Looking at the stats behind Scottie Scheffler's TaylorMade Qi4D debut | Tour Report

Scottie Scheffler finally moved to the new Qi4D driver this week.Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

For the first time in two years, Scottie Scheffler is playing a PGA Tour event without his venerable TaylorMade Qi10 driver.

After months of testing and an initial run last December at the Hero World Challenge, Scheffler has finally put TaylorMade’s latest Qi4D driver in the bag at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week.

On Thursday at Bay Hill, Scheffler snapped his not-breaking-par-in-an-opening-round streak at three with a 2-under 70. Off the tee, his stats were somewhat middling at first glance as he gained .522 shots on the field (T22), hit 8 of 14 fairways and averaged 303.4 yards on all tee shots.

Those are quite pedestrian for the guy who has been top-two on the PGA Tour in SG: OTT the last four seasons (including 2026) and led the category in 2023.

But looking closer at Scheffler’s radar stats from the 11 times he actually used his new Qi4D driver on Thursday reveals one of his more efficient outings in recent memory.

In terms of accuracy, he hit 6 of 11 fairways with the driver, but four of those five misses were just barely off doglegs in the fairway after the ball landed in the short stuff. Not all misses are necessarily equal.

On No. 6, he obliterated his ball 351 yards just through the fairway on the famous 90-degree dogleg par-5 and left himself just 209 yards to the green. That shot still gained him .02 shots OTT despite finishing in the rough. The other three lost him .28 shots to the field.

When we look at his radar statistics, that’s where things really start to show the improvement.

His clubhead speed was 119.67 mph, actually a touch slower than his season average of 120.5, 34th on the PGA Tour. Despite that, his ball speed was up 180.895 mph, more than 2.6 mph faster than his season average.

Scheffler’s ball speed is faster this season, 178.32, than last year and 2024 at the same point in the year, but a 2.6 mph jump is huge. While there could be many factors at play here, including temperature and other conditions, the fact that this jump came in the first round of using a new driver can’t be overlooked.

His carry efficiency in Round 1 (his carry distance divided by his club head speed) was 2.53, which would be fifth on Tour so far this season. Scheffler was T126 in the stat heading into this week, and he was T110 and T135 the last two years.

TaylorMade Qi4D Custom Driver

SHAPED FOR SPEED The re-engineered head profile increases ball speed thanks to improved aerodynamics developed through advanced simulations. FACE FOR DISTANCE 60x Carbon Twist Face™ is a technological cornerstone that provides weight savings, incredible ball speed and more consistency vs. a titanium face. ADJUSTABLE PERFORMANCE 4° loft sleeve can be used to adjust loft, lie and face angle for optimized flight. TOUR PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES New and improved cut-through Speed Pocket™ protects ball speed and reduces spin on low-face strikes. Advanced CAD modeling creates a design with a clean and powerful sound, a foundation of TaylorMade driver performance. Multi-Material Construction allows engineers to strategically place mass in areas of the head where it maximizes performance, speed, and stability.

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His total distance efficiency (total distance divided by club head speed) was 2.62, which would be 63rd on Tour and up from his season average of 2.572.

What does this all mean?

We’ve known this year’s drivers were fast, but now we can see evidence of it.

The fact that Scheffler wasn’t swinging as fast in Round 1, likely a little gun-shy in his first round using the new big stick, yet still increasing his average ball speed by 2.6 mph, is a massive gain. If Scottie Scheffler is picking up 2.6 mph of ball speed, that can’t be good for the rest of the field.

It will be interesting to track as he logs more rounds with the new driver and gets more comfortable with it. With that comfort will probably come more fairways as well.

But there’s a reason Scheffler seemed pleased with his results off the tee with the new driver on Thursday. He specifically called out the spin retention of the new driver on Thursday, which owes to the new, tighter roll radius of the Qi4D face.

“I feel like what we have seen is more consistent spin numbers,” he said. “So that will help it be a little bit more accurate off the tee. Directionally, I struggled a little bit with it at the start of the year, but I got to what I thought was a really good spot last week, and I liked what I saw today.”

Scottie Scheffler’s Qi4D driver specs

Qi4D 9.0° driver
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7-X
Front weights: 8g heel, 13g toe
Back weights: 8g heel, 8g toe
FCT Sleeve: 1 Toward Higher

Drivers are still unsettled

Scheffler wasn’t the only big name to make a driver switch this week.

