As someone who has traditionally struggled to find fairways with driver, my interest is always piqued when I see something that is designed to help with exactly that.
Spotted on the USGA conforming list today is a new offering from Titleist looking to sit amongst the best fairway woods, or should that be best drivers?! Early indications are that it is called the TSR 2 wood, and with a larger head and deeper face than the TSR2+ fairway wood, it seems that Titleist are very much in ‘mini-driver’ territory. There are two moveable weights on the sole and it looks to come with the SureFit hosel to enable players to dial in loft and lie angles exactly.
Titleist is not the first to the party with this style of club, however. TaylorMade has been having much success in recent years with various iterations of what it refers to as a mini-driver, from the SLDR Mini all the way up the current BRNR mini that is in the bags of a few top players including Tommy Fleetwood.
PXG has also been spotted on the USGA conforming list with a club of a similar ilk…
So what is a ‘mini-driver’ and who could it benefit? Well, essentially what we are talking about here is a bit of a mutation between a driver and a 3 wood. They generally come between 11.5 and 14 degrees of loft with deeper faces than a ‘normal’ 3 wood but still more compact than a modern-day driver. Once again they generally sit between the driver and 3 wood in terms of length, with most clubs of this type measuring around 44 inches as standard. They have been designed predominantly for use off the tee as a driver alternative but in the case of the models I have tested, can still be used very effectively from the ground.
At the top level, Tommy Fleetwood, Bryson DeChambeau, and Phil Mickelson are among the most notable names to currently game this type of club. For each of these players, it has directly replaced their 3 wood, with all of them citing the larger head and lower spin profile of the ‘mini-driver’ style club as the reason for their switch.
So could a club like this help you? Well, quite possibly. If you struggle with confidence in your 3 wood, the significantly larger profile of this style of club could really help you. Furthermore, if you struggle to find the center of your driver face often enough, the shorter standard length of a ‘mini-driver’ could once again prove beneficial.
With 3 wood so often being a really difficult club in the bag to get right, could this growing trend spell the end of the traditional 3 wood as we know it? Well, probably not, but it is certainly gaining momentum…
I for one am looking forward to testing out both the new Titleist TSR 2 wood and the PXG offering when they are released to market. As yet we have no details of when this will be for either company, but we will keep you posted as and when we find out.
