For a driver, yes, hight will sacrifice distance. A 17 degree diver seems like a lot of loft - this is more like a 5 wood. I would try a 9 or 10 degree and see what kind of distance you get. Hell, I use a 6.5 degree driver.

The idea of a drive is to put the least amount of spin on a ball as possible. Spin causes drag and lift which are bad for distance. If your ball is raising up and landing without rolling, then you are losing distance. You want the ball to launch in a straight line, never curving upwards. It curves up if you are putting a lot spin on the ball. You want the ball to come off the club almost like a knuckle ball (there will be some spin) but I like to think of it this way. When the ball lands it should run like the wind and not stop where it lands.

So get a lower degree driver and see what that does. If you still get lift, then it is your swing macanics. There are lots of folks here that love to talk about that.