TaylorMade Qi Max and Qi Max HL irons: What you need to know

What you need to know: TaylorMade introduces its first game-improvement and super-game-improvement iron in two years with the Qi Max and Qi Max HL. The irons place an emphasis on feel as research by the company shows that attribute rising on the hierarchy of player desires in an iron.

Price/Availability: Each iron is $157 per club in steel. In stores on Jan. 29.

3 Cool Things

1. The feel is real

“There is one attribute that we see continuing to rise up in terms of priority, and that is great feel,” said Matt Bovee, director of product creation, irons and wedges for TaylorMade. “Just because you're in the game-improvement space and you're looking for as much distance or forgiveness as you can possibly get, doesn't mean that you don't want a great feeling product.”

As Bovee knows, the difficulty of achieving that in irons designed for distance is no easy task.

TaylorMade employed dampers in the 4- through 8-iron designed specifically for each iron, with ribbed structures aligning with the contact area to get the impact feel just right while allowing the face to flex. The use of a bar in back allows the damping material to be placed higher in the clubhead than previous models for an added feel assist.

“This is the most complete game-improvement irons we’ve ever created,” said Bovee.

2. Max forgiveness

On the Max, a multi-material cap-back that is lighter than the steel it replaces reduces weight in the high toe. That makes the club easier to square at impact, thus reducing the chance of a slice—a crucial attribute for this player type.

Height also is critical. Here, the center of gravity is lower in the long irons for easier launch and higher in the short irons for optimal control, launch and spin. Meanwhile, a new, rounder sole geometry promotes improved turf interaction, higher impact location closer to face center, and better launch conditions across varied lie angles.

3. HL is for high launch

With a larger blade length and a taller face height, the Qi Max HL is “Our fastest, most distance-oriented iron with more launch and spin for slower swingers,” said Bovee.

This iron mitigates the pesky slice with a multi-material cap back that is lighter than the steel it replaces and wraps around the high-toe area. The lighter weight makes it easier to square the club, reducing the chance of finding the right-hand greenside bunker instead of the putting surface. The irons also feature extreme heel-toe weighting to provide stability across a wide swath of the clubface.

Slots on the sole allow the face to flex, providing plenty of ball speed despite lofts that are as much as 3 degrees weaker than the Qi Max, while the same “hybrar” compression damper in the 4- through 8-irons as in the Qi Max dampen unwanted vibrations on mis-hits.

The center of gravity is lower in the long irons to boost trajectory and progressively rises, allowing for more penetrating short-iron shots that aren’t at the mercy of the wind.