Is a mini driver a great choice for the average golfer? We get expert opinion

03/05/2025 10:00 AM

One of the trends that the game is fast moving towards is the emergence of the mini driver.

Rory McIlroy has experimented with one and Tommy Fleetwood used one to help him to his silver medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Now more brands have them in their metal woods range and more club golfers are now turning a second driver to add more accuracy off the tee as well as another option off the fairway.

Luke Higgins is the custom-fitting expert at Torque Golf in Manchester and he explains the emergence of the mini driver and why it might be a great option to add to your bag this season.

How popular is the mini driver in the amateur game?

I’ve had more requests this year for mini drivers than we probably ever have. If you look at the top end of the game you’ll see some of the best players in the world game a mini driver at certain courses which helps but you can also see it with the manufacturers.

In the past they’ve all done limited runs whereas this year we have the likes of Callaway, TaylorMade, PXG and even Titleist, which is almost unheard of. It always used to be just TaylorMade but there has been a shift this year.

Would you want people to have a driver and a mini driver?

In the next 12-18 months we could really see people’s set-ups change a lot. I can see golfers going for a driver, quite a low, lofted fitted driver, which will obviously give them the most distance.

Then you would also have the fairway finder club which would be the mini driver. I would not see it as a driver replacement, I would see it as an addition to the bag. Then you could add in a lofted fairway like a 5 or 7-wood to gap the bag a little bit better.

What is the ideal loft for a mini driver?

I’m definitely more of a fan of a 13.5˚ than an 11.5˚. The best way to look at it is that it isn’t a small headed driver, rather it is a bigger headed 3-wood which is a club that a lot of golfers struggle with.

So it’s going to be a more versatile 3-wood that you hit off the tee and off the deck too. A lot of golfers won’t be too confident with their 3-wood off the tee and then they end up hitting a long iron and the lofted driver would give you a lot more yardage, as well as that accuracy.

How easy is a mini driver to hit for the average golfer?

It’s going to be bigger than your 3-wood which is a positive so you would expect it to inspire more confidence. It’s a bit of an unknown variable how a club golfer will approach it.

Would you want it purely as a club to use off the tee or to also give you an option from the fairway? So then you are into the fitting aspect of it. I think it’s something that I’d always explore in a fitting, particularly if someone struggled to get off the tee with the driver, definitely.

It’s a bit of a personal one but my dad used to have a friend and he used to hate every driver that he owned. But he used to have a 3-wood that he would hit dead straight every time and he always said that he’d love something in between them. This was about 15 years ago, and he was off 18, and I always think that a modern-day mini driver would suit him so well.

Do you think the mini driver is here to stay?

If you asked me two years ago I’d have probably said that it would be a fad and that it would die out. But now with the manufacturers investing more money into them, they’re probably here to stay now.

And I think that it will become fully part of the fitting kit in the next 12-18 months. At the moment it’s not but I can see it being a full addition in the future.

Would you expect to fit someone into the same shaft for the driver and mini driver?

It depends on what they want from it. You would be looking at launch angle and spin rate with a mini driver to try and get it off the ground and you would maybe go for something a little bit softer than your standard driver.

One of the things that I really like is, especially for the better player, to fit them into an extra stiff driver and to then go for a heavier 3-wood, but in stiff, just to help them launch and spin it a little bit better.

About Luke Higgins

Luke did his PGA training at York GC where he spent eight years. He then moved to Bolton Old Links before being offered a job at Torque Golf where he does all the custom fitting as well as other elements. There are seven PGA Professionals at Torque who cover the swing, 3D Biomechanics, putting, short game, speed and distance and junior development and two fitness specialists who work with golf-specific gym equipment. So, essentially, they’ve brought as much of the golf course indoors as possible.

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