Titleist GT280 (Mini Driver)

[iacas]

No, not that Minnie Driver.

This one:

It's a mini driver from Titleist, available for Tour validation/testing starting this week at Kapalua. It's available in righty and lefty and is only in 13° models for now.

GT280 is a direct result of Titleist’s collaboration with PGA TOUR players on the development and testing of the TSR 2W prototype, which debuted on TOUR at last year’s PLAYERS Championship. With many players seeking an additional option at the top end of their setup, Titleist tour reps and R&D engineers worked with players such as Cameron Young and Will Zalatoris to dial in a 13-degree head that worked as a go-to club off the tee and off the deck.

Now on Tour: New Titleist GT280

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The arrival of the 2025 PGA TOUR season this week in Maui brings with it an addition to Titleist’s breakthrough line of GT metalwoods: the new Titleist GT280.

[saevel25]

Quote

Titleist tour reps and R&D engineers worked with players such as Cameron Young and Will Zalatoris to dial in a 13-degree head that worked as a go-to club off the tee and off the deck.

This statement doesn't make much sense to me. 

So, I think the push and pull between a 3-wood meant for off the turf versus off the tee is how tall the face is on the 3-wood. I do not get how this mini driver would be good off the turf, or at least get the height needed to stop the ball as a normal 3-wood meant for off the ground. Maybe they care more about hitting the 3-wood off the tee versus off the turf. Nearly every strike would be low on the clubface relative to the CG location. 

I would take that statement as more as marketing over what you would actually expect the club to perform. 

 

[iacas]

57 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I would take that statement as more as marketing over what you would actually expect the club to perform.

Huh?

That's the niche of these mini-drivers. They can still work off the tee and off the fairway. They're designed for and work for both things, which is all that blurb says. You can see from the photos that it's a bit of a deeper face, which I find is more important off the tee than the fairway.

[ChetlovesMer]

One thing I've noticed with Mini Drivers is that the manufacturers seem like they keep their quantities somewhat limited. 
The last two TaylorMade Mini's and the Callaway AI Smoke Mini were sold out quickly. 

[saevel25]

42 minutes ago, iacas said:

Huh?

That's the niche of these mini-drivers. They can still work off the tee and off the fairway. They're designed for and work for both things, which is all that blurb says. You can see from the photos that it's a bit of a deeper face, which I find is more important off the tee than the fairway.

Yea, but a deeper face makes it not as useful off the fairway. This is why the driver is not easy to hit off the fairway. 

For a select few PGA Tour players, it might be good. The concept of the mini driver has been around for a long time now. Very few ever keep it in their bag. This is a guess, but probably because it sucks off the ground. Nothing here looks like it is any different than the other mini drivers of the past. 

I get it from Cameron Young and Will Zalatoris point of view. They hit the ball a long way. The odds they ever hit a 3-wood off the turf is like what, a handful a times a year? They probably would hit it 98% off the tee and 2% off the ground. They probably want something that think is longer off the tee versus their 3-wood because they don't hit the 3-wood off the ground much at all. 

This is where I say, Titleist claiming "worked as a go-to club off the tee and off the deck." is more marketing than something that is actually beneficial to a golfer. This is primarily for off the tee. 

 

[ChetlovesMer]

31 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Yea, but a deeper face makes it not as useful off the fairway. This is why the driver is not easy to hit off the fairway. 

For a select few PGA Tour players, it might be good. The concept of the mini driver has been around for a long time now. Very few ever keep it in their bag. This is a guess, but probably because it sucks off the ground. Nothing here looks like it is any different than the other mini drivers of the past. 

I get it from Cameron Young and Will Zalatoris point of view. They hit the ball a long way. The odds they ever hit a 3-wood off the turf is like what, a handful a times a year? They probably would hit it 98% off the tee and 2% off the ground. They probably want something that think is longer off the tee versus their 3-wood because they don't hit the 3-wood off the ground much at all. 

This is where I say, Titleist claiming "worked as a go-to club off the tee and off the deck." is more marketing than something that is actually beneficial to a golfer. This is primarily for off the tee. 

 

I'm just guessing here. But couldn't Titleist build a mini-driver with a very low center of gravity? Then it would work off the deck. The deep face wouldn't be as problematic. 

I'm just spit-balling. I know nothing about this product. 

[ChetlovesMer]

I stumbled across these pictures of the PXG mini-driver. I hear PXG is going to call it The "Secret Weapon". 

 

Gappy Hilmore (@allgolfequipment) • Instagram photos and videos

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343 likes, 5 comments - allgolfequipment on February 26, 2024: "Via @golfwrx In hand photos of @ericjamescole’s new PXG Mini Driver: The Secret Weapon 🧨💣🔥🚀 #pxg #sugardaddy #pxgtroops #0811 #0211...

 

[saevel25]

52 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I'm just guessing here. But couldn't Titleist build a mini-driver with a very low center of gravity? Then it would work off the deck. The deep face wouldn't be as problematic. 

I'm just spit-balling. I know nothing about this product. 

They could do that, but then it could then be absurdly low spinning off the tee. Think the LSDR from TaylorMade years ago. If you hit up at all, you could get like 500 rpm drives. There were issues with the ball just dying because it had no spin. 

I also question if it will interfere with the yardage between the driver and the mini-driver. 3-woods, you can get them out there near a driver. With this being more like a driver, would there big a huge gap between the mini-driver and a 5-wood or long iron? 

