- 21 hours ago
In this video, driver expert Joe Ferguson tests three TaylorMade drivers spanning two decades to see how much performance has moved on in that time but also if there is value to be had by shopping in the second hand market.
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00:00Right, I have got three tailor-made drivers with me with a decade of innovation between each one.
00:05I've got the R7 Quad from 2005, I've got the R15 from 2015, and I've got the QI35 from this
00:13year,
00:132025. So there's going to be masses of performance difference, right? Who knows? Stick around to the
00:19end to find out. We are really excited to be working with Golf Clubs for Cash again this year,
00:24one of the leading retailers of pre-loved equipment. We've got some really interesting
00:28stuff planned for this year, so I've popped the link down in the description below. Go and check
00:32out their website and see if you can find some bargains to suit your game. So let's give you some
00:36background of the tech of each of these drivers, starting with the R7 Quad. Now this one was used
00:41by players like Justin Rose, Ernie Els, Resif Goosen. This was the first kind of fully adjustable
00:47weighted driver that was available on the market. We had these split weights, had two heavy weights
00:52of 10 grams and two lighter weights of 2 grams, which you could put in all sorts of different
00:57configurations to provide more draw, more fade, higher spin, or lower spin. It really was
01:02groundbreaking stuff. It was 410cc, so kind of a compact head, which the better players preferred.
01:08You could get it in lofts between 7.5 and 10.5 degrees. So the R15, this was from 2015,
01:15as the name would suggest. Players like Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Jason Day all played this
01:21driver. Now this came in a 460 version and a 430 version, which is the one I've got here.
01:26The 430 was more compact and a lower spinning head, sort of aimed at the better players.
01:32Now there was some interesting tech involved in this drive and I've got the spec sheet up in front
01:36of me here. So this was a new front track system. This followed on from SLDR really. So the front
01:41track was positioned 12 millimeters closer to the face than SLDR and it housed two 12.5 grams sliding
01:48weights that altered the MOI and the shot shape. This track also acted as a speed pocket to help with
01:54that face flexing to assist shots, particularly struck down low on the face. We are well into
01:59the white era here. This is post R1, R11 and the RBZ, but it may actually have been the last
02:06of the
02:06true white drivers that TaylorMade make. We got into the M1 and the M2, which kind of had those split
02:11crowns with black and white. I played this drive and I'm really interested to see how this performs
02:16today. And representing 2025 in this race, I've got the TaylorMade QI35 LS. These are both more the
02:23lower spinning models. We've got the TP in the R7 quad and as I said, the 430 in the R15.
02:28So this
02:28is probably the fairer representation. At the moment, this is being used on tour by Tommy Fleetwood,
02:33Colin Morikawa. The LS has been quite popular in terms of that tour take up. The story here was more
02:39about CG projection than anything else. Moving that CG into location low and back in the face. So there's
02:45more of an area of opportunity as TaylorMade are calling it above the CG projection on the face
02:50to hit those high launch and low spin shots. It's going to be really interesting to see how that
02:54plays out when we test it. Onto the looks. And it's really interesting to put these drivers down in
02:59front of me. I'm looking at a bit of history here, 10 years, 10 years, 10 years. And the contrast
03:03in the
03:04visual is really quite striking. Starting with the R7 quad, it's a really clean looking drive. We just had a
03:10nice plain, neat black gloss crown with just the simple T-bug logo, as TaylorMade call it,
03:15for alignment on the top. It's got a 410cc head, which is quite small, but it's made to look even
03:21smaller to me from a footprint point of view, because it's quite a deep face. They've invested
03:25a lot of their real estate in the height and the depth of the face. So the actual size of
03:30the footprint
03:31is really quite squat. From underneath, it's really quite simple as well. I like it. Other than the
03:36wake ports, which is the first time they delved into this technology, just quite a kind of a clean
03:41sole with just the R7 quad and TaylorMade written there and the loft. Nothing too fancy, nothing too
03:46flash, probably a little bit too much color for me, but I'm being really fussy there. I think it's a
03:51really nice, neat looking driver. When we move into 2015, things have really changed. We've gone into
03:57white. This was a big marketing thing from TaylorMade back in the day. You knew on tour when you were
04:02seeing someone with a Rocket Balls and R15 that they were playing a TaylorMade driver. This was
04:07really smart. Now, as I said, I've got the 430 version with me here. So it's, again, a little
04:12bit more compact and neat behind the ball, but I really like it. There's a couple of things I do
04:17like, and there's one that I don't. So starting with the positives, from a face to crown point of
04:22view, there's a lovely contrast. The face is this nice deep black color and the crown is as opposite
04:27as it gets. It's a bright white color. So you can see plenty of loft and it's really helpful for
04:32alignment. I think a lot of people really enjoyed that look. But down behind the ball, as I said,
04:38from the first one, there's a simple TaylorMade logo. We've still got that in R15, but we've got
04:42this sort of weird accent line coming off the back, which doesn't do anything for me in terms of an
04:47aid
04:48and where I'm going to take it away or alignment. I just find it a little bit distracting. And on
04:52the
04:53bottom, well, it's bonkers. There's loads going on. There's colors, there's different topography,
04:58there's lumps, there's sliding rails. And there was one big problem I thought with this particular
05:03model is particularly when you put these weights into draw mode, they'd actually cover the adjustable
05:08hosel. So you couldn't change the loft without undoing these weights, moving them back over to
05:12neutral or fade and getting access to that loft sleeve. So that was an interesting design flaw,
05:18but I have to say it brings back a lot of memory. So I really like that.
