Role of a Mini Driver?

[MizfanboyMP18]

Honestly a 13.5 mini driver would do exactly what you want. I use it in my walking bag with a 5 wood as my other wood at 17.5. Budget wise your thinking make sense. Another way I like to think about it is I'm taking options away and by that I'm not second guessing myself on tee shots. I use 12 clubs in my walking bag dith a lob wedge and ditch a 3 wood. It makes golf "boring" and more fun if that makes sense. I use the callaway mini for people saying it is more of a tee only one I can see your point, but it is not hard at all to hit off the deck. I have done so multiple times and It has out performed my expectations. The brnr never felt good to me off the face and when I hit this it was instant gratification. I'm not overswinging and i'm getting easy fades and draws while limiting my misses. I'm giving up maybe 15 yards on a pure struck driver. To me it makes sense. Main bag I don't use a 3 wood I use the driver and honestly will lean on the mini more times than not. 

[1puttTUT]

1 hour ago, Binson said:

There are a few use cases:

1) The high speed player who never hits 3 wood off the deck - replacing 3 wood. This player also typically plays a fade with their driver and wants a club they can draw as their second tee club (or vice versa).  

2) The player who can't hit driver, but can hit a fairway wood pretty well.  A Mini-driver with more loft and a shorter shaft allows them to make more of a fairway wood swing. - replacing Driver.  This is a band-aid, but not everyone has the time or willingness to work on their golf swing and that is ok.  If it gets the job done, then that's all that matters.  

3) The low swing speed player who needs more loft to elevate and spin the ball.  A mini-driver or a higher lofted driver could work here.

4) The half-set minimalist who wants to get down to as few clubs as possible and enjoy a different type of game. 

 

I'd say it's more about your swing speed and impact dynamics than your handicap.  And, it's pretty unlikely that it serves effectively as both your tee club and your longest fairway club unless you are a pretty skilled player in category #4.

 

I guess I'm player 1, although my driver ss is only 106-108. Driver is my favorite club in the bag, but I freaking love the Mini vs a 3 wood. I can randomly chunk or top a 3 wood, but the Mini I can tee higher and just sweep it like a driver. It also comes out super low and and chasing vs the driver which launches quite high.

 

5 wood is so much easier to hit off the deck than a 3 wood, and I can only think of 3-5 times a year that I'm at a yardage where I'm missing 3-wood on a potentially reachable par 5.

[braincramp52]

38 minutes ago, RacineBoxer said:

 

Similar to a few others in this thread, I wouldn't necessarily recommend replacing your driver with a mini. I think every single player on the PGA tour plays a driver. I can think of one LPGA player that doesn't play a driver. Sure you might find a few anecdotal cases of people not playing a driver but these are pretty unique outliers.

 

I'd recommend playing a driver that is higher loft and shortened shaft. Ping does a 12* driver with a 3 wood shaft. Essentially, the best of both worlds: forgiveness of a 460cc head and control of a 3 wood shaft. Meet the Thriver – the new ultimate fairway finder from Ping

 

Mini drivers are usually for really good players with a lot of speed. Say you drive the ball 320 and you have a few holes at your home course where you'd like to only drive it 280-290 (say bunkers or OB pinches in at 300-320). And you want the forgiveness of something bigger than a 3 wood. As long as you use it a couple times per round there's a solid case to make that the mini makes sense to add to the bag. 

 

But in your case I'd go 460cc "thriver". 

Mini drivers are also good for older players with slow swing speeds. I'm 73 with a 75-80 mph swing and I love my Mini.

[rbpwrx]

Guys, bear in mind that the "traditional" driver just a few decades ago was 43 inches long with a 200 cc head. These 'new' 43-1/2 inch long clubs with 280 to 340 cc heads are souped-up jumbo DRIVERS compared to the clubs of yesteryear. It shouldn't be too surprising that the ideal length and size of the LONGEST club in the bag in the 80s and 90s is making a comeback in the 20s. What works works. I see comparatively few people who are comfortable with 45 inch plus shafts and 450 cc plus heads.

[Brady_Dow]

I honestly still don't get the hype behind the mini drivers....

[Ger21]

1 hour ago, Brady_Dow said:

I honestly still don't get the hype behind the mini drivers....

If you bought a new "hyped up" club, and hit it better than your previous club, would you believe the hype?

