TaylorMade Qi4D Driver Review

2025 was a strange year for TaylorMade in the driver department. Despite dominating the ‘What’s in the Bags’ thanks to Scottie, Rory and Tommy racking up a combined 10 wins on the PGA Tour, on the biggest stages, they chose not to use TaylorMade’s latest driver, the Qi35.

This was quite heavily documented at the start of the year when Rory won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am using 2024’s Qi10. Given the year he (and Scottie of course) went on to have, even the fella who manages their contracts at TaylorMade would have been daft to intervene.

2026 however is already turning out to be a different story. November last year saw McIlroy put the new Qi4D driver in the bag at the Abu Dhabi HSBC and Australian Open, claiming “It’s the fastest driver switch I’ve ever had” and continuing to say after just three shots hitting his new toy “that’s it, we can go for lunch”.

If 2025 had an uncharacteristically slow start for TaylorMade, 2026 has certainly been a fast one, in more ways than one.

The new line-up features four new heads, the Qi4D (standard), LS, Max and Max Lite. In this review I’ll be putting the Qi4D through its paces.

Who Is It Aimed At?

I find that not everyone loves TaylorMade drivers, they can be quite polarising – especially to Ping and Titleist enthusiasts. The marketing and brashness of their products can sometimes get in the way of what has been great gear for years now.

However, what TaylorMade always do extremely well is generate intrigue from all golfers. Because of its looks and the hands of the players this club will be in, there’s not a golfer on the planet that won’t want to take a closer look.

The Qi4D has been designed considering Tour feedback and advanced simulations to come up with an aerodynamically efficient, confidence-inspiring shape. This is the model that will be most popular out of the four. The one that’s used by Rory and Scottie, but also largely inconsistent 7 handicappers… yours truly.

The Tech

The name Qi4D is derived from TaylorMade’s focus on four key areas of the club, hence the idea of it being 4-dimensional approach: face, head, shaft, and the overall fitting process.

There’s a lot of talk of head shape with Qi4D. A re-engineered head profile and improved aerodynamics are said to result in more ball speed.

The face, a 60x Carbon Twist Face is back and said to be providing all the same benefits of previous years: weight savings, extra ball speed and more consistency with added durability. This year TaylorMade have also made an upgrade to the face with reflective markers for custom fitting available to consumers to buy.

A new head weighting system, utilising four Trajectory Adjustment System weights (2x 9g and 2x 9g) gives the heads the ability to adjust flight and spin.

Reax shafts also make a return (staunch TaylorMade fans will remember these being synonymous with products like the R7 drivers) as TaylorMade attempt a “revolution in shaft fitting.” There are three different options: Mid Rotation (MR), High Rotation (HR) and Low Rotation (LR) for golfers to be fitted into based on their rotation rate and play one the shafts matching their unique swing profile.

Other technologies we’ve become accustomed to seeing are the cut-through Speed Pocket and a multi-material construction allowing for them to strategically place mass in areas of most benefit to the golfer.

It’s a lot, but this is TaylorMade – you’re bound to be used to it by now…

TaylorMade Qi4D Driver Review

Looks

In terms of sole-aesthetic, the TaylorMade Qi4D is one of the best-looking drivers I’ve seen – it really does look that good. This driver just looks cool.

The colour scheme is muted with only minimal use of a rich navy blue accent on the back of the head, and small flashes of burnt orange on the sole.

Usually, we see the product name emblazoned on a new driver head. TaylorMade have taken a more subtle approach this year by replacing this with just the TaylorMade ‘T’ icon. ‘Qi4D’ is tucked away on the heel.

The colourways, shaping and use of carbon all come together to create a driver that looks sleek and super-fast. By that I mean it looks like it’s been developed by a Formula One team. Now I’m not F1 fan, but I’m a big fan of how this driver looks.

At address, TaylorMade drivers haven’t always suited my eye. Going back to models like the M3/M4 and M5/M6, even up to as recently as the SIM and SIM2 I always felt they sat a little flat and the shaping didn’t inspire much confidence. This is something TaylorMade have tweaked with recent releases and the Qi4D looks great, striking a nice balance.

The crown is very similar to last year’s Qi35 apart from having a slightly darker finish, which I think is a nice move, if I’m being honest, I think they could even make it darker…

The only thing I didn’t like was the look of the face at address. I found there was a lot of glare from the carbon cover. The grooves on the face were really visible too, which took a bit of getting used to and may put some players off.

Feel

The Carbon Twist Face is said to be more durable this year, but I wouldn’t say that affects the feel off the face. I still found it to feel similar to that of a run of the mill titanium face.

If you put this driver in the hands of five different golfers and got them to compare it directly to a driver with a titanium face, apart from the sound, I doubt they’d realise any difference.

Performance

I was lucky enough to test this driver in a custom fitting session at Wallasey Golf Club, where I tried two of the Reax shaft options: Medium Rotation and High Rotation as well as two of the four heads: the standard Qi4D and the Qi4D LS.

The fitting process was great illustration of why TaylorMade are putting so much focus into a golfer’s rotation rate and adjusting to that.

Using the QiD4 with a stiff mid-rotation shaft I was achieving an average ball speed over 153.6, which isn’t crazy fast, but a decent starting point. Spin was at 2800 rpm giving me a carry of 250 yards.

Switching to the same head however with a stiff high rotation shaft is where things began to improve in accuracy, consistency and speed. I began to average 155 mph, whilst also achieving my fastest ever ball speed of 160 (which is good going for me).

My average spin was at 2390 rpm and carry at 259 yards with a total of 283. Focusing on speed alone, these are numbers I’d be really happy with.

In terms of consistency and accuracy, I found it too. With the shots I hit with this driver, you could throw a blanket over where they finished, which was really pleasing to see.

You can talk all you want about ball speed and carry distance but if you’re not in the fairway, it’s pointless. Thankfully with the Qi4D head, I found the lot!

TaylorMade Qi4D Driver Verdict

The Qi4D is a great driver. Many golfers may say that the looks don’t really matter, but they really do. The Qi4D is one of the most photogenic drivers I’ve seen in recent times, so immediately you get a good vibe about wanting to hit it well. There’s maybe an extra level of focus, an extra mph in swing speed and that can only be a good thing.

Although there isn’t a ton of new technology with this new driver line-up, instead more of an improved fitting story, I think it makes total sense and golfers will really get onboard with it, making it one of the best-selling drivers of 2026.

In terms of price, it’s £50 cheaper than it’s arch-rival: the new Callaway Quantum Max with an RRP of £549 – which dare I said it, is actually quite competitive.

I found the performance of this driver to offer the best of both worlds. Having Rory, Scottie, Tommy and Charley Hull all put it in the bag instantly, will certainly help to get the party started.