Shrinking drivers?

[Traveller]

Read that the TaylorMade M1 driver is available in both 460cc and 430cc - one off or a trend?

Wondering if the increase in mini drivers are leading a move back to the option of a smaller size.

my driver is 422cc, not quite a mini but I'm happy with that

.

[Lihu]

They often offer 430cc heads  in many of their products such as the SLDR and R15 and many others along the way. Many better golfers are not worried about hitting the sweet spot and can take advantage of a smaller head, and prefer a smaller head to look at I guess?

Mini-drivers are higher lofted and are teed off lower. It is mentally a more comfortable target because it is hit so close to the ground. They're like really big 3 woods. Not sure if it really is advantageous or not. I still prefer to tee up higher and it seems easier for me to hit up with a 460cc driver.

[9wood]

4 hours ago, Traveller said:

Read that the TaylorMade M1 driver is available in both 460cc and 430cc - one off or a trend?

Wondering if the increase in mini drivers are leading a move back to the option of a smaller size.

my driver is 422cc, not quite a mini but I'm happy with that

.

I think the popularity with mini-drivers is due to the fact that some golfers find that the shorter length shafts on them give golfers better control and accuracy on tee shots. 

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, Traveller said:

Read that the TaylorMade M1 driver is available in both 460cc and 430cc - one off or a trend?

Wondering if the increase in mini drivers are leading a move back to the option of a smaller size.

my driver is 422cc, not quite a mini but I'm happy with that

.

 

4 hours ago, Lihu said:

They often offer 430cc heads  in many of their products such as the SLDR and R15 and many others along the way. Many better golfers are not worried about hitting the sweet spot and can take advantage of a smaller head, and prefer a smaller head to look at I guess?

Mini-drivers are higher lofted and are teed off lower. It is mentally a more comfortable target because it is hit so close to the ground. They're like really big 3 woods. Not sure if it really is advantageous or not. I still prefer to tee up higher and it seems easier for me to hit up with a 460cc driver.

Most OEMs offer a smaller head. Titlest D2 is 460 and D3 is 440.

[dkolo]

9 hours ago, Traveller said:

Read that the TaylorMade M1 driver is available in both 460cc and 430cc - one off or a trend?

Wondering if the increase in mini drivers are leading a move back to the option of a smaller size.

my driver is 422cc, not quite a mini but I'm happy with that

.

The actual head volume doesn't really mean much anymore, and the manufacturers outside of Taylormade aren't using it as a distinguishing metric as much as in the past. The manufacturers can play around with head shapes much more than they could in the past due to the lighter materials and better manufacturing techniques. They can make a 460 head look compact and a 445 head look massive and forgiving all by making the head taller, flatter, pear shaped, etc. 

 

[Dave2512]

I have 440cc and 430cc drivers and I can't see a difference but one isn't as forgiving as the 460cc model.

[Tee2Trees]

I think a mini-driver may actually be more forgiving than a 460cc for a couple of reasons:

Shallow face -- heel-toe misses are not as penal due to more weight distributed along the horizontal plane of impact.  This increases horizontal MOI.

Heavier head -- a mini driver uses a heavier head to maintain swingweight with a shorter shaft.  This increases MOI on all axes.

Personally, when I tee off with 3W I feel like impact regularly tends to be more solid and I suspect it is for these reasons.

 

Related: I recently picked up a Cleveland Launcher 400cc driver, 8.5 loft with the stock Fuji gold shaft at 45" just to try a smaller head.  After about a dozen balls I think the forgiveness is OK, pretty close to a typical 460 head, but the distance for me was incredible. The deep face and smaller front-to-back pushes the CG forward and seems like it makes this head a real spin-killer in 8.5.  Medium height launch and very slow descent compared to my other drivers.  I think it likely performs every bit as well as a SLDR 430.

[SavvySwede]

4 hours ago, dkolo said:

The actual head volume doesn't really mean much anymore, and the manufacturers outside of Taylormade aren't using it as a distinguishing metric as much as in the past. The manufacturers can play around with head shapes much more than they could in the past due to the lighter materials and better manufacturing techniques. They can make a 460 head look compact and a 445 head look massive and forgiving all by making the head taller, flatter, pear shaped, etc. 

 

This is exactly why I tend to prefer Callaway's style of head shape with the woods. Back when I used the old 454 it didn't at all look like a 454cc head.

[LBlack14]

"Mini drivers" = 12*-16* loft & shorter shafts = oversized 3w. It's more about loft & shorter shafts  than "mini". The drivers you speak of really don't fall in the category of "mini".

Edited January 28, 2016 by LBlack14

[newtogolf]

Yeah, we may be talking about two different clubs  The 460cc and 430cc - 440cc heads are full size drivers, but the smaller of the two is usually the lower handicap version.  Titleist, TaylorMade, Cobra and Callaway all make slightly smaller driver heads for lower handicap players who don't like or want the full size driver head, they also tend to be less forgiving.

Mini-drivers are shorter shafted, higher lofted and the head size is in between a driver and a fairway wood.  There was a SLDR-mini and Callaway had a mini driver as well to go along with their #Deep fairway woods.

[freshmanUTA]

On 1/27/2016 at 0:52 AM, Traveller said:

Read that the TaylorMade M1 driver is available in both 460cc and 430cc - one off or a trend?

Wondering if the increase in mini drivers are leading a move back to the option of a smaller size.

my driver is 422cc, not quite a mini but I'm happy with that

.

Smaller head allows for faster swings... Assuming you've got the swing to be able to hit the ball well it would suit a lot of slower swingers. At least IMO. They're still marketed towards the better player though.

Edited February 2, 2016 by freshmanUTA

[Traveller]

On 2/2/2016 at 0:22 PM, freshmanUTA said:

Smaller head allows for faster swings... Assuming you've got the swing to be able to hit the ball well it would suit a lot of slower swingers. At least IMO. They're still marketed towards the better player though.

That's the truth of it. We not so good players tend to spend our dollars on lessons!

[onthehunt526]

Neither a one off or a trend.

A lot of OEMs have had smaller, "Tour" models for the last few years, Titleist with the 915 line comes to mind, TaylorMade with their last three or four models, Callaway had one or two, Exotics last three drivers have done it, A few companies have not really done it, but most of the bigger Driver companies have...

That being said, 430cc or so, is 20-25% larger than anything that was on the market even 15 years ago.  And nearly 3x the size of the original metal drivers which were about the same size as persimmon.

That being said, my old wilson 1200 Gear Effect Driver is a real mini driver... 

Edited February 19, 2016 by onthehunt526
added another point.