TaylorMade Qi10 Drivers - 2024 Forum Member Review

[snoopy79]

Great questions @jbern! I have never been fitted for clubs at all. So reading about all that is involved is fascinating to me. I know how important it is because in comparison I am a bowler and custom fits are essential to get the best results.

Loving the content from all the testers! Looking forward to more

[Michael.Sandoval33]

9 minutes ago, snoopy79 said:

Great questions @jbern! I have never been fitted for clubs at all. So reading about all that is involved is fascinating to me. I know how important it is because in comparison I am a bowler and custom fits are essential to get the best results.

Loving the content from all the testers! Looking forward to more

Ooh man, as you can tell it was my first time. Honestly, I wish I would have asked way more questions during the process, mainly why certain shafts/heads just did not mesh well for me (I don't find myself particularly weak so a heavy feeling was shocking) That being said, it was an experience that gave me confidence to walk in next time with a notebook full of even more organized chaos

[sirchunksalot]

Great work on the fitting write-ups everyone! I couldn't believe how many settings there were on the loft sleeve, it's insane. 

@Michael.Sandoval33 I can relate to how you get caught up in the fitting process and not ask all the questions you'd like. My first time I went in with a lot I was curious about and I think I just jabbered incoherently. The second time was better as I knew more of what to expect, plus having a competent fitter was calming. 

I can't wait till you guys get the drivers in hand and we can hear about your experiences on the range and course. 

[HikingMike]

5 hours ago, jbern said:

Finally caught up on intros and all the other updates! Great intros everyone! Sounds like it's going to be a fun group of testers with various skill levels and forms of humor! 

As far as the fittings go, @IndyBonzo, how did you end up with a 1" shorter than standard shaft? Did they talk about shaft length in your fittings @GolfSpy_BEN& @Michael.Sandoval33? I'm curious because, at the last in-person fitting I had, the fitter basically said "you're average height, take the standard length." 

Did anyone try a different head than the one you signed up for as part of the test? I know pros like Morikawa and Nelly Korda use the Max so it seems like the ideal head might not be a traditional fit.

23 hours ago, IndyBonzo said:

Great questions @jbern.

In my case, I have played driver at 44 - 45" for several years.  I find that it greatly increases my accuracy.  Every time I try a full length shaft, I end up going back for that reason.

I did not take the opportunity to hit other heads in the fitting.  I hope to sometime soon!

23 hours ago, Michael.Sandoval33 said:

Great question. I actually did mention that I felt my current driver from the stone ages of 2003 felt rather long to me. And then he explained that drivers in 2024 are actually longer than they were 20 years ago but he did not go into much else regarding the subject. I am curious to see if it was brought up to the other testers though.

Edit: We also did not get into testing the other heads, the fitter felt confident the Max was for the best. We did adjust the lofts in various settings from 9-12. Factoring in 9.5 and 11.5 lofts as well.

I'm glad you brought this up and it's being discussed. I remember my driver when I started playing was shorter, because standard was shorter than it is now. I probably would have less left-right dispersion with the shorter club, and I've thought that could or should be part of fitting. Though it probably doesn't come up most of the time I would guess. It makes a lot of sense. There is just less room for things to go wrong with a shorter shaft.

After women's clubs, I had a Lynx Boom Boom driver originally and then a Callaway Big Bertha War Bird  I think these are still around at my dad's house. I might have to do a measurement if I get a chance. 

[IndyBonzo]

These are important questions, @HikingMike.  And I think the answer is very personalized.

According to this recent article, average driver length on tour is 44.5"  https://www.todays-golfer.com/features/equipment-features/2020/june/driver-shaft-length/

Note too how the article says many in its testing group hit *longer* drives with a shorter shaft due to better strikes.

Tiger apparently plays 43.5" FWIW.

After all my other tinkering and testing, I intend this summer to try at 44.5" or even 44" to see how it affects fairways hit.

UPDATE:  Here is one of several MGS threads on this issue:

 

 

Edited February 21 by IndyBonzo

[GolfSpy SAM]

Guys - just catching up on the thread after the intros, and you're KILLING it! Loved the fitting write-ups, and psyched for you all to get them in-hand and start the real testing.  

Great work, everyone!

[Shrek74]

15 minutes ago, IndyBonzo said:

These are important questions, @HikingMike.  And I think the answer is very personalized.

According to this recent article, average driver length on tour is 44.5"  https://www.todays-golfer.com/features/equipment-features/2020/june/driver-shaft-length/

Note too how the article says many in its testing group hit *longer* drives with a shorter shaft due to better strikes.

