SAN DIEGO – The last time the U.S. Open was contested at Torrey Pines, Phil Mickelson had yet to win our country’s national championship, and he opted to start the tournament without a driver in his bag. His thinking was a 3-wood off the tee would give him a better chance to hit more fairways and avoid the South Course’s thick rough.
It didn’t work out as planned for him in 2008, and Mickelson still has not won a U.S. Open. It’s the final major he needs to complete the career Grand Slam.
This week at Torrey Pines, Mickelson not only has his Callaway Epic Speed driver in the bag, it appears he again intends to employ a Mini Driver, too.
The club is a TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver, but you won’t find it in pro shops or stores yet. The club has not officially been released, although that might happen soon, and TaylorMade has not talked about it on the record. The 300 Mini Driver appeared on the USGA’s Conforming Club List last month, making it legal for play.
In May, Mickelson used a TaylorMade “Original One” Mini Driver with 11.5 degrees of loft fitted with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X shaft when he won the PGA Championship.
“I call it a 2-wood, but it’s a mini driver,” Mickelson said Monday. “I think at least half, if not a fraction more, of (my) tee shots will be with that club just because the way the fairways are a little bit firmer than Farmers.”
In January, when the PGA Tour plays the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, the fairways and greens tend to be softer and shots tend to stop close to where they land. At this week’s U.S. Open, with no rain in the forecast, shots that hit the short grass are bouncing and rolling, and the rough is higher than typically seen at the Farmers.
This image of the TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver appeared on the USGA’s Conforming Driver List last month. (USGA)
“There’s a lot of holes where it kind of turns or tightens, and I don’t really want to get to that spot,” Mickelson said. “If you look at (No.) 4, you get it down too far and it starts to pinch in by the canyon. You look at the contour on 7, how much that fairway pitches. I really don’t want to get it down there. That 2-wood, I’ll call it, seems to fit the right yardage on a lot of those holes for me.”
The club he used Monday appears to have the same Fujikura Ventus Black shaft he used in the Original One mini driver at Kaiwah Island.
According to the USGA’s description of the club, it has a 12-position adjustable hosel that allows the 300 Mini Driver to have a loft between 11.5 and 13.5 degrees. There is also a weight in the back of the sole and a Speed Pocket slot that runs behind the leading edge from the heel to the toe. TaylorMade has used Speed Pockets for years to increase the face’s ability to flex at impact, especially on shots hit low in the hitting area.
In the USGA description, there is also a mentioning of Twist Face, a technology TaylorMade developed that peels the high-toe and low-heel areas back to promote a straighter ball flight.
“Titanium” is written on the toe, but there is no official word on whether the face, the chassis or both are made using titanium. The TaylorMade SIM and SIM2 fairway woods feature a titanium face.
