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.
The TaylorMade BRNR Mini driver is nearly twice as large as the standard 3-wood. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
At 308 cubic centimeters in volume, this club is designed to slide between a 460-cubic-centimeter driver and a 3-wood, which typically has a volume between 170 and 185 cubic centimeters.
Some golfers will, understandably, see the BRNR Mini as just a scaled-down driver that can’t offer the forgiveness or the distance a driver can deliver. That’s true, but if you compare the club to a standard 3-wood, the performance can be striking. Set behind the ball, the BRNR Mini appears massive compared to a 3-wood, and that size makes it much more forgiving on mis-hits. At 43.75 inches in length, it is half an inch longer than a standard 3-wood, so golfers will likely swing it a touch faster and generate more ball speed.
Keeping the 13-gram weight in the back maximizes forgiveness and boosts the spin and launch angle. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Thanks to a pair of moveable weights in the sole of the BRNR Mini — a first in TaylorMade’s mini drivers — players and fitters can increase or decrease the spin rate and launch angle. The club comes standard with a 13-gram weight marked “Heavy” in the back and a 1.5-gram weight labeled “Light” in the front. That setup creates the highest spin and launch angle, but moving the 13-gram weight to the forward position decreases spin, lowers the launch angle and should increase ball speed for more distance.
The BRNR Mini has been given Twist Face to help golfers hit straighter shots. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
It has a carbon fiber crown to reduce weight on the top of the head and to help lower the center of gravity. It also has a thin titanium face that has been designed with Twist Face, a technology that debuted a few years ago in TaylorMade’s drivers and that helps straighten shots struck high in the toe or low in the heel.
The K-shaped sole helps with turf interaction. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The BRNR Mini is available in 11.5- and 13.5-degree loft options, and the majority of players will use it almost exclusively off a tee, but TaylorMade designed it with a Speed Pocket slot in the sole that allows the lower portion of the hitting area to flex more effectively on thin shots. Designers also gave the BRNR Mini a unique sole design that has a middle ridge that forks in the central heel and toe areas to form a K-shape that improves turf interaction.
Finally, the BRNR Mini has an adjustable hosel that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by up to 2 degrees.
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