Closer together will make it curl faster. In direct proportional to the distance. It ill make the curl strength weaker by the inverse of the distance ratio.
 
If you have to cut the ears off, why not make a new set of ears? You can then copy Bobcats hole layout to make sure you get the proper range of bucket rotation. The hole position and spacing on this bucket may not allow you to fully curl or fully extend (dump) the bucket when installed on your 709.
I suggest you compare the hole positions of this bucket to a bucket designed for the 709.
On my Bradco, the buckets have three sets of holes where you can mount the bucket link.
The first position is the "Power Dig" position. It give you 20% more curl power than the standard position.
The second position is the "Truck Loading" position. It allow you to curl the bucket tighter to the dipper to maximize the dump height.
The third position is the standard position that gives you 180 degrees of bucket rotation.
Normally, I keep the link in the Power Dig position, especially since the last few jobs were removing stumps. I dug one Silver Maple that had so many fine roots that the closest I could get to the stump left me with a 7 foot diameter ball about 2.5 foot thick. The only way to move it was to roll it out of the hole with the hoe. I couldn't move it with the loader until I leaned it up against a tree and used a pressure washer to wash away most of the soil clinging to the roots. Even after trimming, I just barely had enough lift to get that stump on the trailer.