[vmann]

12 hours ago, Ger21 said:

If you bought a new "hyped up" club, and hit it better than your previous club, would you believe the hype?

Or, what if you bought a new mini driver without knowing it was "hyped up", and told everyone you talk to how great it is, would you be contributing to the hype?

[braincramp52]

15 hours ago, Brady_Dow said:

I honestly still don't get the hype behind the mini drivers....

They've been around a long time and they just keep getting better.

[nwight09]

To the "just play a shorter driver crowd" - no one is offering an off the shelf thriver build in a 460cc head that can be demoed at local stores. 

 

Until thrivers are readily available for the masses in stores the mini driver will continue to be a fantastic option for people who are wanting a more controllable club off the tee. 

 

I wouldn't even trust my local fitters to custom order a thriver right let alone have the ability and inventory to fit me to one. 

 

 

Edited July 31 by nwight09

[unclefreizo]

On 7/27/2025 at 7:54 PM, braincramp52 said:

I can't speak for others but for me, looking down at a 460cc head on a 43 1/2" shaft just looks like crap. 

 

This right here. I grew up playing with persimmon and early metal-woods (Lynx BoomBoom era) so gigantic drivers have always felt unwieldy to me. Also I like not having to fuss around making sure I have extra long tees just for that one club.

[argee1977]

I played a mini driver for a while, but it was strictly down to courses, my home course is basically doglegs and ditches, with some tight drives, so always worth factoring that into the equation, i ditched it as i just added another wedge to the bag and was doing well with my 4 wood to get into position off the tee.

 

Could easily go back and stick one in the bag though, just a bit costly for what they are these days, how Titleist can charge 120 quid over a GT1 3 wood stops me even contemplating it though.

[SkolChicago]

I’ve tried super hard to make a G425 Thriver work as a draw based tee club that would take out the right side.

 

At 43.5”, I started with 35g (max available, 26g is “standard”) in the heel. The ball flight was great on 80% of the drives, but I had the occasional double cross hook, and 1-2 tops a round, that I attribute to the swing weight being too light. I tried to work through those bad misses but they were too thorny to not blow up a round.
 

To add weight, I tried a second weight in the toe (“animal style”) of 7g that felt like the right swing weight, but I hit it to the moon, like an 8i trajectory. It also brought the push fade/slice back into play which was the whole point.

 

Then I tried lead tape near the front, but too much would reduce the forgiveness a lot and too little would still hit it too the moon.

 

As someone said above, I think the club just isn’t built to provide a good ball flight at that length. The mini being designed for the 43.75 length, and easier to draw, is a big factor in this equation I think.

[SkolChicago]

Also, the lines are blurring between clubs at all levels of the bag. There are utility woods/super hybrids that basically are a 7 wood/hybrid mashup. There are utility irons that are meant to replace irons in a set (some OEMs make a 5 utility). Iron sets are becoming blended. Vokey and Cleveland make a 44 degree. Is it that hard to fathom a mini driver striking a balance between driver and fairway wood that some people could benefit from?

[Ger21]

10 hours ago, SkolChicago said:

The ball flight was great on 80% of the drives, but I had the occasional double cross hook, and 1-2 tops a round

 

This is why a mini is better than a "thriver". Better consistency for a lot of people.

[ochowie]

I put in an R7 Quad Mini this year and I'm really happy I did. I have Driver, Mini, 5-wood, 4-hybrid at the top of my bag and my highest iron is a 5 iron. I belong to two clubs, one that is significantly shorter at 6400 yards max and one that is longer at 6700-7300 (very rarely play the tips). I only use the mini off the tee as even at the long course if I have 3 wood distance it's almost certainly a par 5 and i'm probably laying up with 5-wood or 4-hybrid.  At the shorter club, I hit the mini driver on at least 5 holes off the tee because the dispersion is better or there is trouble at my normal driver landing distance. At the longer club, I use the mini driver off the tee on only 1 or 2 holes where there is either fescue on either side or a troublesome fairway bunker that I have trouble avoiding. I think the mini is at most a 20 yard loss off the tee for me which is more than acceptable given the accuracy. 

[PitchPlease]

On 7/28/2025 at 2:19 PM, 1puttTUT said:

 

Driver, mini driver, strong 5 wood is a fantastic combo

 

This is the route that I'm heading down.

