Mini Marvels

 Mini-drivers, like Callaway’s new Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini, can be a godsend

By Tony Dear

About 15 years ago, I owned a rather odd-looking Hogan 3-wood that was difficult to come to terms with and, consequently, remained in the bag for no more than six months.

Its 15 degrees of loft were pretty standard, but the size and shape of the clubhead certainly weren’t. Fairly squat with a strangely deep face, it wasn’t terribly long off the tee and was next to impossible to hit off the deck. It might have found a couple more fairways from the tee than my driver, but the losses far outweighed the gains.

At the time, I lived in Scottsdale and worked for a British publication which ran a series of articles in which its writers took on PGA Tour pros, getting seven or eight shots a side. In successive weeks, I came up against Paul Casey and Aaron Baddeley and, when my 3-wood came out for the first time, both laughed, pointed, and asked what on earth it was. They each inspected it like it was some mysterious archeological relic, shaking their heads and muttering to themselves. It had to go.

It would have been nice to be able to replace it with one of today’s mini-drivers, a category of clubs that seems to be enjoying a moment with TaylorMade’s BRNR Mini making lots of new friends and Titleist’s TSR 2-Wood finding room in some Tour bags.

With modern tech, such a club would likely have found more fairways off the tee without losing significant distance while being playable from the fairway.

The typical 3-Wood nowadays is 180-200cc in size, while TaylorMade’s BRNR Mini Driver is 304cc. Callaway recently announced its first mini driver since 2015’s Bertha Mini 1.5 but, at 340cc, the Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini isn’t really all that mini – just 120cc (or 26%) smaller than today’s big-headed drivers in fact.

So what does that make it – a mini big-headed driver or a big mini-headed driver? More importantly, what is it for and who might benefit from having one in their bag?

Though higher-handicappers certainly aren’t precluded from at least trying one out, the mini driver is really for better players who’d like to find a few more fairways from the tee and whose home courses have holes where accuracy is all important and running out of fairway is a danger.

Because it’s shorter (43.75 inches) and has a head that’s 120cc smaller than most drivers, it will lose you distance, but you’ll keep it in the fairway quite a bit more often.

These days, better players aren’t hitting many 3-woods into greens and use their 3-wood almost entirely from the tee. The Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini will put you in play without losing as much distance as your 3-wood. And though hitting a 340cc club off the ground won’t be easy, it will be considerably easier than doing so with a 460cc club.

Tech-wise, pretty much everything that makes the Paradym Ai Smoke so popular is found in the smaller version. The forged, Titanium-construction Ai Smart Face optimizes ball-speeds while helping common misses (high toe, low-heel) find the short grass. With a higher launch and softer landing, Callaway says the Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini has the “action of a driver with the launch of a 3-wood.”

A light-weight carbon-fiber crown allows saved weight to be pushed deep into the bottom of the clubhead lowering the center of gravity. That raises the launch angle and makes the club more forgiving. Moveable weights (12 grams and four grams) enable you to fine-tune trajectory and spin-rate, and the adjustable hosel allows you to set your preferred loft and lie angle.

$450
Lofts – 11.5˚  (right-hand only), 13.5˚˚  (right and left-hand).
Shaft – Project X Denali Blue (Women’s – Project X Cypher)
Availability – Pre-sale on website now, at retail on 6/27/24
callawaygolf.com