How a new club helped U.S. Amateur champ Jose Luis Ballester

There may not be a hotter club in high-level championship golf right now than the mini driver.

As players hit it farther and farther, some would rather have a club after their driver that fits in a particular distance window for tighter and shorter holes that their driver simply can’t find.

U.S. Amateur champ Jose Luis Ballester, who brought Hazeltine to its knees two weeks ago with some his 320-yard-plus drives, is exactly the player who fit might the category.

Ballester employed a mini driver on his way to victory with quite an interesting backstory as he told GOLF Subpar co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on this week’s episode. The driver came from Ballester’s fellow countryman Sergio Garcia and his father Victor.

TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper

$449.99

Drawing inspiration from the iconic late-90s Burner™ drivers, the all new BRNR Mini Copper offers a contemporary twist on a timeless design. Its distinctive copper styling, retro logos, and meticulously crafted components blends heritage and modern innovation.
FORGIVENESS & ADJUSTABILITY

A combination of carbon fiber, titanium and steel creates the foundation for BRNR Mini’s incredible sound, feel and performance. Split weights allow golfers to switch between the standard setting (13g in the back) for easy launch, and the low spin setting (13g in the front) for a piercing trajectory.
PRECISE TURF INTERACTION

The K-SOLE design helps the club glide smoothly through the turf while reducing resistance and promoting a consistent strike. This enables golfers to have “driver off the deck” distance with the consistency of higher lofted fairway woods.
TOUR PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES

Twist Face®, Thru-Slot Speed Pocket™ and the four-degree Loft Sleeve provide the ultimate suite of technologies. Twist Face helps golfers overcome inherent mis-hit tendencies for straighter shots, while the Speed Pocket is engineered to maximize ball speeds and add forgiveness on low-face strikes. The four-degree Loft Sleeve allows golfers to fine tune loft and face angle for optimum flight.

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Garcia, one of the greatest players from Spain in the last 25 years, has been a major influence on Ballester for the past seven or eight years.

The particular mini driver Ballester used at Hazeltine was put together with a head from Victor and a shaft from Sergio that has the scores from his 2017 Masters victory written on it. Ballester said the conversation started when he was beaten in a match by another player using a mini driver.

“And I mentioned that to Victor and he was like, ‘OK, let me let me think about it,’” Ballester said. “And he gave me his head… and then he actually pulled out this [shaft].”

Ballester was initially skeptical because of Garcia’s history of playing counterbalanced clubs. But then he made a swing with the club.

“First two shots I hit, it just came out like this,” he said, making a motion like the ball shot off the face. “And I’m like, look at Victor and I’m like, ‘Damn, this is nice.’”

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini Driver

$449.99

Ti 340 Mini Driver delivers driver-like action, with the launch of a fairway wood. The titanium construction and Ai smart face provide exceptional ball speeds with tight dispersion. The Mini Driver will give players a higher ball flight and softer landing off the tee resulting in improved distance consistency on challenging tee boxes requiring precision.
World’s First Ai Smart Face Designed Using Real Player Data
The all-new Ai Smart Face optimizes driver performance using swing dynamics from thousands of real golfers. These swing dynamics, or Swing Code, consist of swing speed, club delivery, and face orientation just prior to impact. This promotes optimal launch conditions and tight downrange dispersion, optimized precisely for the Mini Driver.
Micro Deflections Create Multiple Sweet Spots
With Ai Smart Face technology, micro deflections are activated upon impact helping to optimize launch and spin on off-center shots. The result is sweet spots not just in the center, but all over the face.
Front & Back Weighting for Optimal Launch
Utilizing a front / back weight screw design, players can further dial in their optimal launch and spin numbers. A 4g front weight and 12g rear weight can be flipped to lower spin and encourage a more piercing ball flight.

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Ballester even said he thinks having the mini driver helps him hit his regular driver better, just from a confidence standpoint. It also was a way better fit for his bag instead of the 5-wood it replaced, especially considering his length off the tee.

“The way the courses are, designed, they’re not designed for a guy that hits it 350. So I feel like, especially in college, many courses, I had to go straight from the driver to the 3-iron because I didn’t want to hit the 5-wood off the tee,” he said. “I was losing my advantage of the distance compared to the other field. So now I have this club that goes like 20 yards less than my driver, and then I can hit confidence enough, confident enough that I’m going to put it in the fairway farther than my three iron.

You can watch the complete interview with Ballester below.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.

How a new club helped U.S. Amateur champ Jose Luis Ballester