A record 49 mini drivers played the Dunhill Links. In the tour bags we track it is 11 of 80, and 8 of them carry no 3-wood

Brooks Koepka does not change clubs. He is known for carrying two clubs that are around a decade old, a Nike utility iron and a TaylorMade M2 3-wood. Last week at the Alfred Dunhill Links, Golf Monthly reported, the M2 came out and a TaylorMade R7 Quad mini driver went in, apparently at 13.5 degrees and on the same Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX shaft. He finished tied sixth at 16 under.

He had plenty of company. Golf Monthly, citing Inside Tour Golf, reported 49 mini drivers in play that week, 29.2 per cent of the field, which it called a record for a tournament. The winner, Adrian Meronk, came from four back on Sunday with a 68 at the Old Course to win by two, and his bag, per Golf Monthly's WITB, carried a Ping Prototype mini driver at 13.5 degrees.

So we counted ours. We have already explained what a mini driver is and compared the R7 Quad and the Ai Smoke, so none of that is repeated here. This is how many of the tour bags we maintain carry one, and what they took out to make room.

The number

11 of the 80 tour bags we track carry a mini driver: 8 of 42 on the PGA Tour, 3 of 26 on the LPGA and none of the 12 LIV bags. That is 14 per cent across all three, 19 per cent on the PGA Tour alone, against 29.2 per cent of the Dunhill field.

The method, so you can check it. We searched every bag row in our file for a mini driver, printed every match and counted one per player, because rows are not bags. Each of the 11 has exactly one mini-driver row. The creator and amateur bags are left out of the tour figures; one of those eight, Peter Finch's, also carries a mini, a Titleist GT280. These are the bags we maintain and re-verify against named sources, not a census of any tour, and most were last checked between July and September.

That last point explains the most obvious gap. Koepka is not in our 11. His WITB page was last verified in July and still lists the M2, which was right at the time. Golf Monthly says it is unclear whether the switch is permanent, so we will change the page when the mini turns up somewhere other than a links week.

The rows

On the PGA Tour the eight are Tommy Fleetwood on the R7 Quad Mini, Justin Rose and Min Woo Lee on Callaway's mini (sources label it Quantum or Elyte), Cameron Young on a Titleist GT280+, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler and Chris Gotterup on TaylorMade BRNR minis, and Si Woo Kim on an 11.5-degree mini that every source agrees on and none can name the same way, so we name no head.

On the LPGA the three are Haeran Ryu on the R7 Quad Mini, Céline Boutier on a PXG Secret Weapon, and Jennifer Kupcho on a Ping Prototype, the same family as Meronk's winner. Ping does not sell a mini driver. Golf Monthly reported in January that the prototype was spotted on the USGA conforming list at 13 degrees and was reportedly for tour players only.

By brand, TaylorMade has five of the eleven (two R7 Quads, three BRNRs), Callaway two, and Titleist, PXG and Ping one each. One more worth noticing: Fleetwood, who also finished fourth at the Dunhill, already carried his R7 Quad Mini in July.

What it replaces

This is the part of the count that tells you how to use one. 8 of the 11 mini-driver bags carry no 3-wood. Fleetwood goes mini, 5-wood, 9-wood. Rose and Gotterup go mini then 7-wood. Min Woo Lee goes mini then a 21-degree utility wood. Scott and Fowler go mini then 5-wood. Ryu and Kupcho carry no fairway wood at all. Only Si Woo Kim (a 15-degree 3-wood), Cameron Young (a 14.5-degree GT1 Tour fairway) and Boutier (a 14.5-degree Ping) carry both.

Boutier is the odd one in a useful way. Her 11-degree PXG is listed in place of a driver, not alongside one, so for her the mini is the driver. The LPGA lofts run lower in general: Boutier 11 degrees, Ryu 11.5, Kupcho 13. On the PGA side most are 13 or 13.5, which is the 3-wood-replacement range. Same club name, two different jobs, which is the split our R7 Quad vs Ai Smoke comparison was built on.

Why a links week pushes the number up

Our bags sit at 14 to 19 per cent depending on how you cut them; the Dunhill field hit 29. We cannot measure the reason from a bag list, but the players and manufacturers have said it plainly.

TaylorMade told GolfWRX before the 2025 Open at Royal Portrush that it had seen an uptick in mini-driver use among its players over the previous weeks overseas, calling it a strong choice off tees where there is trouble that also helps with spin control in windy conditions. At the same Open, the PGA Tour's own coverage described a course where dunes force carries and narrow doglegs threaten to let a driver run through the fairway. Fowler, one of our eleven, put his own case in one line there: he does not hit many drivers in a left-to-right wind, and with the mini he draws it more easily and holds it better.

The Dunhill is played across three links (the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns), in Scotland, in October. Wind and fairways that run are the default. A club that flies lower-spinning and straighter than a driver, and further than a 3-wood off a tee, earns its slot on courses like that in a way it may not at a soft, tree-lined stop in August. Meronk's own setup shows the flexibility: Golf Monthly notes that he occasionally swaps the mini out for a 3-wood.

Should you copy Koepka?

Copy him if the 3-wood in your bag is really a tee club. Count how often you hit it off the deck in a round. If the answer is once or never, and you reach for it on tight par 4s and into the wind, you have the same profile as the eight tour bags that dropped the 3-wood. A mini built for the tee, such as the R7 Quad, does that job with a bigger face and a driver's look at address. If you play a windy, firm course most weeks, the case is stronger again.

Copy Fleetwood's whole gapping, not just the mini. None of the eight just removed a 3-wood and stopped. They rebuilt below it with a 5-, 7- or 9-wood or a strong utility, because a 13.5-degree mini and a 19-degree club leave a hole a 3-wood used to fill. If you add a mini, check the gap underneath it.

Do not copy it if you need a 3-wood off the fairway to reach par 5s in two. That is the shot a tee-first mini gives up, and if it matters to you, either keep a proper fairway like the Qi4D Tour or choose a mini designed to be played off the turf, such as the Callaway Ai Smoke Ti 340.

And do not buy one to fix a driver that was never fitted. We made that argument at length in what a mini driver is and it has not changed. The tour is moving to minis to replace a 3-wood, not to avoid a driver. The heads, lofts and fairway woods behind all eleven are on their WITB pages, and our best drivers guide covers the full-size options.