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PXG Secret Weapon Mini Driver

david dusek, golfweek
·2 min read

Gear: PXG Secret Weapon Mini Driver

Price: $449.99

Specs: Titanium face and chassis with carbon fiber crown, adjustable hosel, four moveable weights and 13 degrees of loft

Who it’s for: Golfers who want a powerful alternative to their driver off the tee that blends stability and enhanced accuracy.

What you should know: The Secret Weapon was designed to excel off the tee and provide more stability, ball speed and distance than a traditional 3-wood for golfers who want an alternative to their driver off the tee.

The deep dive: The popularity of mini drivers has exploded over the last three seasons, with more and more players realizing that their 3-wood has become a club they use almost exclusively off the tee. The extra size of mini drivers makes them more stable and more forgiving than traditional 3-woods, and longer, but their shorter shaft keeps ball speeds and overall distance well below a player’s driver.

With the release of the Secret Weapon, PXG is offering its first mini driver and loaded the club with all the technologies and exotic materials the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company packs into its drivers.

The face of the PXG Secret Weapon Mini Driver is 44 percent larger than the hitting area of the Black Ops 3-wood.
The face of the PXG Secret Weapon Mini Driver is 44 percent larger than the hitting area of the Black Ops 3-wood.

The Secret Weapon has 13 degrees of loft and measures 300 cubic centimeters in volume, making it 35 percent smaller than a traditional driver but still about 30 percent larger than most 3-woods. The club also comes standard at 43.75 inches in length, which is 0.75 inches longer than the company's Black Ops 3-wood but 1.75 inches shorter than PXG’s standard driver length.

Like the recently released Black Ops drivers, the Secret Weapon features a titanium face and chassis, along with a carbon fiber crown to reduce weight on the top of the head and lower the center of gravity.

The four weights in the Secret Weapon allow players and fitters to shift the center of gravity and create shot-shaping biases, boost stability or change the spin rate.
The four weights in the Secret Weapon allow players and fitters to shift the center of gravity and create shot-shaping biases, boost stability or change the spin rate.

There are four weight ports in the sole, and the Secret Weapon comes standard with two 15-gram weight screws and two 2.5-gram weights. With the heavy weights in the heel and toe, the Secret Weapon is more stable, but golfers can shift one of the heavy weights to the back to increase the spin rate and launch angle while also creating a draw or fade bias. Adding a heavy weight to the front port and either the heel or toe should lower the spin rate and launch angle while also creating a draw or fade bias.

Compared to a traditional 3-wood, PXG said the Secret Weapon generates 3 mph more ball speed and about 10 yards more distance, and golfers should see a tighter dispersion pattern. The larger size of the Secret Weapon helps make it more stable on mis-hits than a 3-wood, and when combined with a shorter shaft, most golfers find mini drivers more accurate than their driver.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PXG Secret Weapon Mini Driver