Why Neal Shipley carries multiple drivers, 3-irons

The mini-driver craze has reached peak heights recently on the PGA TOUR. It seems that every week a new player is giving one a try, and a new company is making its own version.

PGA TOUR players, for the most part, find mini-drivers to be a helpful secondary option off the tee that’s more forgiving than a 3-wood, a bit more workable off the tee than a driver and provides some versatility to hit off the deck into a par-5. Typically, the size of a mini driver sits somewhere right between a traditional 3-wood and a 460cc modern driver head.

Neal Shipley, the 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up and “Full Swing” star who’s playing this week’s Valspar Championship, has his own take on the trend, creating his version with some unique modifications to a Ping driver. The “mini-driver” that Shipley is testing at Innisbrook Resort isn’t really a mini-driver at all. In fact, it’s a Ping G440 Max driver with more loft (12 degrees) and less length (43 inches) than a standard driver. Shipley called it a “situational club” that is closer in length to a 3-wood than a driver, giving him more control.

“One thing with the mini driver is that they’re a smaller head and less forgiving,” Shipley said. “But with this Max head, it has a really big head that’s on a really short shaft, so you can kind of feel really confident on it. I feel like it’s really straight. … I don’t know if it’ll go in the bag this week, but it’s certainly a club we might use this year on the Korn Ferry Tour, because there’s a lot of courses where you don’t need to hit it 300; 280 in the air is better. It would be a lot more forgiving than a 3-wood.”

With the Korn Ferry Tour on a scheduled hiatus this week, Shipley, the low amateur in the 2024 Masters and U.S. Open, is making a cameo on the PGA TOUR. He is 43rd on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List with two top-15 finishes in six starts.

Shipley said he’s not necessarily looking for an option off the deck, or to work the ball more than a driver, but rather, it’s intended to be a fairway finder on holes where the landing area gets tighter around 280-300 yards.

Shipley’s unique set-up offers an important lesson for amateurs. If you find yourself using a 3-wood infrequently from the fairway, or finding too much inconsistency with it off the tee, maybe it’s time to try out the Shipley special: a regular-sized driver head, with more loft than usual, and equipped with a shorter shaft for greater forgiveness.

In addition to his multiple drivers, Shipley also has two 3-irons. The configuration has helped fill in yardage gaps for at the top end of his iron set. Previously, Shipley used Ping’s Blueprint T irons for his 5- and 6-irons and then switched to the company’s Blueprint S model for his 4-iron.

“My 6-iron was like 205 yards, 5-iron was, call it 215, and 4-(iron) was 225, so only 10-yard gaps between each club. … At that end of the bag, you don’t need gaps that small,” Shipley said.

The solution? Taking out the 4-iron and putting in a Ping Blueprint S 5-iron modified to have less loft. Shipley hits that club approximately 220 yards.

Such changes can have a chain reaction in the bag. Shipley also added loft to a Ping i230 3-iron so that he would hit it approximately 235 yards, then added a stronger Ping Crossover 3-iron with less loft in the bag.

That club is interchangeable with a 19-degree Ping G440 Max 5-wood, as Shipley can hit both approximately 250 yards. Shipley said having 15-20 yards gaps in his longer clubs is ideal “when we’re playing courses where you have to hit long approaches into the greens.”