 

I replaced my 3 wood with the R7 quad. I have 4 holes on my home course where I need to hit a tee shot <270 and the R7 is perfect for that. I've started to use it on a few other holes too because I am more accurate with the shorter shaft. So for my normal round, I'm using driver like 8 holes and mini like 6 holes off the tee now. That makes it a super valuable club for me.

 

I rarely, basically never, have a >240 approach shot into a green. The once in every 3 rounds I do, I prefer laying up. So after mini I have 3H and 4H. My 3H should go 230-240 but I'm a bit inconsistent with it, whereas my 4H is a weapon and I can flight/shape it from 205-225. So I'm thinking about getting a hot 5 wood like the Qi10/35 Tour that is easy to hit off the deck and gaps well with the 4H that I'm comfortable with. Up until a couple years ago I had a 917F2 with a extra heavy/X-stiff shaft that was so straight, seriously regret selling that. I hit a 5 wood more consistently and thus just as far as a 3 wood. I hate hitting 3 wood; off the deck I tend to snap hook it, off the tee I tend to launch it too high. So 3 wood is a pretty useless club for me.

[ochowie]

2 minutes ago, PitchPlease said:

 

This is the route that I'm heading down.

 

I replaced my 3 wood with the R7 quad. I have 4 holes on my home course where I need to hit a tee shot <270 and the R7 is perfect for that. I've started to use it on a few other holes too because I am more accurate with the shorter shaft. So for my normal round, I'm using driver like 8 holes and mini like 6 holes off the tee now. That makes it a super valuable club for me.

 

I rarely, basically never, have a >240 approach shot into a green. The once in every 3 rounds I do, I prefer laying up. So after mini I have 3H and 4H. My 3H should go 230-240 but I'm a bit inconsistent with it, whereas my 4H is a weapon and I can flight/shape it from 205-225. So I'm thinking about getting a hot 5 wood like the Qi10/35 Tour that is easy to hit off the deck and gaps well with the 4H that I'm comfortable with. Up until a couple years ago I had a 917F2 with a extra heavy/X-stiff shaft that was so straight, seriously regret selling that. I hit a 5 wood more consistently and thus just as far as a 3 wood. I hate hitting 3 wood; off the deck I tend to snap hook it, off the tee I tend to launch it too high. So 3 wood is a pretty useless club for me.

No shot we basically just posted basically the same comment at the same time...

[PitchPlease]

2 minutes ago, ochowie said:

No shot we basically just posted basically the same comment at the same time...

 

HA! Just seeing that! Too funny and kind of crazy how similar our situations are.

 

What 5 wood do you play?

[ochowie]

Just now, PitchPlease said:

 

HA! Just seeing that! Too funny and kind of crazy how similar our situations are.

 

What 5 wood do you play?

I've been playing the Elyte 5-wood and I love it. Low profile, great sound, feel, and is really easy to hit. I would probably also hit the Qi35 core?

[notgreatnotterrible]

I've tried both a mini driver and shortening the shaft on a conventional 460cc driver.  The problem with the latter to me is that the bigger head on a shorter shaft just feels unbalanced.  It's like I'm standing too close to a huge club head.  Ha, maybe that's just a psychological reason, but I like that the mini driver feels like a nice compromise.

[ochowie]

The conversation between thriver (lol) and mini-driver got me thinking a little bit. I wonder if it depends on your angle-of-attack on driver. I have a buddy that is a scratch to a plus 1 that hits down pretty significantly on everything including driver and he plays with a driver that is significantly shorter (tipped). It makes me think that maybe if the AoA on driver is positive then maybe a shortened driver is going to feel strange whereas if you tend to hit down even on driver shortening it makes it feel more natural? Could be coincidence but it kind of makes sense intuitively to me.

[jholz]

I really can't figure out the attraction of a "mini-driver."

 

Tough to get away from the conclusion that OEM's simply found a new way to jack up the price on a strong 3w. 

[JoeSchmoe]

For myself, as a slow swing speed golfer (~83mph right now,)  the mini driver is simply a wonderful option off the tee.

 

I lose about 20-25 yards compared to driver but on some holes that's preferred because it leaves me with a more comfortable second shot.

And the dispersion is much more consistent.  It just ends up in the fairway every time so I'm always confident with that club.