TaylorMade Qi10 Drivers - 2024 Forum Member Review

[tony@CIC]

On 3/4/2024 at 10:00 PM, chisag said:

... Adding a little fuel to the testers fire, I have now hit drives longer than any previous drives on 4 different holes. I have only had the Qi10 2 weeks so comparing it to over 500 rounds of longest drives on every hole and it going farther on 4 of them is just jaw dropping stuff. For me at least, the Qi10 is just that special kind of driver that only comes along a few times in 40 years. 

Interesting. Did you have the same shaft as in your Stealth 2? At my TM fitting a couple of weeks ago I didn't see much difference between the Stealth 2 and the Qi10. The TM fitter had me in both the 10.5* and the 9*. The only difference I saw was when he changed up the shafts (which of course I can do with my Stealth 2).

[LeakyValve]

@GolfSpy_BEN do you have any thought as to what exactly happened to cause the break? “Just one of those heads” or contact in a certain place?  It is truly weird to see a break like that

[chisag]

2 hours ago, tony@CIC said:

Interesting. Did you have the same shaft as in your Stealth 2? At my TM fitting a couple of weeks ago I didn't see much difference between the Stealth 2 and the Qi10. The TM fitter had me in both the 10.5* and the 9*. The only difference I saw was when he changed up the shafts (which of course I can do with my Stealth 2).

 

... Same Ventus Red Velocore shaft in both and also tried my AD-IZ. Of course we are all different and depending on how you swing and where you hit the face there can obviously be a performance difference. I was also comparing my Stealth2 HD to the standard Qi10 head. If you remember I did not get along with the Qi10 Max at all which should be more comparable to my S2 HD. 

[tony@CIC]

11 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... Same Ventus Red Velocore shaft in both and also tried my AD-IZ. Of course we are all different and depending on how you swing and where you hit the face there can obviously be a performance difference. I was also comparing my Stealth2 HD to the standard Qi10 head. If you remember I did not get along with the Qi10 Max at all which should be more comparable to my S2 HD. 

Glad you got the 'bump'. The TM fitter only had me in the standard Qi10, but then that's what my Stealth2 is as well. 

[Bad Golfer]

19 hours ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

An update of sorts: 

The last week has been an adventure, to say the least. 

Last Thursday, I went to my favorite local golf shop, The Golf Exchange, with the notion of trying out other X stiff shafts with a QI-10 LS head. There is something about the Kai Li white that I’m not jiving with. So after trying a number of different options, I decided to grab a Fujikura Ventus Blue TR  6x. 

To fully commit to the QI, and help offset the cost, I traded in the Paradym TD. Fast forward to a testing session on Saturday and tragedy struck. 
 

I went with the intention of using club spray to get some data on center strikes vs toe hits, etc. On the 2nd swing, I heard a loud sound that has no earthly business at a driving range and discovered this:

So while I patiently wait for Taylor Made to indicate how they wish to proceed, I sourced a backup plan, as the timing of the Paradym TD trade in has been less than optimal. 

A quick word of praise for this head/shaft combo. It is fantastic and will make a wonderful back-up club.  Rapsodo_MLM2PRO_110051_14031240export.mov 20.73 MB · 2 downloads  

Hopefully, in the next week or two I will have the replacement head and the Ventus shaft and can resume my testing. In the meantime, I am going to enjoy my time with the Cobra. 

The work continues…

That really stinks @GolfSpy_BEN! 

Considering you traded in your Paradym I'm guessing your really liking what your seeing out of the Qi so far.  Hopefully Taylormade will expedite you a new head out so you can continue to put it through your review process!

[GolfSpy_BEN]

1 hour ago, LeakyValve said:

@GolfSpy_BEN do you have any thought as to what exactly happened to cause the break? “Just one of those heads” or contact in a certain place?  It is truly weird to see a break like that

As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t think swing speed, ambient temperature, or strike location played a role. Swing speed is between 105-110. Temp was between 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit at time of incident. And the powder spray indicated a center strike, so it wasn’t a jarring “sky ball” type of strike. 

