Gear: TaylorMade BRNR Mini driver
Price: $449 with UST Mamiya ProForce 65 and SuperStroke S-Tech grip
Specs: Titanium body and face with carbon fiber crown, moveable sole weights and adjustable hosel. 43.75 inches in length. Lofts of 11.5 or 13.5 degrees
Who It’s For: Accomplished golfers who want tighter dispersion on mis-hits and golfers who find they hit fairway woods more solidly than their driver.
The Skinny: Larger than any TaylorMade fairway wood but more compact than a driver, this club packs distance-enhancing technologies into a more-compact head for increased accuracy off the tee with minimal distance loss.
The Deep Dive: The allure of mini drivers has been the promise of driver-like distance with fairway wood-level accuracy. It sounds appealing, especially to fast-swinging players, because hitting tight fairways without sacrificing distance can help accomplished players attack challenging par 4s and stay in position on tough holes. Mini drivers have also been touted as a good option for players who tend to hit down with their driver and who, as a result, often strike their 3-wood more solidly than the driver.
TaylorMade developed the Original One Mini driver in 2019 for those players, and in 2021 the Carlsbad, California-based company followed up with the 300 Mini driver. Now the company is bringing out the BRNR Mini driver, a club that pays homage to the Ti Bubble 2 driver from the mid-1990s with its dark finish and copper accents.
