Changing the grip to 42 grams (such as a Winn Excel RF) will bring the swingweight to C9 (this is what my Ping G2 driver swingweight is). A 205 gram head will yield D2 swingweight with this grip and shaft. So a 43.5 inch driver with 205 gram head, 65 gram shaft and 42 gram grip will yield D0 swingweight (this is my Titleist 975D driver).

I also found out that the perfect fairway wood is somewhere between 40-41.5″. I found out, when returning to playing golf 3 years ago that the new fairway woods with graphite shafts were just too darn LONG. In the good ole days of laminated wooden woods, my longest drive (325 yards) was with a wooden 3 wood. Again, the perfect shaft (IMHO) for a fairway wood is 65-75 gram graphite or True Temper Light XL steel. Driver-5-9 wood (or 24 deg 7 wood) seems to be a good setup. Even Gary Player fesses up to using a 9 wood and Stuart Appleby fessed up to using a 7 wood.

Before I learned about things like lighter grips bringing the swingweight back up, I was putting enormous amounts of swingweight tape on the heads of woods and hybrids with graphite shafts. OK with hybrids; not so good with woods.

Just to endorse what you have been saying about “bigger drivers”.

This year for the first time I was fitted for a new driver, having always bought off the shelf before. During a fitting process of almost one hour the “right shaft for me” was identified and the new club ordered and purchased.

My old driver had been in the bag for five seasons and clearly technology had moved on in the meantime. The result of changing has been to see my distance off the tee – with no change in technique – improve by about ten percent – from 200/220 yards average to 230 yards plus consistently. (Best drives of the season – several of 260 yards plus!)

However, you are so right when you say that the misshits are more punishing! Also, personally I find my new larger headed driver harder to work the ball. Dead straight is no problem but fades and certainly draws appear harder to execute. Controlling and shaping the ball flight is one of the main fascinations of the game for me. In this respect bigger heads and longer shafts appear to make this harder to do – for me at least.

Anthony Kim grips down on all his clubs noticeably (so does Sergio – frequently). Can you say if this is a better solution to cutting down the shaft length – which I guess upsets the swing weight and performance of the club – or not?

I know this section is not for you to provide answers – perhaps other readers have comments!

This might seem a bit “hokey”, but here is a way to establish better alignment (it’s been working well for me, anyway). It uses a combination of alignment techniques usually taught but with a slight added “twist”. Tee or fairway (even, God forbid, rough) try this:
1. Standing behind ball, pick out a spot about 1 foot or so in front of ball on your intended line of flight.

2.Hold your club with both hands out (parallel to your waist, shoulders, toe line) so that it is over the ball and the spot you’ve picked out in front of ball. You are now lined up parallel to your target line.

3.CAREFULLY select your comfortable distance (stance) to the ball keeping your established allignment.

This takes only a few seconds but it will really help your accuracy. It’s akin to establishing the “outer rail” in the old railroad track visual (Step #2) and the “inner rail (Step #3). Hope you find this helpful.
Regards,
Ray Gawlak