That leaves me with the 2 most likely culprits:

1. Faulty design

2. plain dumb bad luck

I lean toward the latter, as none of our other testers have encountered such a problem and a quick search of the interwebs doesn’t return a rash of similar incidents. But given the 2 previous generations of Stealth drivers and the well documented issues they had with the face, the jury is still out on design. 

All this to say, I have no idea what caused it, but there will be some trust issues that need to be sorted once my testing resumes.

[LeakyValve]

@GolfSpy_BEN I could imagine it might be hard to “trust” a full, hard swing after this. Especially when you get the replacement. 

[chisag]

15 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

hat leaves me with the 2 most likely culprits:

1. Faulty design

2. plain dumb bad luck

I lean toward the latter, as none of our other testers have encountered such a problem and a quick search of the interwebs doesn’t return a rash of similar incidents. But given the 2 previous generations of Stealth drivers and the well documented issues they had with the face, the jury is still out on design. 

All this to say, I have no idea what caused it, but there will be some trust issues that need to be sorted once my testing resumes.

 

... If you guys ever saw the kind of R&D Oem's go through before releasing a product you would know there is no such thing as a faulty design. All of the great engineering feats of any given driver would be lost with several posts and pictures on social media. If 20 photo's like BEN showed up online TM would be in a world of hurt. They just won't take that chance. And remember, they were working on the Qi10 Head as long as 4 years ago. That said, when you are pushing the envelope like TM has with a carbon face there are potential problems with very high swing speeds. 105-110 is a high swing speed compared to the average golfer but well within the testing parameters TM did with the Qi10. I think we need to see 120+ before any driver has a chance of failure being hit off center and causing a failure. 120+ has to be less than 1% of all players hitting a Qi10. 

... And the faces of the Stealth's that suffered fractures from very high swing speeds also happen with any other driver that has a face insert. And some that don't. They all fail. Somehow the Callaway Hawk driver slipped through the cracks and I mean that literally as that head cracked and failed more than any other. They abandoned it after one year. 

... Lastly I think every OEM is releasing drivers with razor thin margins to reap the performance benefits of lightweight areas of the club head in order to maximize weight distribution. So a small batch made in error or even one head that somehow is micro thinner than the design could fail. Taylor Made has always been very generous with their replacements and usually upgrade a failed head to the newest generation with no cost involved. Often without a receipt. 

... I have had one driver crack in my golfing life and it had zero influence on my trust with the replacement. Ymmv ...

[HikingMike]

16 minutes ago, chisag said:

... If you guys ever saw the kind of R&D Oem's go through before releasing a product you would know there is no such thing as a faulty design. All of the great engineering feats of any given driver would be lost with several posts and pictures on social media. If 20 photo's like BEN showed up online TM would be in a world of hurt. They just won't take that chance. And remember, they were working on the Qi10 Head as long as 4 years ago. That said, when you are pushing the envelope like TM has with a carbon face there are potential problems with very high swing speeds. 105-110 is a high swing speed compared to the average golfer but well within the testing parameters TM did with the Qi10. I think we need to see 120+ before any driver has a chance of failure being hit off center and causing a failure. 120+ has to be less than 1% of all players hitting a Qi10. 

... And the faces of the Stealth's that suffered fractures from very high swing speeds also happen with any other driver that has a face insert. And some that don't. They all fail. Somehow the Callaway Hawk driver slipped through the cracks and I mean that literally as that head cracked and failed more than any other. They abandoned it after one year. 

... Lastly I think every OEM is releasing drivers with razor thin margins to reap the performance benefits of lightweight areas of the club head in order to maximize weight distribution. So a small batch made in error or even one head that somehow is micro thinner than the design could fail. Taylor Made has always been very generous with their replacements and usually upgrade a failed head to the newest generation with no cost involved. Often without a receipt. 

... I have had one driver crack in my golfing life and it had zero influence on my trust with the replacement. Ymmv ...

38 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t think swing speed, ambient temperature, or strike location played a role. Swing speed is between 105-110. Temp was between 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit at time of incident. And the powder spray indicated a center strike, so it wasn’t a jarring “sky ball” type of strike. 

