It’s a smaller club but it’s been the big trend of the 2024 PGA Tour season.
We’re talking mini drivers.
Consider Rory McIlroy. The switch from the Masters at Augusta National to the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town in April always demands a change in strategy.
Augusta is long, with wide fairways. Harbour Town is short, with tight fairways.
McIlroy knew he needed extra control and so he joined in with the trend by adding TaylorMade’s BRNR Mini Driver Copper 13.5 degree club to his bag for the latter.
True, it replaced his 3-wood not his (normal) driver but it was a key part of his thinking for the week.
The club has a similar but smaller face to a driver, while being larger than a 3-wood. It creates more spin than a driver, and has more distance and forgiveness than a 3-wood.
Adrian Rietveld, senior manager of Tour TaylorMade, who works closely with McIlroy, told PGATour.com at Harbour Town: “For Rory, it’s a nice course-specific golf club. He’s got both shots with it. He can move it right to left or left to right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it.”
Fleetwood following suit
Rietveld added: “It’s been amazing for Tommy Fleetwood.”
Yes, the Englishman has also been hitting a mini driver this season, as have Max Homa, Adam Scott, Cameron Young and the two youngsters who won for the first time on the PGA Tour this year, Chris Gotterup and Jake Knapp.
In a video on PGATour.com Akshay Bhatia talked about his own switch to a Callaway Ai Smoke Paradym Ti340 Mini Driver ahead of the Tour Championship:
“I can shape this club so it’s a nice option. The 3-wood can be very inconsistent for me but the mini driver gives me so many options. It’s faster but it spins a little more. It’s tighter. It’s a great club.”
And what of the future?
The trend is set to extend well into 2025 with rumours that pretty much every main equipment manufacturer will have released one by the end of next year.
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