05:21Then moving on to 2025, we've got, I don't think I've said enough good things about this QI35 range
05:28as a whole. If you've seen any of my reviews, if you've seen my best drivers video or even the
05:33TaylorMade launch video, I think this is comfortably the best looking driver of 2025. So maybe it's not a
05:38fair fight here. The main stuff that's changed is more material based and finished. The premium nature
05:44of this light gray exposed carbon crown just gives it such a futuristic look compared to these
05:51others. In terms of the actual real estate behind the ball, it's not too dissimilar in size. We often
05:57talk about how drivers are massive nowadays. When you look at the footprint down next to one another,
06:01it's not as striking as you think it might be. Just before we do hit some shots, I just wanted
06:05to
06:06highlight something I noticed as I was dragging these drivers out and it's to do with the length.
06:11To the best of my knowledge, these drivers were all at their standard length for their time that
06:16they were produced. But you can see it as almost a graph through time starting down there with the R7
06:21quad, getting quarter to half an inch longer in the R15 and a further quarter to half an inch longer
06:28in the QI35 LS. What drives that tends to be the improvement, as manufacturers say, in forgiveness
06:35and playability and MOI, allowing people to use a longer driver because it's not as important to hit
06:41the middle. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out as we hit some balls.
06:47So I wanted to talk to you about the sound and the feel of these three drivers. And those are
06:51very important qualities when determining whether you actually like a driver. And the acoustics
06:56of tailor-made stuff has changed quite a lot over the years. So I'm really interested to see
07:01how this is going to go. So I'm going to hit a couple of ways and get some initial impressions,
07:04starting with the R7 quad. And I've actually already, before I've even hit this shot,
07:09I've been dinging this a little bit on the face. And I don't know if you can pick that up,
07:15but it's slightly tinnier and more high pitched than things I've become more accustomed to from
07:20tailor-made in the last few years. So let's hit a couple away and see how they sound and feel
07:25at impact.
07:30Well, I don't know what I was expecting there. I knew it was going to be a little bit more
07:34high
07:34pitched. It's all titanium construction, but I think from 20 years ago, I was expecting to have my ears blown
07:39off
07:39and it didn't do that. It was, as I said, audibly a little bit more high pitched, but it wasn't
07:44offensive at all. And I actually loved the feel of it. That was really lively. And the performance,
07:48which I'll get to in a bit, has really surprised me. So it's actually comparable to some of the models
07:53still available today. The Srixon ZX iRange, for example, that's an all titanium construction
07:58and doesn't sound or feel dissimilar to that. That's really pleasant. And when you consider that's
08:0320 years old, that's really impressive. Let's try the R15.
08:09So R15 now, there's another 10 years of development and things have changed a little
08:13bit. I remember the SLDR before this being quite thuddy. So it'd be interesting to see,
08:18because it is still an all titanium construction. So let's see what we get from an audio and a feel
08:23here.
08:27There's a little bit out of the tow. It was, which has given me a nice little draw back.
08:32That was notably a little bit more muted. Tow balls tend to be a little bit more. So
08:36I'll hit a couple more and figure out whether that's kind of the norm, but I didn't mind that
08:41at all. That was a nice, well, did a really good job for me performance with the gear effect and
08:45the
08:45impact sensation while tow-y was pretty solid. Let's see a couple more.
08:54Well, that is interesting.
08:57Some nice ball flights. That was more centered and that's a really interesting difference. It's
09:02certainly deeper, thuddier, duller than the R7 quad. And like I said, that's sort of a journey
09:09that TaylorMade have been on heading into what is now going to be the carbon wood era, which we're going
09:14to take a look at here, but that was not unpleasant at all. And again, some quite good numbers, which
09:20we'll delve into in a bit. Entering the carbon wood era now from TaylorMade in this QI35LS. The
09:29previous two drivers were both full titanium constructions. So we've got carbon running
09:34throughout this, including that carbon face. So I'm expecting to see, well, hear and feel really
09:40some very different stuff from this driver. So let's hit a couple away and see what we get in
09:45terms of that audio.
