Three months after Titleist’s entry into the mini driver space made its Tour debut, it’s ready for retail.
The GT280 mini driver marks Titleist’s first offering in the quickly expanding club category after the company last year tested a prototype 2-wood with the technology of its TSR woods line.
Already in just a few months, several pros (many of whom were already mini driver users) have put the GT280 into play. In fact, just this past week, Alex Fitzpatrick replaced his driver with a GT280 on the DP World Tour.
Here are 4 things to know about the new Titleist GT280 mini driver.
1. Filling a gap
As players have gotten longer, they also have sought out a club they can use off the tee on certain holes where driver is too much — without sacrificing as much distance as would by going to a 3-wood.
This has led to an explosion of mini drivers in the past few years with most of the major OEMs adding one to their lineups.
Titleist has toyed with the idea of larger-headed fairway woods in recent few years, launching the TSR2+ fairway wood during the TSR product cycle, which was 190 cc, and adding a 200 cc, 13.5-degree GT2 fairway to its lineup.
The company also seeded a prototype TSR 2-wood last spring on Tour after Cameron Young asked for a club for “certain course setups,” but that club never made it to retail.
“This truly might just be a prototype that goes nowhere,” said J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s senior director of player promotion, in March 2024. “It was a thought experiment with R&D. We’d had some inquiries from players looking for something as a primary tee club that was less than driver.”
While the TSR 2-wood never made it to launch, it’s clear the concept of a Titleist mini driver didn’t go anywhere.
“The design process for GT280 began with a request from J.J., and when we brought out our first mini-driver prototype last year, we quickly saw that it fit a performance need for both tour players and amateurs.” said Tom Bennett, Titleist’s principal product manager for metalwood R&D. “Whether GT280 is going to have a permanent spot in a player’s bag and replace their strongest-lofted fairway, or if it’s more of a situational ‘15th club,’ there’s a lot of interest in another go-to distance club that performs how GT280 does.”
Titleist GT280 Custom Mini Driver
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore
2. Size relative to driver
As the name implies, the GT280 checks in at 280 cc head size, which is 20 cc smaller than any other mini driver currently on the market.
More elements of fairway wood design are included with full face grooves and the fact that the GT280 is fitted with the same shaft tips as Titleist’s GT fairways. In fact, due to a longer hosel length, a Titleist standard 43″ 3-wood shaft when plugged into a GT280 plays at the stock length of 43.5″.
While the idea of a mini driver is to be larger and more forgiving than a 3-wood, while flying shorter than a driver, Titleist designers still wanted the club to be inviting off the deck. To do that, Titleist softened the sole curvature and got the leading edge of the club to sit closer to the ground.
“We took the leading edge of a typical driver and really dropped it closer to the turf,” Bennett said. “That’s been one of the first things players have noticed when they set it down at address. It looks more inviting to hit off the turf than a club with its face depth typically would.”
With the face of the GT280 being deeper than a typical fairway wood, Titleist also needed to add forgiveness for low strikes on the face, especially off the turf.
The solution was a new forged L-Cup which uses a new insert that wraps around the bottom of the face and helps to eliminate excessive spin and retain ball speed on low strikes.
3. Something for everyone
Some mini driver players are looking for a more forgiving 3-wood, while others might be looking for a strictly off-the-tee club or even something to replace their driver altogether.
Because of that, Titleist wanted the GT280 to offer something more from a fitting perspective.
“What we saw with our tour players, some were only looking for performance off the tee — this is like a second driver to them,” Bennett said. “Other ones were really interested in performance off the turf. So having these two CG options to adjust is going to be very valuable in both tour and amateur fittings depending on player needs.”
So not only does the GT280 utilize Titleist’s 16-setting SureFit sleeve, but it also has forward and rear weight adjustability, something it shares with the GT4 driver and the GT1 fairway wood.
Play the 11 g weight in the standard rear position with the 3 g weight forward and you have a club that will be easier to launch off the deck. Swap the weights and you create an optimal setup to hit low spin bullets for a player who wants something of a second driver or even driver replacement
4. PMP goes mini
One of the biggest breakthroughs for the Titleist GT driver line was the introduction of the Proprietary Matrix Polymer (PMP), the first time Titleist had used a material other than metal in a driver.
The PMP and the accompanying Seamless Thermoform Crown also make an appearance in the GT280 mini, helping designers strategically place weight elsewhere to increase ball speeds and stability.
This also helps the GT280 retain the signature sound and feel of Titleist’s metalwoods due to the PMP’s tunable properties.
Price and Availability
Titleist GT280 Custom Mini Driver
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore
The GT280 Mini Driver is available for presale starting on Tuesday, April 1, and will arrive at retail on April 18.
It will cost $499. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue in both 65 g and 75 g weights, with plenty more options available through custom order.
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