That leaves me with the 2 most likely culprits:

1. Faulty design

2. plain dumb bad luck

I lean toward the latter, as none of our other testers have encountered such a problem and a quick search of the interwebs doesn’t return a rash of similar incidents. But given the 2 previous generations of Stealth drivers and the well documented issues they had with the face, the jury is still out on design. 

All this to say, I have no idea what caused it, but there will be some trust issues that need to be sorted once my testing resumes.

So yeah, what about a fluke production issue then? There may be some variation from one club to the next, even on the same exact model. With the carbon face and the light body materials, it could make for worse results if something wasn't done completely up to spec production-wise, some kind of bonding process didn't occur optimally, or who knows what.

Looking at that crack though, it doesn't seem to have occurred on a seam. It's partly on seam, partly not on seam. Honestly that is a wild crack!

I'm sorry to hear about this issue for your testing! And terrible timing with trading in your other driver That's neat you have an LTDx in the meantime. I keep hearing good things about them. 

[GolfSpy_BEN]

Update: 

Heard back from TM customer service. I should receive the replacement head by 3/30. They will be sending a shipping label as well, as I am sure they are just as curious what caused the failure as I am.

So the good news is a replacement is coming, and the bad news is it is 15 days away. More time with the Cobra LTDx LS, I suppose. So it could be worse.

[chisag]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

Update: 

Heard back from TM customer service. I should receive the replacement head by 3/30. They will be sending a shipping label as well, as I am sure they are just as curious what caused the failure as I am.

So the good news is a replacement is coming, and the bad news is it is 15 days away. More time with the Cobra LTDx LS, I suppose. So it could be worse.

 

... Obviously you will keep us posted but it has been my experience that they under promise and over deliver. If they tell you 7 days and it takes 10, some will be furious. You know, angry because a huge corporate entity is sending them a brand new replacement club that takes 3 extra days to arrive. 

... I have told this story before but when I did an interview and tour of the Ashworth plant with John Ashworth, he told me to pick out a shirt, sweatshirt and vest from the production line. I did so and he said he will put in a request and have them shipped to me next week. I said "John, it is your company with your name on the clothes so why can't you just grab one off the production line?" He laughed and said both his Personal Secretary and the Production Manager would be pretty angry if he did. Everything is bar coded and scheduled for a delivery and if he just grabbed something off the production line it would throw everything into a tail spin and the paperwork would be off the charts trying to rectify the change. 

... I can't imagine a worse time than Spring for OEM's with custom club orders and just stock orders to fill coming in every day.  So it will be interesting to hear if your Qi10 comes in ahead of the scheduled delivery. 

Edited March 15 by chisag

[Josh Parker]

16 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

Update: 

Heard back from TM customer service. I should receive the replacement head by 3/30. They will be sending a shipping label as well, as I am sure they are just as curious what caused the failure as I am.

So the good news is a replacement is coming, and the bad news is it is 15 days away. More time with the Cobra LTDx LS, I suppose. So it could be worse.

Glad to see them sending a new one. 

[Jmikecpa]

Got in a small bucket today while my daughter was at golf practice and I can’t say enough how stable this driver is in the wind. Blowing steady at 15 to 20 in and from the right and didn’t miss one drive out of the dozen or so I hit. Now that the weather is warming up a bit I can start getting some true results as well as practice a bit more. First actual round with the Qi10 is tomorrow morning and also my first round of golf on Long Island in over two years. 

[HikingMike]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

Update: 

Heard back from TM customer service. I should receive the replacement head by 3/30. They will be sending a shipping label as well, as I am sure they are just as curious what caused the failure as I am.

So the good news is a replacement is coming, and the bad news is it is 15 days away. More time with the Cobra LTDx LS, I suppose. So it could be worse.

Great to hear. Maybe leave the spray on there so they know you hit it fine, haha 

[TJ Hall]

7 hours ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

Update: 

Heard back from TM customer service. I should receive the replacement head by 3/30. They will be sending a shipping label as well, as I am sure they are just as curious what caused the failure as I am.