Cameron Young switched out of his Titleist GT2 driver for an 11.0-degree GT3 with the same Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX shaft he had in his GT2. The higher loft of the lower-spinning GT3 head helped him further optimize his numbers as switching to the Pro V1x Double Dot Prototype last summer.

The prototype Double Dot flies lower than his previous Pro V1x, so Young worked with the Titleist team to see what he needed to do to optimize carry with his driver, Titleist Director of Player Promotion J.J. Van Wezenbeeck said.

Working together with Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, Fordie Pitts, the team determined Young needed a touch more launch. The 11-degree GT3 (lofted down .75˚ in the D1 setting) succeeded in getting launch up from 9 degrees to 11 while only going from 2400 to 2500 rpm spin.

Titleist GT3 Custom Driver

GT3 – Speed-Tuned Distance & Control GT3 offers Titleist’s boldest combination of power and personalization. With a speed-tuned design that allows you to precisely match performance to your most frequent contact location, you can make your biggest drives even bigger while taking total control over flight and shaping. For players with a relatively consistent impact location, GT3 offers a precisely adjustable CG Track to max out distance and directional control. Seamless Thermoform Crown A reimagined ultra-lightweight design, born from a new Proprietary Matrix Polymer. The tunable acoustic properties of this unique composite allow Titleist engineers to realize new material gains while maintaining our signature sound and feel. All wrapped in a clean look that inspires total confidence. Split Mass Construction A breakthrough in internal weighting unlocks longer drives and enhanced directional control in GT3. The Adjustable CG Track now sits closer to the face for more dynamic CG control, while additional discretionary mass is pushed to the back of the club to maintain optimal stability through impact. Advanced Aerodynamics GT3 features a new raised tail contour that represents a dramatic shift in driver aerodynamics. Previously impossible to execute due to design constraints, this advanced shaping results in a driver that swings faster while still providing optimal CG control.

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The reason for going to a higher lofted, but more forward CG head was so they could increase the launch without increasing spin. Young led the field and gained 2.277 strokes off the tee in Round 1.

Lucas Glover also added a new Qi4D driver, which is at least his third driver change of the year. That’s similar to Wyndham Clark, who is also most recently in a Qi4D and has played four different drivers this year. And Harry Hall, who earlier this season played a Qi4D LS before switching to Titleist driver, is now playing the core model this week.

Meanwhile, Denny McCarthy added a G440K.

Normally, some of these trivial week-to-week changes would go down in Odds and Ends, but it seems like more players, especially gear free agents, are swapping drivers this season. That’s likely a testament to how good the offerings are; players have taken notice.

“What I’m seeing… heads are a close battle this year,” Fujikura Tour Rep Marshall Thompson told GOLF this week. “It’s very competitive in terms of club speed, dispersion, center-face contact, start direction. There’s not one clear-cut winner from what I’ve seen.

“Even on the Tour side of it, these non-contract guys that I continue to work with on a weekly basis, they still have four or five headcovers in the bag and they’re still trying different options, and we’re already to the Florida Swing.”

Check this out

This section is dedicated to cool photos we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Sahith Theegala’s new G440K driver. Sahith played his way into the field at Bay Hill after a down 2025 by ranking 24th in the FedEx Cup race so far this year.

Sahith Theegala's G440K driver. — Behold the tee marks. Jack Hirsh/GOLF

Odds and Ends

Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.

Ryan Gerard is playing putter whack-a-mole. Used three different putters at last week’s Cognizant and then two different putters so far at the API … Harry Hall added 13 new TaylorMade clubs to his bag this week, including becoming the newest member of the Spider-mafia … That gave TaylorMade 18 Spider putters in play at the 80-man field at Bay Hill … Ludvig Aberg switched back to his previous Odyssey Ai-One No. 1, which has more loft on it … Jhonny Vegas added a GT2 to optimize his ball flight with the Pro V1x Double Dot as well … Sahith Theegala is using a Ping G440 Max 9-wood this week … Chris Kirk switched back from Quantum TD Max to the standard TD … Daniel Berger added a Vokey SM11 60.04T lob wedge to the bag.

3 things you should read/watch

A selection of GOLF content from the past week that may interest you.

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Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond Custom Driver

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Srixon Z-STAR DIAMOND Golf Balls

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