TaylorMade Qi10 Drivers — Review

You can always depend on fast, long and forgiving being included in the word salad that accompanies a new driver release, but the new TaylorMade Qi10 Max driver introduces a couple of extra terms into the lexicon.

Freakin’ Big and Badass. You see, the Max is big. Very big. Not non-conformingly big, but up against the other Qi10 driver models — the standard and LS — it stands out like Max Gawn in the Caulfield jockeys’ room.

Theoretically, the Max is the most forgiving TaylorMade driver in history and its sumo-sized head does much of the heavy lifting in that regard. However, it’s not just the Max. Based on the numbers, all three Qi10 drivers should be better off the tee.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Boasting an MOI in excess of 10,000, the Max is the standard bearer for the Qi10 driver line-up ( Quest for Inertia in excess of 10k is how TaylorMade arrived at the new name).

The Qi10 Max’s head is 8mm longer front-to-back (compared to the Stealth 2 HD) and it features a huge, round profile. It’s like the person charged with designing the Max left it till the last minute then in desperation rummaged through the pot draw at home, grabbed a frying pan and thought “genius”.

There’s a colossal portion of real estate curving up around the toe area and its monolithic appearance makes the Max’s face appear smaller than it actually is. It’s not particularly pretty but, as the existence of the blobfish proves, unattractive often equates to extreme efficiency.

While all three Qi10 drivers are new designs, some DNA from the previous Stealth era has filtered through. The carbon fibre face that debuted in the Stealth returns, reinforcing the fact that TaylorMade are never going back to a titanium face. However, this time it’s finished in a more conservative navy blue — an inoffensive, safe option that will have broader appeal than the flashier Stealth red.

The carbon continues in the Qi10’s new infinity crown. Finished in a luxurious high-gloss black, the new carbon fibre crown looks amazing and eliminates the band on the top of the driver head where the face and crown intersect. In fact, the infinity crown seems so expensive and premium that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people queued up just to see it in person. However, the glass-half-full part of me could see a crown rocket sullying it beyond redemption, with no amount of polishing restoring its flawlessness. And worse, it would provide a permanent visual reminder of the unfortunate incident.

Meanwhile, the standard Qi10 has a slimmer profile than the Max (although both are at the 460cc volume limit). Even more compact is the Qi10 LS, which has an adjustable weight on the sole that is neater and more conspicuous than previous TaylorMade weighting systems.

HOW IT PERFORMED

I was more than prepared to excuse the ungainly appearance of the Qi10 Max driver if its record-breaking forgiveness proved accessible. To be honest, the Max did feel like it was on rails. Its hefty head seemed reluctant to shift off-line and it launched the ball with incredible ease.

While TaylorMade don’t advertise the Max as being a draw-biased driver, it did seem to sit a little closed at address. It also felt like there was some serious face-shutting assistance happening behind the scenes while in motion which, if you are a slicer, should automatically improve dispersion.

The most noticeable element of the Max’s record-breaking MOI appeared to come from strikes veering towards the toe; any loss of distance was almost imperceptible and the low, snappy flight usually generated from that area of the face was much more neutral. 

On those traits alone, the Max’s massive head deserves a big tick for forgiveness. Whether it was a record-breaking tick was harder to determine. But I reckon the Max will be the most popular Qi10 driver model by a fair margin. I did find the Max had a numb feel about it, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing given its target audience. However, I did wonder whether all that forgiveness had anaesthetised feel to the point it became comatose.

Golfers who prefer a more active feel will choose the LS or standard Qi10 driver. The LS felt far more skittish than the Max and, as the player’s driver in the Qi10 range, offered flight bias via its sole weighting system. It was neatly tucked into the sole, was easy to adjust and offered plenty of fade or draw bias. 

With the white alignment stripe on the top of the face and eight degrees of loft, the Qi10 LS looked a little daunting but proved to be the longest driver for me — although it wasn’t as straight as the Max. TaylorMade reckons the Qi10 LS spins less than last year’s Stealth 2 Plus but is more forgiving.

Meanwhile, the standard Qi10 was just a little “meh”, at least for my requirements. Slotted between the Max and LS, I thought the standard Qi10 had the best-looking head shape. But performance-wise it was kind of stuck in no-man’s land between the extremes of the Max and LS.

THE FINAL WORD

The new TaylorMade Qi10 driver range is many things but there’s one very important thing it’s not. What is the Qi10 not, you ask? It’s not red. The truth is you hardly needed to be Nostradamus to see that coming. After consecutive years of Stealth, which seemed as polarising as pineapple on pizza, TaylorMade appear ultra-keen to highlight that they’ve moved on and started afresh.

In some ways the Qi10 feels like TaylorMade is processing their Stealth break-up by moving in the opposite direction — Stealth was all about speed, Qi10 is all about forgiveness; Stealth was red, Qi10 is blue. Thus, the Qi10 driver is not a facelift or a freshen up but a completely new design with a focus on forgiveness. And for a traditionally speed obsessed brand such as TaylorMade it’s a significant departure from the norm.

Given golfers are naturally hardwired to want to keep up with the Joneses off the tee, TaylorMade have been at pains to highlight that speed hasn’t been sacrificed in pursuit of extra forgiveness in the Qi10 driver range. I did find that was the case in testing. However, somewhat muddying the waters is the fact that only the Max model exceeds the 10k MOI mark — the LS (7600) and standard Qi10 (8500) do not.

The new white alignment line on the face of all three Qi10 drivers may be polarising and the Max is undeniably massive, but the Qi10 range did seem to be straighter. I suspect the Qi10 Max will be by far the best-selling driver out of the three models. In the driver game the only meaningful comparison is length and accuracy and the Max will offer enough of both for the majority of golfers.

THE VERDICT

Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror.