Drivers vs. Mini Drivers vs 3W

I've looked at my FW in regulation stats from Game Golf last year with my driver and honestly 43% sucks especially at my average distance. LPGA professionals who hit with my average distance nail the fairway well over 80% of the time. I know they're professionals but still. I think that shooting for somewhere in between that, say around 60% would be reasonable.

I've improved from the year before after I cut the shaft on the driver from 45.5" to 44.5". When I connect decently I get about a 216-220 carry during the summer months. Right now is not the time to check distance with frozen balls that are going about 20 yds less.

My problems don't occur on open links courses or on courses with wide open fairways. They occur on parkland courses where the trouble always seems to be at my driver distance off the right or left hand side of the fairway on which I land less than half the time. So you can figure that I'm adding a chip out stroke to get back in play on 8 holes. Sometimes that chip out is a S&D because the ball is so far in the woods I had to hit one or more provisional balls until I got one to land in the fairway.

I have about a 95 mph SS with my driver as determined on a GC2. Skibum has seen me hit driver and have a pretty good day with it. I can hit my 3W when set at 13* about 200 yds carry. It's 43.75" long. It's a Cobra BioCell. 181 cc head.

The Minis I've seen are about 235 cc and have a larger face than the 3W. I would never hit one of these off the deck. I have a 5W for that.

On my home course, due to the layout, I have learned to hit my driver only on 6 holes: two par 5s, and four par 4s. One of the other par 5s have trouble with trees right at where my drives roll out if I hit it on the right, and the other has a dog leg to the right that I can overshoot and land in the tall weeds - also if I hit right I'll hit the tall cedar trees that block the dogleg, so I end up hitting a 4 iron. The rest of the par 4s have trees in trouble spots at my driver distance on either side of the fairway that will block my approach shots.

So what I'm wondering about is given a 216 - 220 yd carry with a 11.5* 2014 Big Bertha @ 95 mph, how much distance drop and how much accuracy increase could one expect with one of these Minis*? or would I be better off with my 3W?

*I think the Taylormade Aeroburner is crap so I'm looking at the Callaway Mini 1.5 in 12*.

I go with a 14º mini-driver or a 14º #2 metalwood.
The former is bigger and the latter matches my other metals.
Results are roughly the same.

The 460cc titanium driver is a double bogey starter for me. If I do hit it ok, then I hit the ball further than I can keep a ball straight. 220-230 in play is better than 245-250 in Mr. Musumecci's vegetable farm going out or the electric grid's power lines coming in. And those white posts mean driving back to the tee to hit another ball, and don't you think THAT annoys people a bit?

44.5" is still awfully long for a ladies driver. It's probably a little long for most men too if they're looking to hit 80% FIR.

43.75" and 13* loft is not a bad setting--I bet if you went to a fitter and started playing around with shaft lengths and lofts in your driver you could probably find a sweet spot with good carry and much better accuracy. My hunch is it'll be somewhere in the 43"-43.5" and 11*-13* range.

Also don't trust swing speed on a GC2. Unless it had HMT (the funky looking little add-on where you need to put white dots on your club face) it's probably using a fixed smash factor to back into swing speed from ball speed. It could be higher or lower than what GC2 tells you depending on what smash factor was used.

A 14* mini driver, for me, created carry distances around 10 yards less than my driver. Honestly though, I didn't notice much of a bump in accuracy, because the shaft really isn't all that much shorter than the driver and the clubface is noticeably smaller. The huge clubface of the driver creates more forgiveness for my swing.

That being said, the one place I did notice a difference was in workability. I had a much easier time getting it to draw and fade on command with the mini driver, whereas with a driver I'm usually working to hit it pretty close to straight, with the miss generally being left.

If you have a chance, I would take a jaunt over to Pro Golf Discount in Tacoma and hit some minis, preferably in several lofts, and see what you see as far as results.

Dave Alvarado said:

44.5" is still awfully long for a ladies driver. It's probably a little long for most men too if they're looking to hit 80% FIR.

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Just so everyone knows...InTheRough is taller than I am by a few inches (I am 5'8") and generates some good speed through the ball. I would caution against using the typical ladies' club logic here.

I played bertha mini 1.5 at 12 and was seeing no serious distance loss, moved it to 14* and saw 10 yds or less of total distance loss and accuracy went up. Was also easy to hit late in the round. I preferred it over a 3w off the tee because of the head size.

I don't think distance is an issue for you ITR. I'd stick with the 3W. Reading your description it sounds like course management is at play as much as accuracy (why hit a club that reaches the narrowing fairways?). If that's accurate then 3W is even more solidly the way to go.

tequila4kapp said:

I don't think distance is an issue for you ITR. I'd stick with the 3W. Reading your description it sounds like course management is at play as much as accuracy (why hit a club that reaches the narrowing fairways?). If that's accurate then 3W is even more solidly the way to go.

