Acer Thriver Mini Experiment/ Review

Lemonde · February 20, 2017

I decided to do a little experimenting during the silly season and put together Hireko's Thriver Mini with a GD YS+ shaft. I wanted to not break the bank in case it didn't work out so I picked up the GD shaft on the cheap online through Golftown. This is my first time hitting a GD shaft, and I'm still waiting for TM Canada to ship my M1 440 with the Tour AD TP.

Looks => The head is large, about the footprint of at least a 400cc driver but the face is thinner than I would like, preference would be another 5mm or so in depth. Sitting down at the ball it looks like it would be fairly forgiving. This is an all Titanium Head with a face cup design. I bought the 12 gram weight as well and switched out the 7 to get swingweight up. Shaft install was a little longer than I requested at 44" however swingweight is probably around D5 as a result.

Performance => Two one hour sessions, some practice and some playing on the simulator. Tee only testing as this is what this club would be used for and I left the old Razr Fit Xtreme driver at home. I struggled with the tee height a little so had to pick it a bit which I am used to doing with my driver anyways as I am a high tee ball hitter. On average it went between 270 and 295 with the odd one just over 300 with a pull draw. Some skyballs occurred due to face height and higher tee height in the sim. I have to say the GD shaft gives great feel and the club wanted to either go straight or with a slight draw an there were no slice balls or even fades. Clubhead was extremely forgiving and I didn't find a big difference in distance losses on mishits. I will test this club off the rug in my next session as it may surprise me given the face height.

Conclusion => This is a nice club that gives me some options off the tee for the coming year. I do need to get it outdoors to see how it will really fly but right now I'm pretty happy with the experiment. It is confidence inspiring looking down. I was most surprise by how fantastic the GD shaft felt - great feel while staying under control. The waggle test led me to believe this would be a hooking nightmare and this proved not to be the case. If anything I will cut it down 1/4 to 1/2 inch for some further control. I also wanted to believe that there are some component companies out there that make good clubs on par with the OEM's and I believe this is the case with the Thriver Mini.

willard1523 · February 20, 2017

I'm interested in this club as well. Let us know how it works out on the course.

bladehunter · February 20, 2017

pics?

Lemonde · February 20, 2017

I'll post when I get home. I knew that was coming LOL!

doogan520 · April 12, 2017

Lemonde,

Any new info? Pics? How'd it play on the course? I'm tempted to play with some Acer stuff. The Thriver is right up there on my buy something for the sake of buying something.

Thanks!

Double Gee · September 18, 2020

Old thread.

Tried the Acer xv Ultimate Thriver today, 460 cc head.

Have to say I was astonished and blown away with the performance. Head to head against my Fitted Mizuno st190 HL driver, they were neck and neck distance wise, but Hireko winning it on more centre fairways found.

Looking down its a matt finish and reminded me of a Ping G25 shape

Money wise it's a third of the price of the premium brands. No brainer.

tx brian · January 1, 2022

I know this is an old thread, but I "built" a Thriver about 10 years ago. Bought a used Tour Edge Geomax driver with 14 deg of loft. I cut the shaft to 43" and added 8 grams of lead tape to the clubhead. I play it about 1.5 golf balls back my stance compared to my driver. I am a short hitter and get a little over 200 yds out of it (195-210). Very high flight and consistent distance, stays in that 15 yd range.

My Driver can go from 160 - 250 Lol, it averages about 210 yds with a few 220 plus per round and occasionally a 240. I also commonly get maybe 1 mishit per round that goes nowhere, maybe topped or skied. More importantly is I never go a round without at least 1 fairway missed, probably average 3-4 missed per round, including some lost, OB or water.

The Thriver hits most fairways, and when it does miss it is almost always playable, like first cut. If you add up total distance of simply "playable drives" then there is no competition. It would be something like 205yds x 13.5 fairways = 2767 yds average for the Thriver, while the Driver is maybe 214 x 10.5 = 2247 yds average, plus maybe 1.5 penalty strokes per round vs maybe 1 every 2-3 rounds with Thriver

The only real question is why am I stupid enough to keep putting that driver in my bag so I can hit 1 or 2 "long ones" per round, knowing that it only increases my score. Even then, sometimes my very best driver shots, like 240 wind up in trouble, go through dogleg or find a creek I thought I couldn't reach.

The reason this is on my mind is I have decided to try to get 2 of these with newer clubs. Maybe a 14 or 15 deg at 42" and a 12 or 13 deg at 44" (I have a 45.75 Driver now). I am hoping to get one that goes 195 average and one that goes 210 average, but with much closer to the reliability of the Thriver. If that "Driver" does not turn out close to as reliable as my Thriver then I will stick with the 14 deg and maybe add a 16 deg at 41" just to have a super reliable maybe 190 yd club. Either way, I am done carrying anything with 45.75" and 10 deg loft.

vandyfan · August 16, 2022

@Double Gee and @tx brian - do you all still use your thrivers? I have been using a 13* Nike Sumo that is trimmed down to 43" with pretty good results and was just wondering how you all were getting along. I have experience with Pinhawk and Acer as I built up a few cheap hybrids with them that actually performed quite well. I like the face depth of the Acer Ultimate thriver so was curious if I would like the performance as well and if it would have staying power in my bag or if the allure of "15 extra yards" from a 10.5 driver would pull me back to a more "standard" setup. I have to remind myself that the higher lofted driver is generally working out quite well.

ChaosTheory · February 15

On 8/16/2022 at 11:12 AM, vandyfan said:

@Double Gee and @tx brian - do you all still use your thrivers? I have been using a 13* Nike Sumo that is trimmed down to 43" with pretty good results and was just wondering how you all were getting along. I have experience with Pinhawk and Acer as I built up a few cheap hybrids with them that actually performed quite well. I like the face depth of the Acer Ultimate thriver so was curious if I would like the performance as well and if it would have staying power in my bag or if the allure of "15 extra yards" from a 10.5 driver would pull me back to a more "standard" setup. I have to remind myself that the higher lofted driver is generally working out quite well.

Did you do anything more on the thriver project?