At the PGA Championship, we got a chance to hop on the TaylorMade truck and chat with tour rep Sam Day about building Tommy Fleetwood’s bag. Johnny Wunder and Day spent a significant amount of time talking about how Fleetwood sets up his mini driver, and I saw that as the perfect excuse to talk about why I think the mini-driver trend is here to stay, and the two buckets of players a mini driver works well for.
It’s not a secret Fleetwood is a mini driver fan. He’s had one in the bag for several years now dating back to the TaylorMade BRNR from 2023. He even tried to get Tiger Woods to convert during a TaylorMade shoot last year. TaylorMade also produced a piece last year at the RBC Heritage where rep Adrian Rietveld fit Tommy into his new R7 offering. In that video, which you can watch at the bottom of this article, you can really see the versatility of the mini driver, both in performance but also in it’s fitting capability. The R7 has four weight ports that unlock flight, launch and spin bias for players.
Fleetwood likes to use his mini driver off the deck as well as off the tee. For him it’s a true 3-wood replacement, and that’s bucket No. 1 players might fall into. I struggle to hit the mini off the deck, but there’s a large number of players who have tons of confidence in that delivery and see fantastic launch and ball speed out of the larger, more forgiving profile of the mini over a fairway wood.
What’s so important to Fleetwood though is the way that the mini sets up. He wants it to look square at address behind the ball, which is something that mini drivers can struggle with. Most mini drivers are inherently closed, and for lots of players it just screams left. Adrian ended up putting Tommy’s mini in the 1º lower loft upright setting as well as moving some of the weight toward the heel so Tommy could get the draw he prefers without changing the face angle.
“Tommy, he was literally the first guy to put this in,” Day told Wunder. “As soon as he starts playing great with it, he starts hitting it off the deck, and players are looking at it. It makes my truck in Europe super busy. I think we built like 50 of these in like five weeks. Everybody was testing them … It turns over just a bit more than his driver and goes about 10-15 yards shorter. I think it just gives him confidence when he doesn’t feel it completely in the driver.”
TaylorMade has a great mini driver Q&A on its website, and Fleetwood dives into it a little bit more there as well.
“Everyone associates me as a drawer of the golf ball, but I actually hit driver with a very straight ball flight,” Fleetwood said. “So, if I need to turn one right-to-left, the mini for me is a push up to the right side and let it turn over. Off the deck, the head is not as shallow as a 3-wood so I’m going to catch it a little bit more off the bottom, but the mini driver still holds its spin and still launches high enough. For me, it’s actually as good or even better than off the tee. Having a shot that I can hit 275 out of the fairway is huge for me.”
What I think is the more applicable bucket of players
My mini driver isn’t about replacing a 3-wood, because I would never have a 3-wood in the bag to begin with. For me, and lots of others who I know play a mini driver, it’s just about having a reliable second tee option. I don’t plan to hit my mini off the deck. I have, but it’s not a shot I should responsibly hit, and it’s rare I find myself on the golf course in need of a 270-yard off-the-deck carry. Again, at that point, I probably shouldn’t be hitting that shot, or I did something really bad to end up in that position in the first place.
TaylorMade R7 Quad Custom Mini Driver
PERFORMANCE FOR THE MODERN PLAYER
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R7 QUAD WEIGHTING SYSTEM
The new quad weighting system features four movable weights (13g x2, 4g x2) that provide the ultimate in spin management and shot shape control. Forward CG creates a penetrating flight best suited for maximizing distance whereas rear CG helps prioritize control and ease of use from the deck. Shot shape can also be fine-tuned helping create the most optimal flight. Additional weights can be purchased for a wider range of adjustability.
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What I love about the mini is it can be a very purposely built tool. Here in the Chicago area, we play short, tight golf courses. Lots of times a 265-yard tee shot is really all you need. So there’s lots of times where I keep the driver in the bag for the majority of the round, and the mini comes out to hit nice high draws that fall softly in the fairway. To me, this is a much better actual use for a mini driver. My bag goes driver, mini driver, 5-wood. The 5-wood is built as a bit of a bomber so I can reach long par-5s most of the time, and it also serves as a nice tee option if I need to really control flight or dial it back on a shorter par-4. For me, it’s a great bag strategy that gives me a lot of flexibility at the top.
Who does it not work for?
I’m a big believer that the mini should not replace your actual driver. I’ve written about it, I’ve made videos about it, and I still maintain my thoughts on that. If you don’t have a good driver, you should get a better driver. If you’re finding success with the mini and it gives you that much more confidence over the driver, then there’s something in that build you might want to try and replicate in a longer, bigger, faster, more forgiving driver. Too often I’ve seen players give up on the driver, hit a really good mini driver, and then a few rounds later they see how much they are actually losing in distance that they end up back on the search for a new driver and the mini ends up staying in the garage. While you absolutely can use a mini driver as a driver replacement — even guys on Tour have done so — I wouldn’t suggest it unless you’ve got a really good reason to do so.