It would surprise no one that both Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy were within the top-4 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2025.
But former Texas star Pierceson Coody edged the World’s Nos. 1 and 2 players for the top spot in the statistical ranking this past season, gaining .789 strokes off the tee in 2025.
But all three TaylorMade staffers had one thing in common last season: They all used the same TaylorMade Qi10 driver.
The TaylorMade Qi10 was one of the best drivers of 2024 and many pros held onto the Tour-only “Dot” heads for much of 2025. McIlroy, who won the Masters with the driver this season, said it was “love at first sight” when he first hit it in late 2023.
McIlroy made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at gaming TaylorMade’s 2025 Qi35 driver during the season, but he kept winding back at home with the Qi10. And why shouldn’t he have, as he gained .671 strokes off-the-tee in 2025, fourth on the PGA Tour, averaging 323 yards a pop, good for second on Tour.
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Scheffler also did some extensive testing with the Qi35 and even had a setup he liked just as much as his Qi10, but like McIlroy, the Qi10 was just too hard to get out of his hands. He finished second, narrowly behind Coody. in the SG: Off-The-Tee rankings with .748 strokes gained. Scheffler has now won 13 PGA Tour events with a Qi10 driver, and he and McIlroy made it the winningest single driver model on the PGA Tour this season with nine victories between them. The pair also plays the same Fujikura Ventus Black shaft, with McIlroy in the 6-X spec while Scheffler in the heavier 7-X.
Coody, meanwhile, played just 17 events on the PGA Tour as he simultaneously played a 15-event Korn Ferry Tour schedule and secured his 2026 status that way. On the Korn Ferry Tour, he ranked in the top-10 in distance, averaging over 322 yards a drive and hit more than 60 percent of his fairways.
The Qi10 is continuing to be a factor throughout 2025, underscoring a trend of the longevity of 2024’s crop of drivers with Callaway’s Paradym Ai-Smoke line also in players’ bags, as well as Ping’s G430. That’s not a knock on the 2025 drivers like the Qi35, Elyte and G440. Pros are creatures of habit, and they don’t want to stray from something they trust and that is comfortable, unless the replacement is significantly better.
But 2026 is shaping up to be an awesome driver year, too. Scheffler and McIlroy already seem to be loving TaylorMade’s 2026 driver, the Qi4D, having already switched to the latest head in their most recent starts.
Another commonality is that three of the top five, including McIlroy and Scheffler, play the Fujikura Ventus driver shaft. In total, from the top-10, six players play a Ventus driver shaft, all being either a Ventus Black profile or TR Blue.
Keep reading below for the list of the top-10 players last season on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and what drivers they used.
2025 PGA Tour Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee leaders and what driver they play
If a player switched during the PGA Tour season, the most recent driver is listed.
1. Pierceson Coody (.789)- TaylorMade Qi10 (Dot) 9.0
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 70 TX
2. Scottie Scheffler (.748)- TaylorMade Qi10 (Dot) 8.0
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7-X
3. Rico Hoey (.678) – Titleist GT2 9.0
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX
Titleist GT2 Custom Driver
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4. Rory McIlroy (.671)- TaylorMade Qi10 (Dot) 9.0
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6-X
5. Niklas Norgaard (.626)- Titleist TSR3 10.0
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8-X
6. Kevin Yu (.615)- Callaway Elyte TD Max
Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond Max Custom Driver
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Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF-6 X
7. Michael Thorbjornsen (.588) – TaylorMade Qi35 LS 9.0
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black VeloCore+ 7-X
TaylorMade Qi35 LS Custom Driver
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8. Aldrich Potgieter (.572) – Titleist GT2 9.0
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8-X
9. Chris Gotterup (.566) – Ping G440 LST 9.0
PING G440 LST Custom Driver
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Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 70 TX
10. Jesper Svensson (.553) – Titleist GT3 9.0
Titleist GT3 Custom Driver
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Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6-X
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