What Is A Mini Driver?

Table of Contents
What is a Mini Driver?
What’s Different About the Titleist GT280 Mini Driver?
Who Should Play a Mini Driver? (Part 1 - Players Who Struggle with Driver)
Who Should Play a Mini Driver? (Part 2 - Players with Descending Angle of Attack)
Who Should Play a Mini Driver? (Part 3 - Players Who Need More Long Game Versatility)
Tour Players Who Use Mini Drivers
Mini Driver Specs
FAQs

What is a Mini Driver?

A Mini Driver is a golf club that sits between a traditional driver and a fairway wood. It is designed to offer more control off the tee than a driver as well as greater distance than a fairway wood on both tee shots and shots hit off the turf. Mini drivers are not strong 3-woods. You can think of them more like 2-woods, with club head sizes that are smaller than drivers but larger than fairway woods. Their lofts and shaft lengths also fall between typical ranges for drivers and fairway woods.

What’s Different About the Titleist GT280 Mini Driver?

In 2025, the first Titleist mini driver came to market with the introduction of the GT280. As detailed in the video above, the GT280 utilizes several proprietary design technologies that sets this club apart from all other mini drivers in terms of performance and versatility.

Like GT drivers, the GT280 features an aerodynamic head shape and a Seamless Thermoform Crown made from an ultra-lightweight Proprietary Matrix Polymer. Together, these advances deliver increased club head speed while simultaneously allowing Titleist engineers to precisely position the center of gravity (CG). The result? Optimal launch and spin rates on center-face strikes to maximize distance on tee shots. 

Unlike other mini drivers, which are essentially scaled-down versions of driver designs, the GT280 utilizes a forged L-Cup face – the same construction used in Titleist GT fairway woods. In this design, the face insert wraps around the bottom of the club and the components are welded at the sole, not at the bottom of the face itself. This allows Titleist engineers to make the face wall thinner at the bottom, which creates higher launch and greater speed on the low center strikes that you experience on turf shots. This makes it far easier to play shots from tight fairway lies than any other mini driver on the market.

Who Should Play a Mini Driver?

Part 1 – Players who struggle with driver

For players of all abilities, it’s important to understand how critical it is to strike the ball out of the center of the club face on tee shots. When strike location becomes inconsistent and drifts away from the center of the face, smash factor goes way down. Smash factor is a measure of efficiency - how much energy from the club is transferred into the golf ball. When you miss the center of the face by even as little as half an inch, ball speed plummets and shots lose significant distance. Accuracy also suffers when your strike pattern gets erratic and the direction of your tee shots becomes wild and unpredictable.

Many players are simply not comfortable with the larger club heads and longer shafts of today’s modern drivers. For some of these players, installing a shorter driver shaft can help improve strike pattern.

For others, just looking down at a 460cc club head is too big a visual obstacle. Players who fall into this category tend to opt for 3-woods, hybrids and even long irons off the tee. With their smaller heads and shorter shafts, these clubs can make it easier for players to find the center of the club face and keep the ball in play.  Unfortunately, there is a significant cost associated with this strategy – lost distance.

To play reasonably well, you must be able to reach par-4 holes in two shots and par-5s in three shots, max. If you’re constantly coming up short with your approach shots and relying on your short game to get up and down for pars, you are leaving shots on the golf course. With its combination of distance and accuracy, a mini driver could be the perfect alternative to a fairway wood, hybrid or long iron off the tee. 

Who Should Play a Mini Driver?

Part 2 – Players with a descending angle of attack

Other players may struggle with driver because they favor a downward angle of attack when they swing. As Titleist Club Fitter Chris Baingo shares in the video above, a negative angle of attack doesn’t work well with driver. When you swing down with driver the ball tends to launch too low and spin too much. For optimal driver performance you want the opposite – high launch and low spin. Because it is designed with two impact locations (center-face and low-center) the GT280 can be a great solution for players who naturally swing down and don’t want to overhaul their swings.

Who Should Play a Mini Driver?

Part 3 – Players who need more versatility at the top end of their set

Golf analytics has shown that the closer you can advance the golf ball towards the green, the better you will score. This puts a premium on distance and for many players, the current composition of their long game clubs does not sufficiently address the range of longer shots they need, given the courses and the conditions under which they play.

