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The Titleist Drivers 917 D2 and 917 D3 retail for $550 (MSRP) and they’re built and designed for serious golf players looking for expanded adjustability. However, their balanced design will actually suit the vast majority of players. What’s new about these babies is the CG (center of gravity) adjustability which allows you to control fade bias and draw. The most impressive change about the Titleist Drivers 917 D2 and 917 D3 is the adjustable CG. Titleist achieved this cool feature via its proprietary SureFit CG Technology. Whilst the CG adjustability is nothing new in the industry, this is the first time Titleist uses it on a full scale release, so from this point of view, for brand aficionados it’s a big deal. The Titleist Drivers 917 D2/D3 can be described as the most forgiving Titleist (drivers) in recent history. Even if they’re a miss aesthetically speaking and not very long, I must congratulate Titleist for doing what others like TaylorMade have been doing for almost ten years. The 917 series drivers have the familiar 16 setting SureFit Hosel which allows you to independently change face and lie angles. This interesting combo will provide you with the ultimate trajectory control. There’s also the Active Recoil Channel 2.0 technology, now featuring variable thickness, for reducing spin/increasing speed when required, together with the Radial Speed Face 2.0, which has 8 regions with various thicknesses for optimizing ball speed for each location on the club’s face.

The Titleist Drivers 917 D2 and 917 D3 are very round, as the company abandoned the traditional pear shape design Titleist was famous for, hence I can safely say that the 917 series have a confusing look. What’s really shocking is the way the movable weight was implemented, as it looks very weird, like somebody taped a battery to the sole, hence from this point of view (design), these drivers are a big miss, considering the fact that Titleist is a company that puts an emphasis on appealing to the better golfers. However, the acoustics of the Titleist Drivers 917 D2 and 917 D3 will make old school players happy, as they sound relatively quiet, with a solid and rather metallic character. The forgiveness is surprising, as Titleist drivers are, historically speaking, not very forgiving and high spinning. For Titleist fanboys looking for forgiveness, the Titleist Drivers 917 D2 and 917 D3 will clearly be a great choice. The heads of these drivers, especially in the D2, are designed for a high moment of inertia, which offers great assistance on mishits, hence the forgiveness. The 917 drivers are pretty long and being more forgiving, better feeling/sounding and more adjustable than the previous 915 generation, they mark for a big improvement and they’re definitely worth trying.

The Titleist 917D2/917D3 Drivers retail for $550 (MSRP) and they’re both built and designed with a Tour-inspired pear profile, combining forgiveness with distance and workability, in the company’s tradition. The difference between the Titleist 917D2 and the 917D3 drivers is that the former comes with a 460 cubic centimeters pear profile and it offers more spin, more forgiveness and a higher launch compared to the latter. Moreover, the D3 has the same Tour inspired pear profile, but with a 440 cubic centimeters head, and offers a slightly lower launch, more workability and less spin vs the D2 version, so keep these facts in mind when you go shopping for golf gear. Both Titleist 917D2/917D3 Drivers feature the company’s patented SureFit CG weight in the sole.

This tech innovation consists of a cylinder built using composite materials, with either tungsten or steel inside, thus making for a range of movable weights from eight grams to sixteen grams. This clever trick allowed Titleist to save weight and to offer 2 adjustable options, thus allowing you to move the center of gravity forward/backward, depending on one’s personal preference, thus affecting ball flight. The Titleist 917D2/917D3 Drivers also feature an improved Active Recoil Channel, which is now thinner and promotes ball speed. The ARC 2.0 technology works in tandem with the Radial Face 2.0 to further increase ball speeds on both center and off center hits by around 2mph. The D2 driver looks a tad squarer than the previous gen due to its bigger 460cc head, making for the higher spinning version of the bunch, while the sound at impact was dramatically improved over the former generation, i.e. the 915. The D3’s 440cc pear shaped head looks awesome and more traditional at address and provides lower spin/lower launch. Both drivers are among the best in their class and they also make for Titleist’s most accessible (as in affordable) drivers to date.