TaylorMade Qi35 fairway woods: What you need to know
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: TaylorMade’s latest line of Qi35 fairway woods consists of four models (Core, Max, Tour and Max Lite) boasting the equipment manufacturer’s patented twist face technology, thru-slot speed pocket and infinity carbon crown. On the heels of Qi10’s success on tour—specifically in the fairway-wood department—and at retail, TaylorMade made several smart improvements in an attempt to maintain momentum in the marketplace.
AVAILABILITY/PRICING: TaylorMade’s Qi35 fairway wood ($350) is available in four lofts (15, 16.5, 18, 21 degrees) with Fujikura’s Ventus Blue FW 25 shaft; Qi35 Max ($350) comes in four lofts (15.5, 18.5, 21.5, 24.5 degrees) with Fujikura’s Air Speeder 25 shaft; Qi35 Tour ($450) is offered in three lofts (15, 18, 21 degrees) with Mitsubishi’s Kaili Blue DarkWave FW 75 shaft; and Qi35 Max Lite ($350) features three lofts (15.5, 18.5, 21.5 degrees) with Mitsubishi’s Vanquish 4 shaft. The standard grip for all four models is Golf Pride’s Z-Grip.
3 Cool Things
1. Meaningful changes: The loft sleeve is a simple piece of technology that tends to get overlooked when golfers are seeking something new for the bag. In some cases, a simple turn of the wrench can make a world of difference if you have a club that doesn’t feel right in certain situations.
Of course, you need to possess a club with an adjustable loft sleeve to reap the benefits of a minor modification or two, something TaylorMade’s Qi10 fairway wood lineup didn’t feature across the board last year. Only the Tour model offered the ability to adjust the loft, lie and face angle.
That will change with the introduction of Qi35. All 3- and 5-woods, along with the Tour 7-wood, will offer an adjustable loft sleeve boasting four degrees of range.
“We want to be the leaders in fit,” said Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of wood and putter product creation. “For this year, the question became how can we put loft sleeves in fairway woods without losing face performance?”
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While the loft sleeve might seem like an easy add, TaylorMade’s design team refrained from adding one to all models until the team felt it could “elevate the fitting experience” and give golfers the chance to make meaningful improvements.
2. Need for speed. The Qi35 “core” head should capture a large swath of golfers, which is why TaylorMade paid close attention to the head height and skirt shape. Designers shallowed out the head height by 1.4mm to get the center face closer to the equator of the ball for increased ball speeds.
The address and skirt lines were also lowered by 2mm and 1mm to place weight low to the ground for better mass properties.
Like most improvements in the club-design world, there’s generally a tradeoff to be made. In the case of Qi35, lowering the head height not only reduced the face profile but made the structure stiffer and less efficient in the energy transfer department. To combat the issue, the face thickness was optimized to preserve ball speed, meaning there’s no drop in pop or COR from Qi10 to Qi35. That’s a good thing for golfers who need a fairway wood that’s good from the tee and turf.
3. Fresh look. The sliding weight found in the sole of TaylorMade’s Qi35 Tour has undergone some noticeable changes since it was introduced in 2023 with Stealth 2 Plus.
What started as a 50-gram weight that could be positioned well forward and all the way in the rear to significantly alter launch and spin has evolved into a lighter 40-gram weight along a shorter track.
The adjustable weight can now be rotated 180 degrees to place more mass forward (for distance purposes) or back (tighter dispersion) with the turn of a wrench.