Gear: TaylorMade Qi10, Qi10 Max, Qi10 LS drivers
Price: $599 each for Qi10 and Qi 10 Max with Fujikura Speeder NX TCS shaft, Fujikura Ventus Blue TR shaft or Mitsubishi Tensei AV Limited Blue shaft and Golf Pride Z-Grip grip. $629 for the Qi10 LS with the same shaft options.
Specs: 60-layer carbon fiber face, carbon fiber crown and sole with Speed Pocket slot, adjustable hosel and moveable weight (Qi10 LS).
Available: Feb. 2, but available for pre-sale NOW
Who They’re For: Golfers who want to maximize forgiveness without sacrificing distance (Qi10, Qi10 Max), or players who need a low-spin driver that also delivers shot-shaping and adjustability (Qi10 LS).
The Skinny: By making the carbon fiber crown in the Qi10 drivers larger and shifting weight to optimal positions, TaylorMade added company-best forgiveness to its newest driver family while helping golfers gain ball speed and accuracy.
The Deep Dive: For decades, golf equipment makers have tried to balance a paradox about drivers. The traits that often produce more ball speed and distance can diminish stability, but increasing a club’s moment of inertia and making it more resistant to twisting on off-center hits can come at the price of ball speed. In other words, getting more of one typically means giving up some of the other.
In the Qi10 driver family, specifically the Qi10 Max driver, TaylorMade set out to change that, bringing more forgiveness and a higher moment of inertia to drivers while also delivering more ball speed.
Designers did three things: Used more lightweight materials, reshaped the head and put weight in places where it does the most benefit.
They started by increasing the amount of carbon fiber on the top of the club. It had covered 79 of the top in the company’s recent Stealth 2 model, but in the Qi10 Max the carbon fiber is up to 97 percent thanks to a design called Infinity Crown that nearly eliminates the ledge the carbon fiber rests on.
The carbon fiber Infinity Crown weighs less than previous TaylorMade crowns. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The crown now weighs only 15 grams and attaches to a 16-gram carbon composite ring in the back of the head. That part also holds a nine-layer, 21-gram carbon fiber sole plate along with a 71-gram titanium front piece that encircles the face and attaches to the hosel.
Those ultra-light materials allowed TaylorMade to make the Qi10 Max driver bigger than the Stealth 2 Max from front to back. It’s…
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