Do I Actually Need a Mini Driver?

I've been playing golf for a very, very long time, and somehow I've never hit a mini driver. Even during my playing days, when TaylorMade introduced the mini driver, I never hit one. I've always wondered, what is the point? Is it more forgiving than a driver? Is it longer than a 3-wood? Where does it really fit into my or your golf bag? Well, today, I'm going to hit a mini driver for the first time ever as I've got Powerbuilt Atlas Mini. to test out. And I'm going to try to find out where this actually slots into a golf bag. And then I'm going to take this thing out to the golf course and see if it can actually earn a spot in my bag. And hopefully by the end of this video, you can figure out if a mini driver deserves a spot in your bag. Before I get any data though, I got to take this thing to the range because I honestly have no idea what to expect. Alright, this is it. I haven't looked at this thing outside other than a little bit of B-roll. Nice head cover from Powerbilt. I'm a fan of what Powerbilt's doing. I'm a fan of their irons. This mini driver looks awesome, but like I said at the start, I don't really know what a mini driver is best for. And if I'm being brutally honest, when I stand and look at one... I just want to hit it off the tee. I don't really want to hit it off the deck. So that's what we're going to do first. I'm going to hit this thing off the tee. 310cc VFT face titanium. Graphite design Tour AD Fi-7X. I mean, this is a windy day. This is one where you want to get some flight. So let's see what a 12 degree mini driver does for me straight off the rip. Oh, that felt like classic titanium. Looked a little bit in between a driver and a 3-wood. 3-woods are easy to draw. Is Mini Driver just as easy to draw? That felt good, though. And that felt, like, pretty easy. I lost that one right. So it definitely gets height when you hit it off the tee, which leads me to believe off the deck you can get it in the air. This thing looks so good. Like, I'm 42 years old, so the late 90s is when drivers started to get a little bit bigger. Titleist 975D, TaylorMade Bubble. This reminds me of when drivers started to sneak in the high 200s, 300cc. I always liked a smaller CC head. In my playing days 400 430. This looks really, really good. Well done. See if I can get a little bit lower, though. Oh, yeah, a little more off the toe. So it did that. That sounds good. And I can mess with loft, but we're going to get the numbers. And speaking of the numbers, I hit my driver and 3-wood yesterday in the garage. Just to get a refresher on what I hit them. 3-wood I will pull from 265, 270 and base inside. My numbers are basically that. I hit it off the deck, roughly 260, 265 in the air. Off the tee, I'm going to hit it a little bit further. But I would grab 3-wood on a tee shot where I want a little bit lower flight. Maybe draw it more. I need to carry it 265, 270 and then driver, I'm going to carry driver 290, 295 on this particular day and a little bit further. I have essentially 295 with driver, 265 with 3-wood. So there's 30 yards where this thing would slot into at 12 degrees. We're going to find out where, but we're also going to find out in doing so, what kind of gap does that create between this and two iron? And do I take two iron out, put four wood in? There's a lot of moving pieces when you look at the numbers and the gapping. But I've got an awareness of how far this needs to go to make sense to go into the golf bag. But this is the one that really has me almost concerned. Because nothing about this screams that it could get up in the air if you're hitting it into a par 5. But those tee shots lead me to believe that. So let's see. If I can get this thing solid, and what kind of height it gets, to try to get that off the deck. We'll Thin it. Okay. Oh, wow. That was awesome. be Well, let's see if we can kind of hit that high fade, like like I'm trying to do with the three wood. This is where I was worried. back. Could I do what I needed to do? And you're seeing I'm struggling to hit a high fade off the ground, which would be pretty easy for me with the three wood. So that's something to keep in mind when we put this in the bag. One final test. I don't like that stinger. I love a low-tee driver, and I do that with this. Oh, yeah, that was awesome. We are seeing the versatility that this thing can present, which I didn't expect it to have, to be fair. That's why I've never really entertained mini drivers. One more, and then let's go see what kind of numbers this thing produces. That is really, really cool. Let's go to the studio. That was really fun. It kind of did what I expected it to do. I love looking at that 310cc. This thing feels. Really, really good, really classic, kind of solid thuddy with that titanium pop and that ball flight and the ability to control the ball flight off the tee was really, really cool. You saw it was a struggle off the deck for me. Which is kind of what I was worried about in the whole mini driver conversation. So bringing it in here, I was curious if and what that data suggested and referencing the numbers I showed you earlier for this thing to kind of make sense. I'm hoping to see it fly, let's say 275 in the air to make sense to be a little bit more than three wood. Both off the tee and off the deck, but out there you saw off the deck, I was struggling to get it to the height I would want it to go. So I was just, I had a very open mind coming in here to do the data. I did the tee shot first. It's awesome. This