TaylorMade Golf makes some of the best drivers in the game of golf, so when it decides to release a new family, the golfing world sits up and takes notice. The Qi10 range was a roaring success last year - just ask Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda - so what has TaylorMade got in store for us this time around? Allow me to introduce you to Qi35…
WATCH: Joe Ferguson takes an in-depth look at the TaylorMade Qi35 driver range
The tech story behind the Qi35 range - which encompasses the Qi35 that we are talking about here, and also the Qi35 LS, and Qi35 Max - is all about CG projection. Without wanting to go too technical, essentially the clubhead has been engineered in such a way that the CG projects out to the face as low as possible, to increase what TaylorMade is referring to as ‘the area of opportunity’. Think about that strike you’ve probably all experienced that has come slightly high off the face, launching high but with minimal spin, and has gone absolutely miles. That has occurred because the ball has struck the face slightly above the CG projection creating a vertical gear effect that boosts launch and knocks off spin.
So, if that CG projection is lower then that gives you more chance of seeing those optimal flight conditions, right? Well, that is certainly what TaylorMade believes and it has tackled this through saving and subsequently moving discretionary weight around the club head (specifically from the crown, the ring, and the hosel sections) to bring that balance point or CG projection as low as possible.
Furthermore, we have two adjustable weights in the sole that can be switched to fine-tune launch and spin, a multi-material construction that includes chromium carbon, steel, aluminum, tungsten and titanium as well as a fourth-generation carbon twist face.
The new visual TaylorMade has created in the Qi35 is nothing short of spectacular. The head is predominantly a light grey carbon that wouldn’t look out of place as the interior of a supercar, and the minimalist way TaylorMade has executed the overall finish is as good as I have ever seen. There is the merest hint of accent color with just a handful of tiny pale green splashes on the sole that you have to look extremely closely to even notice.
From the playing position, things have once again moved on from the extremely successful Qi10 driver. The shape at address is significantly rounder, so much so that the Qi35 is now the identical playing profile to the higher MOI Qi35 Max product. One of the reasons I chose the Qi10 last year as my gamer driver was due to the roundness of the head which is a look I have become very keen on in recent years, but when you put that driver down next to the Qi135, it looks positively pear-shaped now.
Performance wise it really delivers too. I gathered my data for Qi35 at the Foresight Sports UK HQ using the GCQuad launch monitor and Titleist Pro V1x golf balls and the results were impressive....
One thing that massively stood out to me was just how much difference changing around the adjustable weights made to the performance characteristics of the Qi35. In the neutral setting, you are served up a 9k MOI reading (for context Qi10 delivered 8.4k) which I found an incredibly stable, forgiving, fairway-finding driver that gave me real peace of mind at address, but switch that heavier weight to the front and you are looking at an entirely different beast.
The MOI output drops slightly to 8.1k and the CG projection also drops considerably. In this 'beast mode' setting, my spin dropped around 250 rpm, and my overall distance output crept up not an insignificant amount. Inevitably my dispersion suffered a little, but not as much as I would have imagined, which I put down to the higher MOI shaping. In many on-course situations, this very slight increase in volatility may well be offset by the potential distance gains on offer and this is where I think the Qi35 may inadvertently pose a problem to its sibling the Qi135 LS driver.
In 2024, so many of TaylorMade’s tour staff - including arguably its two most high-profile male players in Scheffler and Rory McIlroy - gamed a version of the Qi10 as opposed to the Qi10 LS, which may have been the expected route given historical precedent. It seemed that the thinking was that if a very similar spin profile was achievable with a more forgiving head, then why would you make life more difficult for yourself? That idea feels like it may be even more prevalent this year with the ‘beast mode’ option, which the adjustable sole weights have facilitated, so I expect to see more of the same on tour in 2025.
Feel off the face has slightly altered to me too this year, with a slightly livelier, more high-pitched acoustic creating a touch more of a firmer feel to impact which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now this is all relative to the ‘carbonwood’ products of the past few seasons, and the TaylorMade sound and feel still remain much more subdued and ‘thuddier’ than pretty much anything else on the market, but the extra 'zing' at strike is just another enjoyable feature of a much-improved driver for me.
There’s genuinely not much I don’t like about this driver. If I were pushed, I would remove the accent color splashes altogether as I think that would have created an even more premium and slicker visual feel, but they are so small you barely notice them anyway. The stunning looks, impressive performance, and high levels of versatility make this a real standout product for 2025, and very much a contender to be finding a place in my own bag.
The Qi35 will be available for an RRP of £529/$599 with stock shaft offerings of either the Fujikura Ventus Blue or the Mitsubishi Diamana T+.
