The Truth About TaylorMade's 300 Mini Driver Claims
TaylorMade claims their 300 Mini Driver is the perfect blend of distance, forgiveness and control that can even be hit off the deck. We take this on the course to find out.
This club was impressive enough for Phil Mickelson that he put it in his bag for the 2021 PGA Championship, and won.
Why is this significant, because Phil’s bag is all Callaway, except for this club, the TaylorMade Mini Driver.
What’s also significant, is that this win makes him the oldest player to ever win a major.
Now this last point is really interesting. Phil’s endorsed by Callaway, he can if he wanted to, get an endless supply of Callaway clubs.
At that specific event, Phil played the first 3 rounds with a Callaway X Forged UT Utility 3 Iron. When that got damaged, he swapped to a Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero 4 Wood.
Now, when his TaylorMade Mini Driver got damaged prior to the final round, he used his backup TaylorMade Mini Driver!
So in his whole bag, he’s got all Callaway clubs, except for his TaylorMade Mini Driver. AND, he doesn’t swap to a backup Callaway despite his endorsement, but carries not one, but at least 2 of the very same TaylorMade Mini Driver that he’s not endorsed by!
That’s saying loads about the TaylorMade Mini Driver.
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TaylorMade have launched their 2021 version in August this year, the TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver.
Phil was playing with the 2019 Mini Driver, at the PGA Championship in May, before the 2021 was launched. He has since changed to the 2021 TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver and Dustin Johnson has put one in his bag as well.
So, I had no choice, but to take the TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver on the course.
This is a 307cc head driver, much smaller than the typical modern 460cc driver heads. The shaft is 43.7”, also shorter than the 45.5” to 46” length of a modern driver. In fact, in my hand, it felt very much like a driver of the 1990s, that were in truth, easier to control, but didn’t have the distance of a modern driver.
The plus, is this has all the modern forgiveness factors you expect of a modern TaylorMade driver, from their TwistFace to keep your shots consistent by controlling spin across different parts of the face, Thru-Slot Speed Pocket for faster shots all round, especially on thinned or topped shots.
Plus being made of Carbon and Titanium, weight can be distributed where it matters, low and to the back. According to TaylorMade, this makes it possible to hit off the deck, even though it has a face that is much taller than a typical fairway wood, since drivers are designed to be hit teed up.
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That inspired the day’s tests. I was going to put this club through everything TaylorMade claimed on it’s website!
The TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver comes in 11.5 and 13.5, with adjustable sleeve. I played 13.5.
The first claim was “Mini and Mighty”.
Well not really a claim, but they do talk about it being small but forgiving and that it can be hit off the deck. So we’ll deal with that later since it’s covered in their other claims.
The next headline is “Big Forgiveness, Small Package”.
Here they say it has “an unmatched blend of distance, forgiveness and control”, “greater forgiveness than a standard fairway metal.”
Compared with my driver shots, this was slightly shorter. Given that it has a significantly shorter shaft, the distance loss was less than I expected. In fact, my guess is that most of the distance loss comes from it rolling less than a driver when it lands, due to the higher loft.
It was definitely longer than a 3 wood, and it rolled more than a 3 wood too.
What really amazed me, is it was like hitting a really forgiving 3 wood. Because of its size and height, it really inspired confidence.
Inspiring confidence without a healthy dose of forgiveness doesn’t mean much, but this club was very easy to hit solid, hits it very straight by default, but is very controllable as well.
In fact much easier to control than either a driver or 3-wood. I did not miss a single fairway that day with this club.
So, I’d say that this claim passes our Smashing Drives test!
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The next claim TaylorMade makes is “High Launch + Low Spin = Big Distance”.
Based on this claim, I was expecting a the ball to launch a little like a 3 wood, but with less peak height because of the “Low Spin” claim. It does have 1.5 degrees less loft than a 3 wood.
What I got was a very penetrating ball flight, unlike a typical 3 wood that relies a lot on spin to get it up, this ball launched and pierced.
So I’d say TaylorMade’s claim does pass our Smashing Drives test, but expect more of a driver style flight rather than a 3 wood style flight.
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Next “Launch Off-The-Deck”.
While TaylorMade claimed that the 300 Mini can hit “high towering shots from the fairway” I was a little skeptical at first, due to the tall face height.
After hitting this off the tee, and observing its ball flight, I was confident enough to hit this off the fairway.
Again, remarkably easy to launch high! Not a “towering shot” like you would expect from a fairway wood, with the slight balloon at the end, but again a high, penetrating ball flight.
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As for TaylorMade’s final claim of “Heritage & Performance”…
I’m going to give this a “yes” as well. It made me feel like I was in the 1990s again, but as a much better golfer than I ever was thanks to all the modern game improvement technology.
👉 Click here to book your club Demo (15 mins, Free)
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Is the TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver for you?
I’d recommend coming in for a demo.
What to pull from your bag to include this? Because it’s so easy to hit off a tee, and can even be hit off the deck, I can imagine many players swapping out the 3 wood, and using this as a secondary driver, a little like Phil Mickelson’s setup.
This would be a great setup for strong iron players like Phil.
For me, I pulled out my 4 iron to make room for this club.
👉 Click here to book your club Demo (15 mins, Free)
👉 Click here to book your fitting session with All Bonuses (includes 1 hour, $125 fitting fee waived upon purchase of any club, and Free 3 Session 12 month Smashing Fits Guarantee) (This link is to our Whatsapp, we will get back to you within a day.)
While all this might sound amazing, never go out and get any club or shaft without first trying them out.
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Plus, our Smashing Fits system enables you to try any head with any shaft, so you can find the perfect clubs, perfectly fitted for you
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👉 Click here to book your club Demo (15 mins, Free)
👉 Click here to book your fitting session with All Bonuses (includes 1 hour, $125 fitting fee waived upon purchase of any club, and Free 3 Session 12 month Smashing Fits Guarantee) (This link is to our Whatsapp, we will get back to you within a day.)