GREAT or GIMMICK? TaylorMade’s New Driver!

In this video, Rick Shiels takes a nostalgic swing with the TaylorMade R7 Quad Mini Driver —a modern twist on a classic. He dives into its design, performance, and how it stacks up against today's mini drivers. Is this mini driver a game-changer or just a nod to the past? Tune in to find out!

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Hi I’m Rick Shiels, welcome to my channel RickShielsPGAGolf. This YouTube channel is designed to help you play better golf, also to help you enjoy your golf more!

I specialise in golf club reviews, golf club unboxing, golf club news, golf club head to heads, and all about golf clubs.

I also want to make you play better golf by providing coaching video on all topics about golf, how to fix your slice, fix your hook, help you drive the golf ball longer, hit your irons more pure, hit your irons closer to the hole and help you draw and fade your golf shots.
I will also help you lower your score by chipping better by stopping you duff and thin chips, pitch the ball closer and also create backspin. Also I will provide you help to putt better and hole more putts!

On this channel I also make fun and entertaining golf content based on crazy and sometimes “gimmicky” golf clubs. I like to cut through the marketing hype about products and I like to give you the honest truth about golf equipment.

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[rclus]

Here's how I use mine, and I smoke the BRNR Mini. I took out both driver and 3 wood. I hit it just as far as driver but dispersion is way tighter. And I'm only going to hit 3 wood on a nice lie anyway, which the mini flies off the turf wonderfully. So my bag is now Mini, 5-wood, 7-wood, 5-gap, wedges. For someone like me, who doesn't hit the big drivers consistently at all, this club is perfect and actually replaces TWO clubs, allowing me to slot the 5/7 wood in there.

[cace]

Just ordered this club to replace my TM Original One mini. In my bag I go driver (7.5 degree), mini driver (12 degree) then 4 wood (17 degree). I found myself never using my 3 wood and I can easily hit the mini off the deck if I really need to run one down close to a green on a par 5. I primarily use it when I need to hit a certain number off the tee (i.e. tight fairway, dogleg, etc). It's not for everyone and that's fine, but it's just a tool in my bag. Love TM giving golfers options and playing up the nostalgia with these releases.

[calvinwomack]

My R7 days are a fond memory. The xflex shaft i had made me a long drive guy. I lived it. Nice to see the R7 name again.

[dalemcdermott]

Just pre-ordered this. For me it’s a 3 wood replacement, only hit 3 wood off the tee and my home course has a fair few holes that dog leg or narrow up at driver distance so mini driver is a forgiving 3 wood tee option. I also played the R7 back in the day so it’s a nice throw back

[camlancaster]

How to setup the mini driver:

1. Juice your driver - 8 degree with forward forward weighting and use it on open holes or long holes

2. Mini driver off tee on tighter par 4’s

3. 18 degree 5 wood off the deck

4. Strong 4 iron

I do think though it’s more a club for high speed players but if you get someone who just can’t hit up on it the mini driver would probably work better then a normal driver.

[tstonge]

Rick - Would love to see you do a side-by-side comparison between the OG R7, and this new R7 Mini. Both with weights forward & back.

[amsfer]

I've said this on other videos about mini drivers, for me this club just inspires so much confidence when you aren't hitting the big stick very well. I suck at golf and first couple tees if the driver just isn't working I'll whip out the Taylor made mini and use it for either a few holes or just the rest of the match. When your misses miss 20 yards right or left instead of 40 or 50 you can usually still have a pretty good time on the course. Plus it's only a degree more than a full size driver. I got mine in the 11.5 degree set up and I play with 15 clubs but if I for whatever reason needed to drop a club I'd lose the 3 wood for sure. 5 wood does the job just fine off the ground.

[Lil-monkeyo]

I have 15 clubs in the bag, I don't play tournaments. One of them is the Callaway mini driver. I it

[NextFairwayNorm]

Official member of the Mini Driver fan club. Gaming last years Burner and love it. Kudos to Taylormade the r7 looks awesome. I don’t need it but I want if 😍

[craig]

Love reading about how the mini driver fits into different bags in the comments. I purchased the Ai Smoke Ti-340 last year and, while I love trading up a club or two every year, I’ll never give it up. I tend to use it for a series of shots, including off the deck (I’m garbage with a low loft 3W), long punches, and low cut/slice shots. All of my woods are draw bias models, except the mini driver, so I tend to work that left to right shot shape. It’s become a trouble club and I almost never use it off the tee. It may change with iron replacements this year, but my current gaps are: driver is set to 8°, mini driver set to 12.5°, 3HL wood set to 17.5°, and 4H set to 22°. For anyone looking to get a mini driver, having one of Callaway’s 3 wood high launch that’s adjustable -1/+2 from 16.5° helped immensely. I don’t know if other companies have a similar 3HL type wood, but it can be easily adjusted to match the 13.5° mini loft for gapping.

[chrisparsons]

Already pre-ordered as a replacement for my 300 series mini. I can tell you exactly where it fits in. I am neither elite nor someone afraid of driver. In the summertime I bench my 9 degree and just play 13.5 degree mini driver because when it lands its descent angle holds fairways. Especially on tight courses. It's really a 2-wood. In the winter it stays in my bag and 60 degree stays on the sidelines. It's also a lot of fun to hit. Any day when you're not quite on it, it's like a default option to hold things together. Gimme them MD vibes!

[BryanHyde-fb]

I have the R7quad, and the R7 super quad, with a full set of matching irons and I have to admit these things work like a charm I would absolutely love to get my hands on this recreation of the R7

[PDYALL]

Well to put it into perched the R7s came out I was just getting into golf and I got the iron set for $299 and the driver was $179 crazy how times have changed

[MrFlachey]

Will you review the new Vice Driver & Woods?
I'm very curious of your oppinion on them.

[karlwright]

Great review as always RS! Need a comparison with the PXG/Callaway/BNR and R7 now please 🙏

[justinkoons]

Man this brought back some great memories. I still have my R7 Super Quad from high school and it’s still my favorite driver of all time. If nothing else, I need to hit this!

[Mat_Scott]

Love it. They should release the standard driver version. i'd be all over it.

[paulmcgee]

Brilliant idea and totally unsuspected. A must as I have the r7 Superquad driver and 3 wood😂in my garage.

[checkv]

These people are out of their minds selling this for $479.99 on their website.

[ramblinwreck]

What I'd love to see someone do is a full comparison Driver vs mini where you hit both off the tee and both off the turf, and compare numbers/dispersion. then same with mini vs 3 wood off tee and off turf.