Jonathan Wall / Golf
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staple bag
TaylorMade’s Tour launch of the BRNR Mini Driver at RBC Heritage was strategic. It’s been contested for one of the tightest layouts around (Harbour Town Golf Links), and the equipment manufacturer knew if there was a place in the schedule where players could entertain the idea of using a course-based club, it would be that week.
Tommy Fleetwood thought the club had a chance to make the cut after testing the range with TaylorMade’s senior tour manager Adrian Rietveld, but was not completely sold on the variety. With a larger head than the Standard Wood 3 (at 304 cc), the Fleetwood felt it offered more than enough distance and workability to be a viable option off the tee. But the jury was still out.
If there was a hit on previous mini products, it performed exceptionally well but lacked the sole static grass interaction design. A lack of versatility made the club a course-based choice for many pros during the season, but with the reintroduction of the popular K-Sole design – originally found on the Ti Bubble 2 – things were about to change in a big way.
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After using a BRNR Mini off the tee on the par-5 second hole during a practice round, Fleetwood kept the club in his hands and watched a 280-yard approach with Rietveld looking on. In a video Rietveld still has on his phone, Fleetwood deflates the ball and ends up spinning the club. You can’t see where the ball lands on re-entry, but that doesn’t matter. Fleetwood’s song “Ah!” is the only positive confirmation needed.
The shot happened to be the first time he ever hit the club off the turf.
“He needed to get to that high and it was just pointless,” Rietveld recalled. “He goes and hits one of the best golf shots I’ve ever seen with the BRNR Mini. He had a lot of height and drive to him. I think that’s when he realized eh could hit that thing too. It was a perfect fit for him.”
Fleetwood continued to use the BRNR Mini at RBC Heritage, but a funny thing happened along the way. Rather than pull the club out of the bag for its next start at the Wells Fargo Championship, Fleetwood kept three woods off the bench and continued rolling with the mini.
Fleetwood’s confidence in the BRNR Mini speaks to the work TaylorMade R&D has done behind the scenes to make the new Mini product more than just a secondary option out of a tee.
“I think he’d be a great option in the Open Championship,” Fleetwood trolley Ian Fiennes told GOLF.com. “He can hit it from the tee and from the ground. There’s a reason he removed 3 woods for that.”
Fleetwood, along with Bryson DeChambeau, found a regular spot for the BRNR Mini in the bag. The confidence he enjoyed at the club can be attributed to the work that Fleetwood and Rietveld put into finding the perfect structure early on. At 42.5 inches, Fleetwood’s final 3-wood length is on the shorter side, which made Rietveld think he could go a little longer (43.75 inches) and give the 32-year-old the distance and control he wanted.
To get the build on the D3 swing weight, Rietveld added 7 grams of weight to the head—the retail version comes in adjustable weights of 1.5 and 13 grams—and put it in the rear position to start. But the club was spinning a lot. However, once the weight was put forward, Fleetwood found its launch window.
According to Rietveld, the ability to manipulate weight—the center of gravity (CG), to be specific—was a game-changer for the BRNR Mini. This is the main reason why Rietveld believes the club has the power in the bag this time around.
“We can actually determine the weights and needs of the player,” he said. “I think this will help us with R&D going forward. I like having a port for the weight in the front and the back. For us, we can move the weight as much or as little as we want. From a spin standpoint, you can fit launch and spin with two variables, loft and center of gravity. You can stand up.” Right there with the player and moving the weights with a wrench and dial in rotation at 300 or 400 rpm. We could do this internally if there was no moving weight, but that’s much easier and cleaner.”
This week at the Charles Schwab Challenge presented Fleetwood with another opportunity to put the BRNR Mini to the test on a tight layout. Some courses appear to be club fit, but as Fleetwood quickly discovers, the BRNR Mini is more than a one-trick pony.
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