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Plus the 3W gives you the option of hitting it off the deck, whereas that's much more difficult with the mini. Which is one of the reasons I ultimately decided against a mini.

Mini Drivers are odd ball clubs these days. If we didn't have these big drivers it would be one thing.... but.... I don't see many pros using them. The difficulty I'm having with this is that I have a 3W and a good one. I got it at the blow out sale last year for $89. I started using it this year as a driver replacement because I couldn't hit my driver in April. Then I took lessons. The Callaway Mini 1.5 isn't cheap, even from Callawaypreowned.

Looking at the fairway wood reviews for people with slower swing speeds (like me), I have one of the hottest fairway woods on the market for 2014 - the Cobra Bio Cell. Ranked 5th, but when you consider price I'd rank it 1st with only 2 yds difference on the tests. I might have to give this another test on the GC2 and even test it against my driver. At 13* it's really like hitting a 2W off the tee considering the standard 3W is 15*. Of course that loft seriously limits its use off the deck. I'd just play it on my home course as a driver replacement. The downside of the 3W is the roll out. Since it has around 4000 rpm of backspin, there is less rollout than the driver; of course that can spare me some grief rolling off the fairway.

I'll add a little lead tape near the heel for draw biasing. My neighbor has built clubs and knows how to do this. I prefer to keep the club face neutral.

On open courses like The Home Course, or say more open courses where I can hit driver, I won't need to keep it in the bag. Just another club to practice with at the range when the weather finally warms up another 15 degrees so I don't freeze to death.

InTheRough said:

Looking at the fairway wood reviews for people with slower swing speeds (like me), I have one of the hottest fairway woods on the market for 2014 - the Cobra Bio Cell. Ranked 5th, but when you consider price it was ranked 1st with only 2 yds difference on the tests. I might have to give this another test on the GC2 and even test it against my driver. At 13* it's really like hitting a 2W off the tee considering the standard 3W is 15*. Of course that loft seriously limits its use off the deck. I'd just play it on my home course as a driver replacement.

I'll add a little lead tape near the heel for draw biasing. My neighbor has built clubs and knows how to do this. I prefer to keep the club face neutral.

On open courses like The Home Course, or say more open courses where I can hit driver, I won't need to keep it in the bag. Just another club to practice with at the range when the weather finally warms up another 15 degrees so I don't freeze to death.

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You may well get more distance out of that club by lofting up.

SkiBumGolfer said:

Just so everyone knows...InTheRough is taller than I am by a few inches (I am 5'8") and generates some good speed through the ball. I would caution against using the typical ladies' club logic here.

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You are correct. There is absolutely no general rule on how long a club should be. It should be set by the golfer, based on their tendencies to maximize performance (distance/forgiveness).

InTheRough said:

Looking at the fairway wood reviews for people with slower swing speeds (like me),

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If your driver swing speed is 95, you do NOT need to limit yourself to any sort of rankings (most of them are garbage anyway). Look for the look you like, read about if the tech actually works (good reviews tell you this) and then find a budget that fits.

I have personally never understood the mini driver. To me it's silly it's a less forgiving driver that doesn't go as far. Take the money you were willing to spend on one of those and get a lesson or 2 with the driver being your focus. Then practice,practice,practice. Just my opinion though they may work for others.

Hox30 said:

I have personally never understood the mini driver. To me it's silly it's a less forgiving driver that doesn't go as far. Take the money you were willing to spend on one of those and get a lesson or 2 with the driver being your focus. Then practice,practice,practice. Just my opinion though they may work for others.

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Im not a mini driver guy either.
But your debate against it is virtually the same but reverse for irons, right?
Less forgiving club that goes shorter that is easier to manipulate and control.

JB said:

Im not a mini driver guy either.
But your debate against it is virtually the same but reverse for irons, right?
Less forgiving club that goes shorter that is easier to manipulate and control.

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Not looking for distance out of my irons though. If I can get 5ft closer to the hole with an iron that is what I want not a 7 iron that I can hit 200+ yards and retains ball speed on misses. To me accuracy of the tee is not the most important thing. Im going to hit it closer from 150yds than 180 95% of the time.

Course Management

Course Management

I guess in the end it boils down to stuff like this: Course management.



This is a short par 5. The Red oval is my driver. It's a risk/reward shot. The reward is a good chance at hitting the green in 2. The risk is hitting the green in 4 because those trees, especially the one on the right, have low hanging branches that force a punch out or up. The latter results in a six iron approach shot which may or may not land on the green and can put pressure on my scrambling ability.

The Yellow Oval would represent the 3W. It's shorter but gives a better angle for the second shot and definitely makes this 3 shot to green hole for me. However, I can still get into trouble on it, although the chances are far less than with my driver.

The Pink oval represents my 4 iron. I'd be dead in the fairway with it with very good position for my second shot, and probably a PW at worst for my final approach.

Have you considered a lower lofted 3 deep? Cally has some down to 12.5*. Could be a good compromise to what your looking for.