Tiger apparently plays 43.5" FWIW.

After all my other tinkering and testing, I intend this summer to try at 44.5" or even 44" to see how it affects fairways hit.

UPDATE:  Here is one of several MGS threads on this issue:

 

 

I'm willing to bet this is why I hit my 3 wood better and farther than my driver. Shorter length shaft gives me far more centered strikes. I'm going to have to test this out in my next fittings and if I can muster up a cheap shaft that fits my swing I may test it on my driver too.

I picked up a BRNR mini driver since I hit my 3 wood better for this very reason. My curiosity is very peaked at the moment.

[Michael.Sandoval33]

Precision Golf Center (which is where I will be doing indoor monitor testing for my review) has a Qi10 fitting event on March 3rd! I wonder if they will have different shaft lengths there that I could possibly try out.

Edited February 21 by Michael.Sandoval33
Event*

[PJVicary]

Congratulations testers. Very much looking forward to your results. This may be the last new driver I will purchase so I’m interested in all of the pros and cons. 

[jbern]

1 hour ago, Michael.Sandoval33 said:

Precision Golf Center (which is where I will be doing indoor monitor testing for my review) has a Qi10 fitting on March 3rd! I wonder if they will have different shaft lengths there that I could possibly try out.

Ask about it for us!  

Thanks for the thread reference @IndyBonzo! I'll give it a look and see what other members have to say about driver shaft length. I'm thinking about starting out by choking up on the club a little bit before making a permanent change. 

[Michael.Sandoval33]

3 minutes ago, jbern said:

Ask about it for us!  

Thanks for the thread reference @IndyBonzo! I'll give it a look and see what other members have to say about driver shaft length. I'm thinking about starting out by choking up on the club a little bit before making a permanent change. 

Definitely will! Will be interesting knowing now that Tiger plays 2" shorter with his TM drivers.

[IndyBonzo]

21 minutes ago, Michael.Sandoval33 said:

Definitely will! Will be interesting knowing now that Tiger plays 2" shorter with his TM drivers.

 I ponder this at least once a month.   How much distance would I be willing to sacrifice to hit more fairways?  Assuming distance would be lost, that is, which may not be the case.  

This is an experiment worth more research for certain.  @jbern has the right idea - choking up on the grip to give this a shot. 

Or, one of us Qi10 testers needs to win the lottery and buy the rest of us shafts in 1/2" increments to test out as part of this amazing opportunity.  Heck, do it for all the MGS forum members.  Purchase your lotto tix today!

 

[CFreddie]

20 minutes ago, IndyBonzo said:

 I ponder this at least once a month.   How much distance would I be willing to sacrifice to hit more fairways?  Assuming distance would be lost, that is, which may not be the case.  

This is an experiment worth more research for certain.  @jbern has the right idea - choking up on the grip to give this a shot. 

Or, one of us Qi10 testers needs to win the lottery and buy the rest of us shafts in 1/2" increments to test out as part of this amazing opportunity.  Heck, do it for all the MGS forum members.  Purchase your lotto tix today!

 

Great thought - my “fairway finder” shot is a choked up driver. Def something to experiment with the new driver!

[TJ Hall]

I have the thought that a shorter shaft might not lead to that much distance lost…hitting the ball consistently in the center more with a shorter shaft wouldn’t result in much difference in distance.

Posted elsewhere, but have found a shorter swing does better for my irons and the result is actually an increase in distance as I catch the ball cleaner.

[GolfSpy_BEN]

2 lots of news this afternoon, first the good news:

I received email confirmation from Taylor Made the driver should be delivered a week from tomorrow on the 29th. So yay!

The TBD news, is the stock shaft I was fit into is back ordered, so they will be building and shipping me a QI-10 LS with a Kai Li white 7X shaft in its place. The silver lining, I suppose, is this was the other shaft I had narrowed down to during the fitting, so the drop off from the Tensei Black to this shouldn’t be too severe. 

Now back to the waiting game…

[berkeleybob]

Great job on the intros everyone! 

Again, looking forward to reading about your progress!

[GolfSpy_APH]

Got word from TM that all drivers have been built. 3 shipped and last one should arrive the 29th at the lastest!

[TJ Hall]

1 minute ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Got word from TM that all drivers have been built. 3 shipped and last one should arrive the 29th at the lastest!

Man…I am excited for all of the testers!

