Analyzing the last three years of TaylorMade drivers with a swing robot

What’s TaylorMade going to do next? It's a common question that's asked during the yearly equipment cycle. Every manufacturer can innovate, but TaylorMade has found ways to buck the status quo. Adjustable weights, white driver heads, twist face, speed slots. The list goes on and on. In 2022, TaylorMade did something unconventional, replacing the standard titanium face with 60 layers of carbon sheets.

The design was noticeably faster.

Punching the pedal initially led TaylorMade to dial in off-center performance in recent cycles, culminating with a Qi10 driver that even impressed the robot. It was so good from every impact location, we tested each head a second time to ensure the numbers were legit. They were.

With Qi35 entering the driver space this year, the question becomes whether it can top the consistency of Qi10 and the speed of Stealth 2. This is where having a swing robot comes in handy.

Testing protocol

We run each 10.5-degree head at 95 mph, which is right around the average speed for an amateur golfer. This lets us gather a ton of useful data, from spin rate and dispersion to ball speed and carry distance across 9 different impact locations on the face. We also use the same shaft to create a true apples-to-apples comparison. We’re able to acquire meaningful data points for 90 percent of the face, so practically every kind of miss is accounted for.

Need for speed

When you’re already fast, you don’t want to give up any ground to the competition, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing from TaylorMade with a gradual bump in speed across nearly all models.

Looking at this ball speed chart, what’s apparent is the Qi35 core model has found a new gear. You might be saying, OK, it’s only 2 mph faster than Qi10 and Stealth 2 on the top end. That’s only 6 yards. But here’s where the data paints an interesting picture.

What you see from the data is a higher concentration of shots recorded on the high end of speed with Qi35. The numbers you see affixed to each bar is the number of shots recorded at each speed across the 9 impact locations. In this case, that’s 15 shots between 141-143 mph with Qi35 versus just four shots at 141 mph with Qi10.

Qi35 LS is a similar story with more shots at 143, although you could make a case Qi10 has better top-end ball speed consistency with 26 shots recorded at 141-142 mph. That can attributed to high-toe misses gaining 4 yards, versus losing 12 yards with Qi35.

And for those who constantly crow about the new stuff “always” being faster, look at Stealth 2 HD versus Qi35 Max and Qi10 Max. It was far and away the fastest — and it was released in 2023.

While the ball speed looks good on a launch monitor, we’re going to show you why you need to be looking at more than pure speed.

Consistency is key

Remember those Stealth 2 HD ball speed numbers? Here’s why speed without consistent spin is meaningless. Check out the above spin chart.

At the bottom, you’ll see spins ranging from 2,000 to 4,500 across the 54 shots we recorded for Stealth 2 HD. That’s wildly inconsistent. You might get a knuckleball with no spin on one miss. You might get a floater with too much spin on another. It’s a coin flip.

The Qi10 Max has a similar spin rate, wide and inconsistent on mishits. Now compare that to Qi35 Max, where the delta was roughly 1,000 RPMs. No recorded shots below 2,500 or above 3,600. That’s a tight, consistent range. That defines a good driver.

Having the ability to swing and not have to worry about fluctuating spin rates will translate to more distance potential on misses and the ability to simply swing it.

The Qi35 LS and Qi35 follow suit with tighter spin ranges. They aren’t as noticeable as Qi35 Max, but it’s still getting incrementally better. That’s all you can ask for from a yearly driver release cadence.

Carrying the load

So we’ve set the table by highlighting ball speed and spin numbers. Tight spins and ball speeds will produce big tee shots. Let’s start with Qi35 and Qi35 Max. Across the 54 shots, Qi35 saw 52 of the 54 shots carry 215-230 yards. It’s one of the tightest carry bar charts we saw during robotic testing and all but minimizes the possibility of the big miss, which is ideal for golfers with inconsistent contact.

Qi35 Max has an almost identical bar chart. Higher potential carry distances with a reduction in “bad balls” on the low end. The Qi35 LS does have a similar carry range to Qi10 and Stealth 2 Plus, but I’m concerned with the six shots recorded at 180-185 with Qi10 LS. You never want to see those outliers popping up in the data, even if it’s a handful of shots.

Down the middle

We're going to sound like a broken record, but consistency across the face generally translates to tighter dispersions. After seeing dispersions concentrated left of the center line the last two years, all three Qi35s are giving off straight driver vibes — the core and Max heads, in particular.

That’s a good thing if you don’t have a specific shot shape, but if you’re someone who struggles with a slice, the heavier left bias we saw the last two years of product could come in handy.

Who should upgrade?

If your driver contact is inconsistent, it’s difficult to poke holes in the data. Qi35 and Qi35 Max, in particular, saw significant performance improvements across the board. The kind of improvements in speed and dispersion that would warrant throwing them into the testing conversation.

Who should not upgrade?

The Qi10 LS driver does something you rarely see from a low-spin offering — it gained distance (four yards) on high-toe misses. Let me repeat that: It gained distance on a common miss. Qi35 wasn’t able to replicate those numbers, so if you continually miss high-toe, you’d be hard-pressed to make a switch.

The carry and spin numbers are within a similar range to Qi10 and Stealth 2 Plus, too. We’re not saying you shouldn’t switch, but there are a lot of things going right for Qi10 at the moment. It remains a top low-spin driver one year later.