It was an interesting thing to see, a player connect with a golf club so deeply that the excitement that my 7 year old gets out of a new set of Pokemon cards was the vibe.
I showed up to the range on Tuesday and found Nico Hojgaard in pure delight having tested the new Ai-Smoke Ti340 Mini Driver. The numbers and flight were undeniable.
Look at the mini driver thing like this…I had a completely different opinion on it all until it was explained to me from a strokes gained perspective. One would think that 3-woods are a viable tee alternative to a driver but in a lot of cases thats not the case.
Why?
Well for one the head is almost 1/4th the size of modern drivers and in addition the MOI is even less. At roughly 180CC the benefit of a 3-wood on TOUR is SPIN. But in many cases the fairways hit percentage isn’t substantially higher than a driver AND mis-hit percentage increases. At 340CC and an MOI that lives closer to 2/3rds of a driver the Mini Driver offers a way more logical argument.
So what’s the trade off? Look at it like this…
Tale of the Tape
3-wood: 180CC, Sub 3000 MOI, Easier to hit off the floor
Mini-Driver: 340CC, 5000-6000MOI, Faster ball speeds, comparable spin to 3-wood, harder to hit off the ground.
So the trade off for most is the ability to hit it off the ground? And in return you get ball speed, more forgiveness and tighter dispersion from that section of your bag?
NO BRAINER.
In Nico’s case it was exactly all of this…
- His ball speed vs 3-wood went up 6MPH
- Spin and launch stayed in the same window
- Peak height was in a more manageable window IE flatter flight with spin
- He had ZERO issue hitting it off the ground
- VS his 3-wood when driver wasn’t an option, Mini Driver put him in a way better spot
He hit Mini Driver seven times in the Tuesday practice round and these were his numbers…
Drivers on 13/14/16 were fairway finders so the ball speed is down to reflect that. Low tee, squeeze cuts.
Ball Speed/Launch/Spin
CTX Ball
Hole 10
Driver
187/9.7/2442
Mini Driver
179/8.9/3214
Hole 12
Driver
186/7.9/2589
Mini Driver
178/9.9/2849
Hole 13
Driver
184/10.1/2602
Mini Driver
181/8.4/2907
Hole 14
Driver
181/7.9/2656
Mini Driver
179/8.4/2948
Hole 16
Driver
183/7.9/2549
Mini Driver
178/7.5/3233
Hole 17
Driver
189/9.7/2441
Mini Driver
181/8.9/3179
Hole 18
Driver
188/9.1/2423
Mini Driver
182/9.4/3096
In the first round of the Rocket he hit Mini Driver on holes 1, 2, 10, 16, 17 with four fairways hit and the fifth (17th) barely in the right rough.
Here his updated WITB from the TEXAS OPEN….TWELVE NEW STICKS!!!!
Driver: Paradym Ai-Smoke💎💎💎 10.5 w/ MCA Tensei White 1K 70TX (N/+1, 11.3, 45.5EOG, 2GF, 9GB, D2.5, Tipped 1)
Driver #2: Paradym Ai-Smoke TI340 Mini Driver 13.5 w/ MCA Tensei White 70TX (13.2, 43.25 EOG, D3, Tipped 1.5)
Irons: (4-PW) X-Forged JPN w/ Project X LZ 6.5 125G (.5 Flat, Lofts 24.5, 28, 31.5, 35, 39, 43, 47)
Wedges: Proto 50/10S, 56/12S, 60/06T w/ Project X LZ 6.5
Putter: Versa Jail Bird MINI 34.75 EOG, 2 Loft, 70 lie
Ball: CTX TT 24