What you can learn from Tommy Fleetwood’s mini-driver setup

At the PGA Championship, we had a chance to ride in the TaylorMade truck and talk with tour representative Sam Day about building Tommy Fleetwood’s bag. Johnny Wunder and Day spent a considerable amount of time talking about how Fleetwood sets up its mini driver and I saw this as the perfect excuse to talk about why I think the mini driver trend is here to stay and two buckets of players for whom a mini driver works well.

It’s no secret Fleetwood is a fan of mini drivers. He’s had one in his bag for a few years now dating to the TaylorMade BRNR from 2023. He even tried to get Tiger Woods to convert during a TaylorMade shooting last year. TaylorMade also produced a piece last year at the RBC Heritage where rep Adrian Rietveld fitted the Tommy into his new R7 offering. In that video, which you can watch at the end of this article, you can really see the mini driver’s versatility, both in performance and in its adaptability. The R7 has four weight ports that open up flight, launch and rotation biases for players.

Fleetwood likes to use his small driver off the deck as well as off the tee. It’s a true 3-wood replacement for him, and that’s bucket no. 1 where players can fall. I struggle to hit the mini off the deck, but there are a lot of players who have a lot of confidence in that delivery and see fantastic launch and ball speed off the mini’s bigger, more forgiving profile on a loose wood.

What’s so important about Fleetwood, though, is how the mini is set up. He wants it to look square at address behind the ball, which is something mini drivers can struggle with. Most mini drivers are basically closed, and for many players it just screams away. Adrian ended up setting Tommy’s mini to a 1º lower loft position as well as moving some of the weight towards the heel so Tommy could get the draw he prefers without changing the face angle.

“Tommy, he was literally the first guy to put that on,” Day told Wunder. “Once he starts playing great with it, he starts hitting it off the deck and the players are looking at it. It makes my truck in Europe super busy. I think we built 50 of them in five weeks. Everyone was testing them. . . . It spins a little more than its driver and goes about 10-15 yards shorter.

TaylorMade has a great one Mini driver questions and answers on its websiteand Fleetwood dives into it there a bit more too.

“Everybody thinks of me as a golf ball drawer, but I actually hit the driver with a very fair ball flight,” Fleetwood said. “So if I have to turn one from right to left, the mini for me is a push up on the right side and let it spin. From the deck, the head isn’t as shallow as a 3-wood, so I’ll grab it a little more off the bottom, but the mini driver still holds its spin and still launches pretty high. 275 off the fairway is huge for me.”

What I think is the most viable group of players

My little driver is not about replacing a 3-wood, because I will never have a 3-wood in the bag to begin with. For me, and many others I know who play a mini driver, it’s just having a reliable second option. I have no plans to kick my mini off the deck. I have, but it’s not a shot I have to hit responsibly, and it’s rare that I find myself on the golf course in need of a 270-yard carry off the deck. Again, at that point, I probably shouldn’t have hit that shot, or I did something really bad to end up in that position in the first place.

TaylorMade R7 Quad Mini Custom Driver

PERFORMANCE FOR THE MODERN PLAYER Inspired by one of the most iconic designs in TaylorMade’s history, the R7 Quad Mini Driver pays homage to what has come before while creating its own modern identity in the same spirit. It’s that very modern design that incorporates proven TaylorMade technologies to give players versatility and playability. R7 QUAD WEIGHING SYSTEM The new quad weighting system features four movable weights (13g x2, 4g x2) that provide spin management and stroke shape control. The forward CG creates a penetrating flight more suited to maximizing distance, while the aft CG helps prioritize control and ease of use from the deck. The shot shape can also be fine-tuned helping to create the most optimal flight. Additional weights can be purchased for a wider range of adjustment. INFINITY CARBON CROWN A new satin Infinity Carbon crown has been added to the R7 Quad Mini Driver chassis creating a stunning look while saving weight for better mass optimization. The cosmetic package is clean, elegant and inspires confidence.

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What I love about the mini is that it can be a very purpose built tool. Here in the Chicago area, we play short, narrow golf courses. Many times, a 265-yard putt is really all you need. So there are a lot of times where I keep the driver in the bag for most of the round, and the mini comes out to hit nice high draws that land gently on the fairway. To me, this is a much better actual use for a mini driver. My bag goes driver, mini driver, 5-wood. The 5-wood is built like a little bomber, so I can hit long par-5s most of the time, and it also serves as a good putter option if I need to really control the flight or turn it into a shorter par-4. For me, it’s a great bag strategy that gives me a lot of flexibility at the top.

Who doesn’t it work for?

I strongly believe that mini should not replace your current driver. I’ve written about it, made videos about it, and still keep my thoughts on it. If you don’t have a good driver, you should get a better driver. If you’re finding success with the mini and it gives you a lot more confidence in the driver, then there’s something about that build that you might want to try and replicate on a longer, bigger, faster, more forgiving driver. Too often I’ve seen players give up on the driver, hit a really good mini driver, and then a few rounds later they see how much they’re missing in distance that they end up looking for a new driver again and the mini ends up sitting in the garage. While you absolutely can use a mini driver as a driver replacement – the guys on Tour have done it too – I wouldn’t suggest it unless you have a really good reason to do so.

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