For example, par-5 holes typically offer the best opportunity to make a par or better, regardless of your skill level. But if you hit a good drive and you hit a solid second shot with your 3-wood and you still have more than 100 yards in for your third shot? You may benefit greatly from having a mini driver in the bag. Your odds of getting up and down greatly improve the closer you are to the green. In this par-5 scenario, you will get your third shot closer to the hole if you’re pitching instead of hitting a full shot. You’ll get even closer if you’re chipping instead of pitching. And you’ll get closer still if you’re putting instead of chipping.

To find out whether or not you have the right long game tools in your bag, your best bet is always to schedule a tour-level fitting with a reputable club fitting professional.

Do any Tour Players Use Mini Drivers?

On Tour, players like Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris and Cameron Young have put GT280 in the bag, particularly when facing tighter course setups that demand greater accuracy off the tee. If your home course features any long, tight par-4s a mini driver could help you just as it helps them – providing enough distance to make the greens reachable with your approach shots while providing enough control to keep your tees shot in the fairway.

The GT280 has also proved to be a valuable weapon for tour players in attacking long par-5 holes that would otherwise be unreachable in two shots. The PGA Tour does not list the length of every hole played on its schedule, but in 2024, at least 24 holes measured more than 600 yards in length (several of these in major competition). Even if players don’t find the putting surface with their second shots, their mini driver approaches get CLOSER to the green. And as mentioned earlier, when tour player get closer to the hole, they record lower scores. The same as amateurs.

Mini Driver Specs

We learned earlier that mini drivers bridge the gap between drivers and fairway woods. Here is more precise detail with regards to the Titleist GT280 and other models in the GT family:

* Standard women's club length is one inch shorter than men's standatrd length. 
Standard junior's club length is two inches shorter than men's standatrd length.

All GT metals utilize Titleist's SureFit hosel. SureFit allows loft and lie to be adjusted independently to optimize individual player launch conditions. Factory lofts can be increased by up to 1.5 degrees or decreased it by 0.75 degrees. Lies can be adjusted, more upright or flatter by 1 or 2 degrees.

FAQs

What is a mini driver and how is it different from a traditional driver? 

A mini driver is a golf club that combines features of both a traditional driver and a modern fairway wood. Mini drivers have a smaller head (typically 270-340cc) than modern drivers (460cc), shorter shafts (around 43-44 inches) than standard drivers (44.5-45.5 inches), and similar lofts to strong 3-woods (11-13 degrees).

What are the main benefits of using a mini driver?

Mini drivers offer more control off the tee than traditional drivers without sacrificing as much distance as fairway metals, hybrids and long irons. They also offer more distance on long approach shots played off the turf. 

Can you hit a mini driver off the fairway?

It depends. Most mini drivers are designed with soles that allow them to glide through the turf like fairway woods, but the majority also feature deep faces and constructions that are basically smaller versions of driver designs. In contrast, the Titleist GT280 features a forged L-Cup face insert that wraps around the bottom of the club. The components of the head are then welded at the sole, not at the bottom of the face itself. This allows Titleist engineers to make the face wall thinner at the bottom, which creates higher launch and greater speed on the low center strikes that you experience on turf shots. This makes the GT280 very versatile, providing optimal launch and spin rates on center-face strikes as well as solid contact and high launch on shots played from the fairway.

What types of golfers should consider using a mini driver?

Many golfers can benefit from using a mini driver like the Titleist GT280 including:

• Golfers who have erratic strike patterns and insufficient control when they hit driver on tee shots.
• Golfers who have a descending angle of attack on tee shots (and who launch the ball low with too much spin) but who don't want to change their swings.
• Golfers who don't like the look of a standard, 460cc driver head and lack confidence with driver at address.
• Golfers who need more versatility and better distance gapping in their long game clubs.
• Golfers who play courses with tight driving holes and/or long holes that are difficult to reach in regulation.

Do any Tour Players Use Mini Drivers?

Yes, many tour players have put mini drivers in the bag! Titleist players including Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris and Cameron Young frequently game a Titleist GT280 mini driver when courses feature tight driving holes and/or long par-5 holes that would otherwise be unreachable in two shots.

How do I know if a mini driver is right for me?

To find out if a mini driver like the Titleist GT280 can help your game, the best first step is to schedule a tour-level fitting with a reputable club fitting professional. Click here to access the wide variety of club fitting resources offered by Titleist.

https://www.titleist.com/fitting/golf-club-fitting