I don't know. I guess if you don't really use your 3-wood that much, findings something you would use 3-4x more often might be useful instead of having a club you never use. I've thought about taking the 3-wood out of my bag for a while. I hardly use it. 

Hey, I am sure some will find it useful. I am not going to spend probably $500 dollars for a mini driver. Their 3-wood is around $400, and the driver is at $625. So, I would think this being a niche product would probably split the difference. 

though, I just had a thought. This driver is only about 20 cc larger than the 975D driver that was my first driver I ever owned. So for nostalgia I’m kind of interested in just ditching the PXG driver and go with us. 🤣

Edited December 30, 2024 by saevel25

[iacas]

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Yea, but a deeper face makes it not as useful off the fairway. This is why the driver is not easy to hit off the fairway.

It's not that deep, man, and Tour players can still hit driver off the fairway. Heck, I can hit driver off the fairway.

Mini drivers are a thing.

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

For a select few PGA Tour players, it might be good.

I can name four friends who have a mini driver in the bag. I'll echo what I said initially to you: huh?

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Very few ever keep it in their bag.

More because on most courses it doesn't fit their needs. Phil Mickelson played with two drivers, and won a major doing it. It's a specialty situation. Doesn't mean they shouldn't make them.

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

This is where I say, Titleist claiming "worked as a go-to club off the tee and off the deck." is more marketing than something that is actually beneficial to a golfer. This is primarily for off the tee. 

I think you're wrong there. The average 2 to +3 handicapper probably has a few times a round they can hit it off the turf. At WW, on 3, 7 sometimes (could go mini-mini there), 12, and 15. 15 for sure.

P.S. If you look at the GolfWRX thread, and yes, they're nuts for equipment there, you'll see a whole lotta people already planning to pre-order.

[saevel25]

17 hours ago, iacas said:

It's not that deep, man, and Tour players can still hit driver off the fairway. Heck, I can hit driver off the fairway.

Mini drivers are a thing.

I can name four friends who have a mini driver in the bag. I'll echo what I said initially to you: huh?

More because on most courses it doesn't fit their needs. Phil Mickelson played with two drivers, and won a major doing it. It's a specialty situation. Doesn't mean they shouldn't make them.

I think you're wrong there. The average 2 to +3 handicapper probably has a few times a round they can hit it off the turf. At WW, on 3, 7 sometimes (could go mini-mini there), 12, and 15. 15 for sure.

P.S. If you look at the GolfWRX thread, and yes, they're nuts for equipment there, you'll see a whole lotta people already planning to pre-order.

OK

Maybe my opinion will change if I hit it.

 

[SvingIt]

I heard from my clubmaker that the GT280 will cost around $589 / £470. 

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, SvingIt said:

I heard from my clubmaker that the GT280 will cost around $589 / £470. 

Hmm.... Both the Callaway and the Taylormade hit the shelves at $450.00 USD. 

$589.00 sounds fat to me. 

[SvingIt]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Hmm.... Both the Callaway and the Taylormade hit the shelves at $450.00 USD. 

$589.00 sounds fat to me. 

I agree.

[Typhoon92]

21 hours ago, iacas said:

S. If you look at the GolfWRX thread, and yes, they're nuts for equipment there, you'll see a whole lotta people already planning to pre-order

😁That’s because it’s Golfwrx 🙄…where everyone is a +12, hits is 370, and has unlimited money for new equipment!   Maybe I’ll go over there and say I ordered 12 of them 😁

 

Gotta keep up with the Jones over there.  As you know there are a couple other sites like that🙄.

Niche audience is the perfect phrasing.  Most of the comments so far back that up.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Typhoon92 said:

😁That’s because it’s Golfwrx 🙄…where everyone is a +12, hits is 370, and has unlimited money for new equipment!   Maybe I’ll go over there and say I ordered 12 of them 😁

The fact remains that a lot of people will buy the club. And as I noted, I play with several golfers that have mini drivers. The Callaway one is pretty big, too. It's not 280cc.

280cc is, FWIW, I think about 23cc larger than the Titleist PT driver of yesteryear. The GT 3W is 200cc, so this adds 80cc to that, while still being one of the smaller mini drivers which are often closer to 300cc or just over it.

[Ty_Webb]

Wilson brought out the Killer Whale driver in I think around 1991 - it was around 300cc and looked enormous at the time. I was used to much smaller. Now not so much.

I think the appeal of the mini driver is a lot of drivers these days are designed not to turn over. It's hard to hit a controlled draw with them.  For a lot of pros, when they come upon a hole that favors a draw, they don't want to hit their driver because they can't (or won't) draw it. A mini driver can be their draw club and the fact that they can also hit it off the deck means it's not costing them a club in their bag to do that. It's like a mix of a 3 wood and a driver that checks two boxes for one slot in the bag.

[SvingIt]

Taylormade had the Aeroburner mini driver that was 253cc. The only mini driver I have owned. It was a hot beast.

Edited December 31, 2024 by SvingIt

[WillieT]

Kind of reminds me of my first driver - a TM R580 at a whopping 400cc.  Still have one in the stable - and like to hit it on occasion.  Makes me wonder if the Mini-drivers of today are a testing ground to drivers of tomorrow of the powers that be opt to roll back driver head size in conjunction to the ball roll back to limit the overall distance.  I’ve not done a lot of research on shot distances between the mini and regular drivers, but figured there is some.  Will be something to follow as the mini-driver unfolds.