[EMacK1961]

I'm feeling like a latch-key kid waiting for his parents to come home. Over the top excited! The anticipation is almost too much. Can't wait to get to the unboxing. Stay tuned.

[Michael.Sandoval33]

[berkeleybob]

I feel like TaylorMade could have timed this testing better to coincide with Christmas.

[GolfSpy_KFT]

26 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Got word from TM that all drivers have been built. 3 shipped and last one should arrive the 29th at the lastest!

Gotta love that kind of turnaround time! Can't wait to see some unboxing videos and glamour shots! 

[Michael.Sandoval33]

11 minutes ago, berkeleybob said:

I feel like TaylorMade could have timed this testing better to coincide with Christmas.

Maybe Tax Season?

[IndyBonzo]

Notice just arrived from FedEx.  A package is scheduled for delivery before 8:00 p.m. tomorrow.

 

Edited February 21 by IndyBonzo

[jbern]

2 hours ago, IndyBonzo said:

 I ponder this at least once a month.   How much distance would I be willing to sacrifice to hit more fairways?  Assuming distance would be lost, that is, which may not be the case.  

This is an experiment worth more research for certain.  @jbern has the right idea - choking up on the grip to give this a shot. 

Or, one of us Qi10 testers needs to win the lottery and buy the rest of us shafts in 1/2" increments to test out as part of this amazing opportunity.  Heck, do it for all the MGS forum members.  Purchase your lotto tix today!

 

Sounds like it needs to be added to the suggestion box for MGS forum tests!

2 hours ago, CFreddie said:

Great thought - my “fairway finder” shot is a choked up driver. Def something to experiment with the new driver!

I haven’t really considered choking up on the driver. My normal swing thought is “grip it and rip it!”

[Michael.Sandoval33]

7 minutes ago, jbern said:

I haven’t really considered choking up on the driver. My normal swing thought is “grip it and rip it!”

I almost used that to caption my intro

[FallenSaber]

Good luck everyone! Looking forward to the results!

[Spartan01]

Looking forward to seeing acouple of sets of tis data

[Shrek74]

[HikingMike]

On 2/21/2024 at 10:50 AM, IndyBonzo said:

These are important questions, @HikingMike.  And I think the answer is very personalized.

According to this recent article, average driver length on tour is 44.5"  https://www.todays-golfer.com/features/equipment-features/2020/june/driver-shaft-length/

Note too how the article says many in its testing group hit *longer* drives with a shorter shaft due to better strikes.

Tiger apparently plays 43.5" FWIW.

After all my other tinkering and testing, I intend this summer to try at 44.5" or even 44" to see how it affects fairways hit.

UPDATE:  Here is one of several MGS threads on this issue:

I just read this todays-golfer.com piece and that's a great article. Thanks for posting it. I'm definitely going to pay more attention to that. And it really sounds like a great topic for a "we tried this" MGS article!

I'll throw in a couple quotes.

Quote

“I’d say 90 per cent of the drivers sold in the shops today are too long for most players,” says esteemed clubmaker Tom Wishon, of Wishon Golf. “The standard driver length of 45.5-46.5 inches offered by the majority of companies is too long for most golfers and will prevent them from achieving their maximum potential for distance and accuracy.”

Quote

“We’ve seen a good number of players lose zero clubhead speed when testing a shaft that is an inch shorter than their current driver shaft, and they have found the centre of the clubface more consistently,” says Hay. “This improvement in strike generates higher ball speed, which is what creates distance.”

Quote

 

“I very rarely build drivers that are 46 inches long,” says Murray, a former tour fitter who finds the vast majority of his clients are better off with a shaft that’s shorter than the manufacturer standard. “On tour I very rarely built drivers that were over 45 inches long.”

And Wishon agrees. “There’s a very good reason the average driver length on the PGA Tour is 44.5 inches and not 45.5 or 46.5.”

 

Quote

 

We built a Callaway Rogue driver in 43.5, 44.5 and 45.5 inches, with everything but the shaft length identical. The longer shaft did produce the highest average clubhead speed at 97.9mph, which also generated the highest ball speed at 146.1mph. But the resulting total distance of 273.7 yards was outdone by the 44.5-inch driver, which generated an average of 274.4 yards, despite clubhead speed being 1.3mph slower. The carry distance was four yards longer with the 44.5-inch shaft than its longer brother.

The reason? Strike. Our tester was able to find the middle of the clubface better with an inch taken off the shaft. The shortest shaft did produce the shortest drives, but only by three yards.

Dispersion was best with the shortest shaft and worst with the longest.