The Cat’s Out of the Bag on PXG’s Secret Weapon Mini Driver

The Secret Weapon is PXG’s first entry in the rapidly emerging mini driver category.  Given the relative lack of fresh competition, we’re going to have to wait a bit to see how it compares to 2025’s other minis but PXG has staked an early, and perhaps insurmountable, lead in the headcover portion of the competition.

Big picture: It’s meaningless but, still, it’s so well done.

As for the stuff that matters, the Secret Weapon mini driver doesn’t look out of place next to other PXG metalwoods.

Construction

The Secret Weapon’s titanium face is paired with a composite crown. Like the “for now current” Callaway offering, the PXG Secret Weapon offers a moveable weight system for trajectory tuning. In this case, we’re talking about a four-weight system (2×15 and 2×2.5 grams) that can be configured for higher MOI or with a draw or fade bias.

Worth a mention is that PXG offers weights in 2.5-gram increments from 2.5 to 20 grams so there’s plenty of flexibility for those who really want to dial in swing or head weight.

You also get PXG’s adjustable hosel and, like other PXG clubs, the Secret Weapon mini driver is robotically polished for greater part-to-part consistency.

Secret Weapon: Key Specs

What intrigues me about the mini driver category is the breadth of opportunity it presents to club designers. Given its potential to span everything from a slightly oversized fairway wood to a slightly undersized driver, it’s going to be fascinating to see how brands position their offerings.

• Long-range fairway bomber?
• Control club off the tee?
• A balanced design that seeks to offer the best of both worlds (with, no doubt, varying degrees of success)?

For its part, PXG uses the word versatile to describe its Secret Weapon which suggests that balance is part of the design intent. We’ll get to what that means from a performance perspective shortly but in this category, perhaps more than any other, there’s a case to be made that versatility is driven by size and shape.

The PXG Secret Weapon head is 300cc. For reference, that makes it a little bit bigger than the upcoming Titleist GT280, every so slightly smaller than the TaylorMade BRNR (304cc) and quite a bit smaller still than the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Ti 340 Mini (which has an insurmountable lead in the longest mini driver name category)

On size alone, I remain partial TaylorMade’s SLDR Mini (260cc) but no small part of how a mini driver plays is a function of how the head volume is allocated. Shallow-faced like a fairway wood, deep-faced like a driver or somewhere in between?

Some quick measurements suggest the face height of the PXG Secret Weapon is slightly shallower than the BRNR and nearly identical to the Callaway model.

For PXG’s part in the conversation, the Secret Weapon’s versatility comes from a tighter leading edge. The suggestion is that while the PXG mini can be used as a driver replacement, it’s a capable option off the fairway as well – even if the face is 44 percent larger than the Black Ops 3-wood.

Between the relatively shallow face and compact profile, the PXG Secret Weapon looks, to me, playable off the deck. Whether it is remains a conversation for another day.

As far as the other stuff goes, the stock length is 43.75 inches (roughly two inches shorter than a driver) which accounts for a good bit of the extra control. The headweight is 210 grams and it comes in 13 degrees only (with PXG’s hosel, the functional loft range is 11.5 to 14 degrees).

PXG describes the Secret Weapon as a high-MOI offering but keep in mind that’s relative. With a smaller footprint inherently part of the package, a mini is never going to match the MOI of a full-sized driver but I suppose the key point is that the Secret Weapon offers six percent higher MOI than PXG’s Black Ops 3-wood with most of that coming along the x-axis (top to bottom).

PXG Secret Weapon performance

To put some context to the performance, PXG provided some data comparing the Secret Weapon to its Black Ops driver and 3-wood.

In internal testing, PXG found the Secret Weapon to be three mph faster than the 3-wood and 5.5 mph slower than the driver. It launched just under one degree lower than both despite being significantly higher-lofted than the driver. Spin rates fell between the driver and the 3-wood with the notable data point being 300 rpm less spin than the fairway wood.

Looking at total distance, with a shaft that’s roughly two inches shorter, the mini can’t touch the driver for distance. While it was 20 yards shorter than the driver, it’s 10 yards longer than the fairway wood.

The fine print here is that this is all robot testing.

The feedback from player testing is that in the real world, the Secret Weapon compares more favorably to both driver and 3-wood, especially on those less-than-perfect swings that aren’t easily replicated on a robot.

For what it’s worth, data from Shot Scope shows golfers aren’t typically any more accurate with a 3-wood than they are with a driver so if a mini can increase accuracy and tighten dispersion while simultaneously increasing distance (relative to a 3-wood), putting a mini in the bag starts to make sense – especially if it’s actually playable off the deck.

With all of that said, the selling point is simple. The Secret Weapon offers more control than a driver and more distance than a fairway wood. It’s the “tweener” club that would probably benefit a lot of us.

Watch this space

2025 is shaping up to be the year of the mini driver insomuch as there can reasonably be a “year of” a niche category. Regardless, here we are.

What I can tell you is that before we get to the fun part of summer, you’re going to have more minis to choose from than ever before – although I can’t recall golfers ever having more than two to choose from, so that’s a low bar.

PXG is first out of the gate with its Secret Weapon. Titleist has GT280 somewhere in the pipeline. We’re nearly two years into the BRNR cycle and, well, Callaway has dabbled before and I suspect it will again.

And that’s before we talk about a multitude of other brands that have a penchant for following the trends.

I’m setting the over/under for mini releases in 2025 at 6.5. This is going to be fun.

Specs and availability

The PXG Secret Weapon mini driver is available in 13 degrees in both right- and left-handed. Retail price is $449.99.

Available now.

For more information, visit PXG.com.