Should You Play Mini Driver or Three Wood? We Asked the Experts

In this day and age of golf equipment, the options to build your golf bag are endless. Amongst the conundrums with all of these possibilities, perhaps one of the hottest questions out there right now is…why should you play a mini driver?

To help you answer that question, we decided to go straight to the experts that have been through the mini driver vs. 3-wood debate countless times. Our expert panel consists of:

• Tommy Fleetwood, the Maestro of the Mini Driver
• Adrian Rietveld, Senior Tour Manager and fitter for Tommy, Scottie, Rory & Team TaylorMade
• Matt Simone, Director of Custom Product Creation
• Eero Niemela, Master Fitter & Manager of The Kingdom
• Chandler Carr, Product Creation Manager of Drivers and Woods
• Chris Trott, former TaylorMade Tour Rep & the OG Golf Equipment Influencer

What is the difference between a mini driver and a 3-wood?

Matt: Since three wood has more loft and a smaller face, it’s going to spin more and can’t have quite as much ball speed as a mini driver. Three wood is obviously easier to hit off the deck, which you can do with mini driver when you need to, but mini driver is more of a weapon off the tee. You can tee it up just a touch higher, so you can get the ball in the air easier.

Chandler: The beauty of the mini driver is that you’re dealing with a smaller size clubhead compared to a driver, but bigger than a three wood, which allows us to achieve an extremely low CG placement for amplified forgiveness. You have a lot of extra weight to work with which allowed us to add weight ports in R7 Quad Mini Driver to manipulate CG for a bigger breadth of performance.

Adrian: For a Tour player, the difference between the two depends on how you fit the mini driver. For somebody who plays a strong three-wood, a mini driver will beat the strong three-wood 10 out of 10 times. If you’re trying to fit a three-wood where you can hit it off the tee and straight, a mini driver would outperform that again 10 out of 10 times. The only time a three-wood truly outperforms a mini driver is for launch characteristics or for usage out of the fairway.

Who is a mini driver for?

Chandler: Everybody. That’s the cool thing about it. Mini drivers can be used by a brand-new golfer or by Tommy Fleetwood. Why is that? Because the advantage for a less skilled golfer is that, when compared to a driver, it’s shorter, has more loft and is easier to be consistent because it is a more controllable club. Or, for a better player, they can take advantage of performance off the tee AND hit it off the deck.

Trottie: The dispersion advantage with a mini driver, even off the deck, is huge for a better player. If I hit a shot off the heel, a mini driver could spin only 3600 RPM, whereas with a three wood it would have been even higher and ballooned a little bit on me and come up short of the green. The mini driver is designed to not do that.

During a fitting, why would you consider fitting a player into a mini driver?

Eero: It’s a player dependent golf club. The main thing for me is understanding where the player struggles. If they struggle with driver with more of a downstroke and steeper angle of attack, that’s when they notice driver and three wood are pretty much the same distance off the tee. That’s where a mini driver will come in and get that extra yardage with enhanced accuracy.

Matt: Once we understand the player’s strengths and weaknesses, we would also ask what type of golf courses they play. Do your courses demand hitting three woods off the ground very often? If no, you can look at a mini driver straight away as a tee club that you could hit straighter more often.

Chandler: That’s why I would always recommend a mini driver for someone that isn’t concerned with off-the-deck performance with this part of their bag. If you hit a good mini driver tee shot and a good three wood tee shot, the mini driver is going to go farther more often. Why wouldn’t you want that?

Hey Tommy, why do you play a mini driver?

Tommy: Everybody knows I’m a mini driver guy. I haven’t had a three wood in my bag in three years and the mini has been a staple part of my bag. Most of the time it’s going to be a club that I hit off the tee hitting 280 to be about 20 yards less than my driver. Everyone associates me as a drawer of the golf ball, but I actually hit driver with a very straight ball flight. 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.

How about performance off the deck?

Tommy: Off the deck, the head is not as shallow as a three- 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.

Alright, back to our fitters…Can I just match my mini driver shaft with my driver shaft?

Matt: Let’s say you wanted a mini driver and you wanted to hit it as far as possible and hit it straighter, I would match your driver shaft, weight and flex and be comfortable with it going straight in. If you wanted to make sure it didn’t go quite as far, to properly gap with your driver, you could go 10-to-20 grams heavier in the same exact profile. Similarly, as a starting point in a three-wood I would go 10-grams heavier than your driver.

Adrian: There’s a lot you can do with the shaft to make the club head work better and perform better. For Tommy, it was about length. Tommy plays his mini an inch longer than his 5 wood at 42.5’’ whereas his 3-wood would be 43’’. So, it’s a good half an inch shorter.

Tommy: This allows me to also have the distance I want with this spot in my bag. I’ve always been someone that if I needed to take distance off the tee, I wouldn’t hit a three wood and I would peg a driver down and hit a bottom-y cut to get it in play. Whereas now, with the mini driver at the length it is, I can step up and swing it confidently knowing I have something that will help me find the fairway a lot easier.

What loft mini driver should I play?

Matt: A player that is looking to mainly use the mini driver off the tee would lean towards the 11.5° head. If you absolutely need something that you could hit off the ground and have enough speed to do it, go with 13.5°. If you really like seeing an open face you can go with a 13.5° head and turn it down or get an 11.5° and turn it up if you want to close the face.

How can I use the weights in R7 Quad Mini Driver to my advantage?

Trottie: In a fitting, I would fill my pockets with the weights. I would change the weights to almost every position and show the player how they can manipulate performance in your favor. If you want to add more fade, move the weights toward toe which is the right side of the club and if you want the club to draw more move the weight to the left toward the heel.

Matt: If you want to optimize performance off the deck with the 13.5° head, you can put the weights in the front to reduce dynamic loft to avoid the back of the club wanting to kick forward and ensure as clean of contact is possible. So, if you’re looking for a blend of both tee shots and fairway versatility, move the heavy weights forward in the 13.5° head and if you really want to hit it off the deck that’ll help you not get as much dynamic lofting.