For the beginner golfer playing max forgiveness game-improvement clubs, the most common and dreaded miss is often right.
But has anyone ever considered that the physics of the golf club they are using are making matters worse? Because of the geometry of game-improvement irons, TaylorMade says competing products naturally impart cut spin on the ball.
TaylorMade’s new Qi Max and Qi Max HL irons aim to solve that problem through stiffer faces aimed at reducing cut spin and allowing for straight distance.
“We have patented technology that allows us to control the stiffness gradient from heel to toe … so they rebound them at the same time, which effectively gives you more neutral ball flight,” TaylorMade Product Category Director for Wedges and Irons, Matt Bovee, told GOLF.
“We’ve designed both Qi Max and Qi Max HL irons to be the most complete game improvement irons we’ve ever made. From individual face optimization to revolutionary internal structures, Qi Max and Qi Max HL irons check all the boxes in the game improvement category.”
The new irons also feature a new Echo Dampening System aimed at improving the sound and feel, something many players despise about game-improvement irons.
Keep reading below for more on the TaylorMade Qi Max and Qi Max HL irons, including my take on the release.
What’s actually new with the TaylorMade Qi Max and Qi Max HL irons — and why you should care
Creating straight distance
Because game-improvement irons use an asymmetrical design, with the toe section being much larger than the heel section, the material by the toe is softer and flexes more during impact. That flex allows the club to open more, which imparts the cut spin on the ball, magnifying the game-improvement player’s worst miss.
What TaylorMade has done with the Qi Max irons is uniquely optimize each face to make the toe side stiffer and the heel slightly softer, preventing it from flexing open.
Bovee was careful to point out that this doesn’t create a draw-biased package, but simply removes any fade bias created by a flexing of the face.
Better sound = better feel
After being able to hit the ball long and straight, the next thing the game-improvement player is looking for in their irons is the same feel and sound created by a forged product. That’s very difficult when creating super-fast and forgiving irons using a cast process. Usually, there’s a sharp “click” sensation at impact that turns a lot of players away.
That feel is almost always connected to the sound, Bovee says.
“About 80 percent of what you feel as a player is the sound you hear at impact,” he said. “So if you’re going to improve feel, you have to improve sound.”
TaylorMade found out that most of those unwanted sounds come from the upper portion of the face and the topline of the club.
Now the sound of the club is made up of three things: frequency, which is the pitch of the sound you hear; energy, how loud it is; and duration, how long you hear it for.
To tune the sound, TaylorMade expanded the Echo Dampening system to the upper portion of the face to target where those unwanted sounds were comming from and reinforced the sound stabilization bar across the back of the club.
“You strive for certain frequency and then you chase a low energy with a short duration because that’s what gives you that more full or solid feel,” Bovee said. “We pulled 49 percent of the sound energy out of impact … and shortened the vibration duration by 28 percent.
“You can feel the energy in the iron, but it stops very quickly. It feels solid at the same time. So it’s like this beautiful combination.”
Qi Max HL: Same name, different game
While the Qi Max HL might have the same name and look the same as its smaller sibling, it’s actually a much different iron.
The HL stands for both higher and lighter as the HL iron features a weaker loft package and lighter swingweights to help golfers generate more speed and launch.
The chassis size is also increased in the HL with more offset, longer blade lengths, taller face heights and thicker toplines and soles to give the golfer the most forgiveness possible.
“The feedback we got was that if we’re going to offer a high-launch option, the shape should reflect that player type, more confidence-inspiring and more forgiving,” Bovee said. “That’s why the HL head is larger.”
The TaylorMade Qi Max irons lineup
Qi Max
What it is: The Qi Max irons have been slimmed down from the previous generation and styled to look a lot more like the P-Series irons with a monochrome finish. Also coming from the P-Series, Qi Max irons have FLTD CG, lowering the CG in the long irons to boost launch and raising it in the short irons to keep shots from ballooning.
Who it’s for: A player who needs game improvement levels of forgiveness but doesn’t want to play a huge iron. Also great for players who struggle with a right miss.
Qi Max HL
What it is: Qi Max HL are supercharged and lighter versions of the Qi Max irons with a larger shape and 3˚ weaker lofts to give this player all the help they can get.
Who it’s for: Golfers looking to maximize carry distance and speed from a lighter package.
My take: Some of the best feeling game-improvement irons out there
For a game-improvement iron, it’s usually a win if I want to keep hitting it after one swing.
Five years ago, TaylorMade started focusing on making better-sounding game-improvement irons with the first Echo Dampening system in the SIM Max irons and actually fooled their staff pros into thinking it was a forged club
These new Qi Max irons are a major improvement in feel for the category, despite not actually being forged. The first time I hit them, I was pleasantly surprised by how satisfying they felt, and then obviously how high and far I could hit them compared to players irons I normally play.
You can see and feel those dampening improvements, but what you can’t truly notice is the changes in stiffness to keep the clubhead from flexing open. That’s because while we’re talking about stiffness, the change didn’t impact the feel of the club.
And an iron that’s not going to be predisposed to hitting a cut is going to be huge to a lot of beginning golfers.
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