 different combinations. This means that not only can you get Tour van like fitting but you now have the freedom to change the loft angle without enforcing a draw or a fade.

Now to the shafts. I love both Diamanas. The ka’ili has a little bit of snap, much like the original Blue Board but with a tighter, better controlled tip. The ‘ilima was a revelation. I could do almost anything with it and the ball pretty much just went straight. The PX was very nice also; it reminded me a lot of the Oban Devotion in my R9 and I got similar results with it. I got on much better with the R.I.P. last night than I did when I first tried it at Canlubang. Thing is, I got a couple of upshots on a couple of my harder swings so it’s probably not the best fit for me. I was very surprised with the Motore Speeder. Very active tip and yet very well controlled. If I could get myself to just make smooth swings for most of my golf, this is the shaft to get. Really nice, very smooth feel and a very pronounced kick through the ball.

If I had to pick a favorite, It would be the D2/ka’ili with the D2/’ahina and D2/PX in a tie for second. The ka’ili feels like an old flame that’s come back tanned and more gorgeous than ever. I’ve gamed Blue Boards in three different drivers and still have one in my 5-wood. The ka’ili is a definite improvement. Very snappy, yet very controlled through the hitting zone. It responded well to both smooth swings and hard hits. It was as I expected. The ‘ahina is not the easiest shaft in the world to hit. It was the first I tried and without warming up, it’s a bear to swing; especially at the 70-odd gram weight. But once I had limbered up, I hit some bombs with it. The PX feels familiar to me; the results were predictable as well. Very stable, consistent ball flight. It could go into my bag tomorrow.

The thing with either of the Diamanas is the hefty ($200) upcharge to the P28,500 tariff for the driver. That’s a big blow to the wallet for sure. Is it worth it? I’d have to hit it back to back with both drivers in my arsenal at the moment to know for sure, but from what I saw the other night, I’d say the odds are pretty good that I might give in. It’s that good.

Read the whole story on:http://pinoygolfer.com

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