So the good news is a replacement is coming, and the bad news is it is 15 days away. More time with the Cobra LTDx LS, I suppose. So it could be worse.

Glad to hear TM is coming through for you..hoping it arrives before the end of the month.

[GolfSpy_BEN]

3 minutes ago, TJ Hall said:

Glad to hear TM is coming through for you..hoping it arrives before the end of the month.

Here is hoping. Given the 6 week testing period, spending a total of 3 of them waiting for a defective product to be replaced is less than ideal, so any days that can be shaved off of the initial estimate would be good fortune indeed. 

[EMacK1961]

OK guys/gals - Today I'm gonna throw some data your way. Over the course of several rounds now, the Qi10 has increased my fairways hit percentage. Overall, I'm up over 18% more fairways hit. My dispersion is much better with the Qi10 vs my R15. Again, I attribute that to the Twist Face Technology doing it's thing. Overall, I would rate this TaylorMade Qi10 a 10 out of 10. My on center strikes were things of beauty. Long, mid-low flight, and like bullets. My off-center hits still went a good ways but didn't carry as far. Still, they were in the respectable range. My best was a shot of 223 carry with a swing speed of 95 mph. Like I said, I'd rate this club a 10 out of 10.

[GolfSpy_APH]

5 hours ago, EMacK1961 said:

OK guys/gals - Today I'm gonna throw some data your way. Over the course of several rounds now, the Qi10 has increased my fairways hit percentage. Overall, I'm up over 18% more fairways hit. My dispersion is much better with the Qi10 vs my R15. Again, I attribute that to the Twist Face Technology doing it's thing. Overall, I would rate this TaylorMade Qi10 a 10 out of 10. My on center strikes were things of beauty. Long, mid-low flight, and like bullets. My off-center hits still went a good ways but didn't carry as far. Still, they were in the respectable range. My best was a shot of 223 carry with a swing speed of 95 mph. Like I said, I'd rate this club a 10 out of 10.

What do you think about the shaping and visual differences between the two?

[EMacK1961]

The shaping is similar to the R15 in that it is from right to left. As far as differences visually, the R15 looks “clunky” compared to the Qi10. The Qi10 looks fast just standing still.

[Jmikecpa]

First round of golf today with the Qi10 and it has a lot of potential is what I can say. Early season rust and some swing flaws did not help nor did a completely soaked golf course but I kept it in play all day. Ripped a bomb on 3 that would have been well above three bills if it didn’t plug. 

Another drive although not to impressive in distance was directly into the wind and had zero roll. 
 

Pay no mind to the chunked wedge that was in a divot and not one that was filled.  Round 1 was a success in my book with an even par day and lots to build on. I will say that for an LS head it is surprising how forgiving the head is. I battled a few swings where I was just getting stuck under the ball and I was able to keep it playable. Mind you these were not bombs off the tee but I didn’t drop a shot and I was able to play the next shot with no issues. Top Golf tomorrow and maybe a twilight round during the week before my next round on Saturday. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Anyone feeling these more forgiving and attaining that goal from TaylorMade in making a more forgiving but still fast driver?

Anyone feeling these more forgiving and attaining that goal from TaylorMade in making a more forgiving but still fast driver?

[chisag]

47 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Anyone feeling these more forgiving and attaining that goal from TaylorMade in making a more forgiving but still fast driver?

 

... Speaking for myself, the Qi10 is faster AND more forgiving than the Stealth2 HD I was playing. While faster isn't a surprise, more forgiving certainly is. 

[funkyjudge]

50 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Anyone feeling these more forgiving and attaining that goal from TaylorMade in making a more forgiving but still fast driver?

Anyone feeling these more forgiving and attaining that goal from TaylorMade in making a more forgiving but still fast driver?

Did you see my comments on the various Qi10 driver models that I hit as part of my semi-comprehensive driver testing session yesterday? This was posted in the 2024 Most Wanted Driver results thread.