thing was really, really good. And again, like you saw out there, it is, it can be. Shaped data wise really solid an average of 266 carry, but I would see it get up into the 270s If I had a little bit of turn on it I got a little bit of fade and spin a little bit shorter But these these numbers are really really good height is good really solid off the tee off the deck. It's a battle absolute battle. I saw the ball speed maintained, but the carry is down because it's just it's launching so low. Peak height of 95, but the launch of like eight degrees, nine degrees. Like I had one launch at seven degrees. Like that's way too low. That is more akin to driver off the deck than it is 3-wood off the deck. And you saw my numbers. I don't really struggle getting three 3-wood up in the air. I believe my 3-wood's like... 14 and a half degrees. So the numbers right here are disconcerting because if we look at them directly or before we do that, I just, the dispersion is really, really good. You see how tight that T circle is other than this one that went left off the deck. I mean, that's pretty solid. Like these are well struck ones to decent ones. The bad ones I did not put in there because there was some bad ones, especially off the deck. But the dispersion, especially off the tee, is exactly what mini drivers, I guess, are meant to be. Like a more accurate penetrating driver. And I saw that there. But I'm not worried about the driver comparison. I'm more worried about the 3-wood comparison. If we look at the data just directly with 3-wood, I hit 3-wood off the deck in here. There's nothing that suggests this is a viable reason to take 3-wood out of the bag because The carry is less off the deck but more off the tee but the peak height off the deck is low like I would not confidently try to hit a par 5 and 2 with this because I just don't hit it high enough and it's carrying shorter than my 3-wood but off the tee it's kind of the same a little bit higher than my 3-wood because it's launching a hair higher and just going a little bit further. And this is where it gets interesting because at the start of the video, I said, I'm going to put this in the bag and see, you know, if it's a viable replacement, if it can make sense. After hitting it on the range and after getting this data, I don't, there's no reason for me to take this to the golf course. There's nothing to do with the golf club. This is a really good mini driver. From my first ever experience with the mini driver, I'm really impressed with what Powerbilt's done with this. But the mini driver is not something. That would benefit me and my golf game because to lose my three wood off the tee to maybe gain five more yards. Okay. That at first makes sense and more accuracy I find, but then the fairway, like if I have 265 into a par five, 280 into a par five, depending on the wind, I just want to roast a three wood to get on the green or as close to the green. I feel really confident with that. I would not feel confident with this. Again, not the club, but just the mini driver conundrum. Someone like myself, the mini driver makes no sense. And I don't need to go on the golf course to determine that. Sure, we could fit this more, play with loft, play with shaft, but it's law of diminishing returns. To put this in the bag and lose my 3-wood And then create a very strange gap between my... Two iron and my mini driver, especially trajectory for approach shots, just doesn't make sense. And for how I play now, generally speaking, I just send driver. And if I don't feel comfortable hitting driver, I'm very comfortable hitting three wood, getting it to 270 out there because I don't think that's going to really hinder me. But that doesn't mean mini driver isn't for anyone. There are specific people that mini driver is for. There's a lot of golfers out there. are wary to hit drivers. There's a lot of golfers that don't hit drivers and grab 3-wood off the tee and hit these high, spinny things that go nowhere. The mini driver could be an unbelievable club to put in your bag to hit off tees if you're weary to hit driver. And I think in that process, you would gain confidence and then feel more comfortable to hit driver because this feels a little bit closer to a driver than it does a 3-wood. These are trendy golf clubs. But adding a club to your golf bag always means taking one out and the mini driver buzz and hype and conversation needs to be really thoughtfully approached and the discovery, which is exactly what this video ended up being. It's very, very interesting. I'm really, really happy I finally got to do this because A, I got to test this club and it's really cool power built. Knocked it out of the park, but B, I got to discover that just it's not for me and my golf bag. And over those years when TaylorMade was introducing the mini drivers, I never even batted an eye because I had this feeling like I don't know where it would fit. And my hunches were validated in this process. But I hope you learned maybe the mini driver could be for you because you do tick that box of. I don't like hitting driver. I launched the three woods and the five woods or whatever, way too high off the tee so they become redundant. The mini driver might be a great club for you to get your tee game back and then let that confidence bleed throughout the rest of your bag. Let me know in those comments. Do you use a mini driver? Have you got PowerBuilt Atlas Mini? Have you got anything from PowerBuilt? Sound off in those comments and we'll see you next video.