09:51So it was nicely hit, left the face open a little bit on that. But again, I don't know if
09:56you can pick
09:56it up that well on the camera here, but the audio is just getting sort of duller and duller throughout
10:01the years. It's getting a little bit quieter, a little bit deeper. And the ting, if that is a thing,
10:06is being reduced on every single shot. Let me just hit a couple more again to confirm that
10:11and to get some data and then we'll discuss those numbers. Sorry to interrupt, but if you are enjoying
10:16this content, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. We've got loads more
10:21content coming this year, not just from golf clubs to cash, but some really other interesting videos.
10:26Hit the like button, hit subscribe. It really helps us out.
10:34Well, that was some really interesting data that I've been seeing from those three drivers there.
10:40And interestingly, there is kind of a linear relationship between the age and a lot of these
10:45parameters. So starting with the R7 quad, which I loved the look and love the lively feel of. I was
10:51getting average ball speed there of 163.7 miles per hour. We'll stay on ball speed for a minute.
10:57We're going to the R15, which hopped up around four miles per hour to 167.5.
11:03And then the QI 35 LS on average was providing with nearly 172 miles per hour. And that was with
11:10a fairly severe miss hit in there, which we'll talk about in just a moment. As we go on to
11:15carry again,
11:16that relationship between the age of the product here and the carry distance kind of correlates.
11:22Again, my average carry with that R7 quad, a pretty healthy 276 yards, which I wasn't disappointed with
11:28at all. Then I went up into the R15. I saw my spin drop a couple of a couple of
11:34hundred revolutions
11:35per minute. And my carry popped up to an average of 290, which is not far off what I'm used
11:40to seeing
11:41on the golf course today. And that's a driver from a decade ago. So that's quite impressive.
11:45But then we jump up into the QI 35 LS and truth be told, I absolutely smoked those last two
11:51shots.
11:52Those were right out the screws, hit them nicely on the up, some fairly low spinners there. The
11:57last two in particular under 2000 revs, which is what I've seen quite a lot from this LS, which is
12:02a
12:02really potent low spin driver. And my average carry went up to over 300 yards, 309 yards there,
12:09including two over 320 yards. So that is an interesting relationship. I think I was expecting
12:15to see a tighter correlation between the data and sort of a closer fight here. But the QI 35 LS
12:23really does stand out. But if I open my computer here and I look at the prices of what I'm
12:27seeing,
12:28the R7 quad comes in at 59.99 from golf clubs for cash. So less than 60 pounds to produce
12:34some really
12:36usable quality data is very impressive. And the R15 doesn't go up too much. We're up at 134.99
12:44for that R15. And again, like I said, spin numbers for me there around the two and a half thousand
12:49revs mark, ball speed approaching 170 and a 290 yard carry. That's good stuff. It's not a million
12:56miles away, like I said, from what I see or what I look for in my game as today. So
13:01that is a really
13:03interesting product to me. The QI 35 LS, it's expensive. It's new. It's 529 pounds. It's at
13:10the top end of today's market. And with the data I've seen there, it's really justified its place
13:16at the top of that tree. So this is a really difficult one to summarize. I've seen some really
13:20interesting data there. And when you factor in some of the prices that I've discussed, I don't know
13:25what to think. My head's a little bit scrambled. I've seen a few things of late online, some content
13:31suggesting that there's no improvement in equipment, new equipment's a waste of money.
13:35And I do not subscribe to that. And my job as a club tester, I do this full time for
13:39a living.
13:40I've seen some really tangible improvements in loads of parameters, be it ball speed,
13:44be it forgiveness, be it spin control. I do still see the merits of the engineering that these
13:49big companies are producing on a regular basis. However, what needs to be said here is if you're
13:55looking for value for money and you are price conscious, which we all are nowadays, let's face it,
14:00there is some genuine value to be had from some of the numbers that I've seen from what I've done
14:05there. And I've done a quick calculation in my head, of course, because I'm that bright,
14:09and I've tried to work out the yards per pound. So starting with the QI35 LS, we saw it was
14:15the
14:15longest, we saw it performed great, but it had a premium price tag. I was getting just over half a
14:21yard
14:21per pound, 0.58 yards per pound. As we go back 10 years to the R15, that jumped up to
14:29a whopping
14:302.14 yards per pound. But finally, the star of the show here for me in terms of that value,
14:37the R7 Quad offers me 4.6 yards for every pound I spent on that product. I think this experiment
14:45shows that it really is value in the secondhand market. Golf clubs for cash are doing some great
14:49stuff. As I said, head to the description below to go and check out those guys and see you next
14:54time.
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