[Hook DeLoft]

On 3/14/2024 at 1:46 PM, chisag said:

 

... This is really easy to confuse. In reality swinging slower is never a good idea. What is a good idea is slowing down your body. You can swing your arms and club as fast as you can control while keeping your kinetic chain together. But moving your trunk too hard or too quickly will make it impossible for your arms to keep up. Many confuse swinging "hard" with swinging "fast". Us manly men have a ton of strength in our chest and shoulders so it makes common sense to use it, but more often than not it is counter productive to generating club head speed. 

... So like many opposites in golf like hitting down to make the ball go up, many will find success "swinging slower" if their bodies are moving too quickly or violently. But in reality they aren't swinging slower and in many instances they will actually swing faster by slowing down their body movement. 

This reminds me of a couple of things I've read over the years.  Harvey Penick mentioned giving a short lesson to a man who had large chest muscles which Penick said were of no use in a golf swing.  And Tiger Woods once said his hips move so fast because his arms move so fast, not the other way around.

[GolfSpy_BEN]

14 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Anyone feeling these more forgiving and attaining that goal from TaylorMade in making a more forgiving but still fast driver?

Small sample, but the ball speeds I was seeing with average range balls coupled with the shape of the shots and the dispersion was encouraging. I am intrigued to get the LS out on the course, with decent balls, and decent weather. With any luck, that first week in April it will all coalesce 

[GolfSpy_APH]

13 hours ago, funkyjudge said:

Did you see my comments on the various Qi10 driver models that I hit as part of my semi-comprehensive driver testing session yesterday? This was posted in the 2024 Most Wanted Driver results thread.

I did not - I will go search for it now!

[fixyurdivot]

One of the guys in my Saturday group had purchased a Stealth only to return to 2nd Swing inside the 30 day period.  He now has the Qi10 Max and it looks to have finally retired the G400.  I was pretty consistently 15 yards longer but that gap has closed.  Looks like the "quest for 10000" is showing itself on the course.

[IndyBonzo]

I built up the new shafts to try with the Qi10.  

First is the ACCRA TZ RPG LBP in M4 (stiff) flex, and Iomic grip with 5 wraps.

Next is the ACCRA iSeries 152 in M2 (Senior) flex.  This is an Otto-Phlex shaft I am trying a little longer as an experiment.

And hey @jbern notice anything?

Very eager to try these out!

[jbern]

7 minutes ago, IndyBonzo said:

I built up the new shafts to try with the Qi10.  

First is the ACCRA TZ RPG LBP in M4 (stiff) flex, and Iomic grip with 5 wraps.

Next is the ACCRA iSeries 152 in M2 (Senior) flex.  This is an Otto-Phlex shaft I am trying a little longer as an experiment.

And hey @jbern notice anything?

Very eager to try these out!

Looks like you have some posting to do in the Jumbo Max Grips Users Group thread!! Love to see it! 
 

Also, those look like good, but wildly different shaft options! Have fun testing those out!

 

[funkyjudge]

17 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... Speaking for myself, the Qi10 is faster AND more forgiving than the Stealth2 HD I was playing. While faster isn't a surprise, more forgiving certainly is. 

I found the Qi10 MAX (10.5* loft) to launch the ball very high and to promote too much of a righ-to-left ball flight, which is my nemesis off of the tee. I can counter this a bit by turning down the loft and flattening the lie angle, but since the standard Qi10 driver has no draw bias built-in, and the standard lie is already slightly flatter on the regular Qi10 than on the Qi10 MAX, the regular model is the better choice for me.

Not just with TaylorMade drivers, virtually ALL “MAX” driver models have closed face angles and/or more upright lie angles, and this is a problematic combination for me. In my research and testing experience, I have found that the Callaway Paradym X and Paradym AI Smoke MAX drivers feature a more square face angle and a standard lie angle that is not quite as upright as others. This is why the last few generations of Callaway drivers are a better fit for my swing. It is also why most of the LS or Triple Diamond models work better for me, even though this is counter-intuitive, considering that I am old (75 next week), and my clubhead speed continues to drop every year (I have lost a few more MPH with the driver again this year, to where my average is now down to 92-95 MPH, where it was 94-97 MPH last year).

Edited March 17 by funkyjudge