The Titleist GT280—A Different Kind of Mini Driver

*In Partnership With Titleist*

It's rare for a golf club to grab a ton of attention more than a year before it is released. In the modern media landscape and with all the golf club nerdiness in the ether, long gone are the days of stolen and leaked spy pictures from manufacturer rep meetings and video presentations. Sure, there might be one slip a year that gets out a few weeks before a big release and finds some corner of the internet, but without context, or thanks to the quick action of lawyers, interest quickly dries up.

This is where Titleist’s GT280 or as it was originally prototyped as the TRS 2-Wood, has occupied a unique space in the golf lexicon because it’s been out on the PGA Tour since the 2024 PLAYERS (I had to do a double check to realize it had been more than a year) where Cameron Young was spotted testing it out.

Well a year has flown by and now Titleist has released an entirely new series of drivers with the GT line—and after a lot of testing and tour validation, the highly-anticipated GT280 mini driver officially launched April 1. I promise this is no April Fools' joke.

A Different Kind of Mini Driver

At first, when the TRS 2-Wood came out to the PGA TOUR for initial validation, Titleist never called it a “mini driver” and in fact, avoided using that term. Now, with the official launch of the GT280 they don’t seem to be afraid to call it a mini driver and have specifically used the name in the press material.

*TRS 2-Wood

This clearly shows that “mini driver” as a name has evolved into a full-blown category of club equipment manufacturers can’t ignore - even if the Titleist engineers have made specific design choices to make it more versatile than others available on the market.

“The design process for GT280 began with a request from J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s Senior Director of Club Promotions. When we brought out our first mini driver prototype last year, we quickly saw that it fit a performance need for both tour players and amateurs," Tom Bennett, Principal Product Manager for Titleist Metalwood R&D said. "Whether GT280 is going to have a permanent spot in a player’s bag and replace their strongest-lofted fairway, or if it’s more of a situational ‘15th club,’ there’s a lot of interest in another go-to distance club that performs how GT280 does.”

Core Design Features and Technology

Seamless Thermoform Crown

Aligning with the rest of the Titleist GT line of drivers and fairway woods, the GT280 features Titleist’s proprietary matrix polymer crown to help save weight from the top of the club head. This material creates a more ideal weight distribution, and also helps the mini driver maintain a preferred metallic sound at impact.

Forward and Aft (aka Rear) Adjustable weighting

Just like the GT4 driver and GT1 fairways woods and hybrids, the GT280 has adjustable forward and rear weighting to help tune spin and ball flight tendencies (on a very nerdy fitting note, that has everything to do with closure rate and MOI).

The stock weight configuration is an 11g in the back and a 3g in the front, but it can be adjusted with other weights based on fitting factors like length and grip selection.

Credit:Titleist

“What we saw with our tour players, some were only looking for performance off the tee – this is like a second driver to them, while other ones were really interested in performance off the turf," Bennett said. "So having these two CG options to adjust is very valuable in both tour and amateur fittings depending on player needs.”

Forged L-Cup Face and Lower Leading Edge

Since the GT280 was designed to be utilized from off the tee and from off the ground, it features a forged L-Cup face. What this means from a design standpoint is that the face and leading edge have been forged as one piece to remove stiff welds from areas that could be tuned to flex more to generate ball speed. This mean that for shots hit lower on the face the GT280 produces higher ball speeds and less spin compared to other options.

Credit: Titleist

Speaking of lower face shots, the design team worked with tour players to adjust the geometry from the face to the sole to inspire confidence for players when hitting it off the ground and to encourage more center face strikes.

“We took the leading edge of a typical driver and really dropped it closer to the turf," Bennett said. "That’s been one of the first things players have noticed when they set it down at address. It looks more inviting to hit off the turf than a club with its face depth typically would.”

Smart Hosel Engineering

One clever design trick engineered into the GT280 that opens up more options for golfers and allows the club to seamlessly fit into existing Titleist fitting carts is the elongated hosel. This means that all 3-wood shafts built into fitting platforms (intended for 43" 3-wood) will play at at the standard 43.5" length in the GT280.

This means for anyone out there already playing a 43" Titleist fairway wood, you can plug and play your current 3-wood shaft in the GT280 without having to worry about adjusting the shaft length.

Its not something that most golfers are going to worry about, especially if you get custom fit for your new mini driver—but either way, it goes to show how engineers are always looking at ways to solve small problems in the fitting environment.

What This Means For You

With the growing popularity of mini drivers, its very interesting to see how engineers from each equipment manufacturer tweak their designs to suit player needs and position themselves in the category. With other companies offering designs above 300cc, Titleist’s focus on creating a club that is the smallest in the category (at 280cc, no, the name is not a coincidence) clearly positions them as the first choice for players who are looking to still use a mini driver off the deck in certain occasions.

Skratch Attests: Putting the GT280 to the Test

Ah, the Mini Driver—a golf club category that not so long ago seemed like a silly proposition but has become a truly differentiating product category. And, as the name suggests, is designed to offer a secondary option off the tee and (sometimes) off the fairway while fitting in size-wise between a 460cc driver and a 3-wood… Plus mini driver sounds a lot cooler than "jumbo 3-wood" anyway.

Now, when the first mini drivers hit the scene, I knew they were good, but I couldn’t quite figure out how they would work for my game. I mean, I wanted to put one into play, but at the time (even from a fitting perspective), I wasn’t sure they would be for me—especially since I really liked using a strong lofted 3-wood—sometimes even playing it at 11.5 degrees.

But as I have continued to hit my driver farther (thanks speed training), it also means that I rely on my 3-wood less and less into longer targets. Slowly it has become a club I rarely hit from the fairway—and if I do find myself needing a longer club from the fairway, a 4-wood is almost as efficient. Plus if you want to dive deep into the stats, approach shots from over 250 yards aren't a high-percentage play and tend to bring in a lot of trouble.

This is where mini drivers come in as a secondary driver option, and as far as the new Titleist GT280 goes, at 280cc’s, it brings a confidence-inspiring look to the table that's impossible to replicate with a 3-wood. So now that I’ve touched on what it is, let's talk about what it can do.

How it's Different From the Rest

As a mini driver convert I found the Titleist GT, even with its slightly more compact size, just as easy to hit off the tee, compared to other larger options in the market that range from 300-340cc in size. Full disclosure, I’m not saying that it's more forgiving from an engineering perspective, but it’s certainly not hard to hit—I mean it’s WAY easier to hit that a standard size 3-wood, which is kinda the point.

This is important because with extra loft, it can help generate more spin. This means it can be used more to position off a tee rather than try and have it run so far once it hits the ground—which can be an issue when using lower lofted mini driver options. It also helps to keep spin up just a hair more for those golfers that might choose to use it as a draw option off the tee since a draw will naturally spin less.

This is exactly why the GT280 stands out for me, because I can hit my driver far enough (although I would of course like more) and this club creates meaningful differentiation. Plus if I really need to, I can still hit it off the deck lower and with more ball speed compared to my 4-wood. I also have the option of using the adjustable hosel and weights to fine tune launch and spin to hit the distance gap I want off the tee,

So, if you're looking for a mini driver option that's more “mini” than others on the market and is easier to hit from off the ground, the GT280 should be at the top of your list.

As for specs and availability, the GT280 will come in one loft option of 13°, and come stock at 43.5”. The new mini driver is now available for fitting and pre-sale as of today and will hit golf shop shelves worldwide on April 18th. It will be priced at $500 with featured shaft options.