Question about cutting a driver down and swingweight

I must start out by saying that I have noone around here within a reasonable distance that I can really trust to do this correctly for me.

I am 5'5" tall and have a fairly steep swingplane.  My irons which were custom fit, and I hit beautifully,  ended up being 1.25" shorter than standard, 2.5* upright. My current driver is 46" long and has a D5 swingweight and has the standard Callaway grip which weighs 55g.  With my height and fairly steep swingplane, I am having a lot of problems with this driver.  I want to have it cut down to 44.5" to pick up some consistency, which is where my old driver was, but I'm concerned with changing the swingweight too much and screwing up the driver.  (been there, done that).

If I cut 1.5" off the driver and regrip it with my standard Winn Hero grip that weighs 25g, approximately how much weight should I add to the head of the driver to maintain a reasonable swing weight?  And where would be the optimal place to place the lead tape assuming I have a reasonably straight ball-flight?

Thanks for any advice in advance.  If I can get more consistent off the tee, I can start shooting in the 70's... assuming I hit the irons as good as I have been lately.

I don't care about the weight of the grip that much, it's just that I'm partial to the Winn Hero grips.  As a disabled veteran, I like the camo and the money that goes to charity, plus they feel great.  I am a novice at club weights, but very willing to learn.

I just want my drive to be consistent....... lol

I will try to find all the numbers and use that calculator you posted and post the numbers to see what people think.

Well, I found out this morning that when the Pro Golf closed here in town, the club fitter, along with all of his equipment are now at one of the courses on Ft. Bragg.  So I went during lunch and dropped my driver off with him to have it shortened, new grip installed and the swing weight verified. 

Got the driver back this afternoon, and he showed me that without adding any weight, with just the grip change the swingweight is now D1.  I swung it a few times, and didn't notice a big change in the perceived weight of the driver, so I held off of adding any weight to it and will take it out for a test run tomorrow.

Well, the results are in, and looking promising.  I noticed absolutely no distance loss from going to 44" and actually hit 2 of my longest drives on holes today.  I would suspect that's from making better contact with the shorter driver.  Here's my round today, and the driver wasn't bad.  About half of the missed fairways were just off the fairway, still in easy play and one was because I went straight through a dogleg left. My irons started off a little rough, but I really picked it up near the end of the round with them.  My putting sucked as it has usually lately, and cost me quite a few strokes.

Yeah, typically I'm really good at #10, but the pin was forward today and the tees were forward, so it was playing about 130 yards.  I hit a flubbed 9 iron, and then bladed a wedge over the green, then hit a mediocre 3rd on a tough green and 2 putted.  It was just one of those holes.......... lol  Typically my irons are pretty good for my handicap, but I just wasn't hitting them crisp today.  Heaven forbid I hit driver and irons well in the same day.............. lol

My irons are custom fit, 1.25" short and I absolutely love them most of the time.  My putter is 33.5", I just can't read greens to save my life.  I am trying to free up a Saturday to go work with David Orr in one of his Aimpoint courses to help out my putting and green reading abilities.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25 

Honesty, i just like choking down, it gives me more flexibility, and i feel more comfortable.. So my driver is 45", i choke down to about 43.5-44"

For some reason, I have never been comfortable choking down on clubs, and since I'm a short dude, I would have to choke down on everything.  For some reason, if I'm not holding the very end of the club, it feels very odd to me and uncomfortable.