This is what’s different about Scottie Scheffler’s new driver

Scottie Scheffler’s gear switches are few and far between, but when they happen, they usually signal a tear.

Everyone remembers Scheffler’s switch to the TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter in the early spring of 2024, which has since netted the World No. 1 15 worldwide wins and three major titles in just the last two seasons. He also sparked his six-win season with another spring swap this year when he went back to the Vokey .06K-Grind in his lob wedge.

But there was another switch in 2024 that went under the radar and had plenty to do with Scheffler’s success the last two seasons: His driver.

Scheffler first tried out TaylorMade’s Qi10 LS driver at the 2023 Hero World Challenge, but it lasted just one round. Scheffler went back to his Stealth 2 Plus gamer he used for all of 2023 on that Friday and he ended up winning, a feat he repeated again last season.

He continued using that driver for his first three events of 2024 before switching again to the Qi10, this time a core model, at the WM Phoenix Open. This is the driver model he would use for each of his 15 victories since that week. But in the Bahamas, as he seeks to defend his title at the Hero again, the Qi10’s run seems like it has finally come to an end.

In his first start since the Ryder Cup in September, the reigning PGA and Open champion has become the latest convert to TaylorMade’s new Qi4D driver. Scheffler added the Qi4D core driver and 3-wood to the bag this week in the Bahamas and it’s stuck through the first two rounds as he sits just one off the lead going into the weekend.

The move now means the World’s top three players — Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood — have all moved into the new Qi4D driver, along with a host of other TaylorMade staffers.

“So far the performance has been good, my spin numbers have been really consistent, ball flight’s been consistent and looking forward to getting it in competition,” Scheffler said Wednesday.

It’s easy to tell why it’s stayed in the bag too, as Scheffler has gained 1.8 shots Off-The-Tee (5th), hit 22-of-26 fairways (T3) and averaged 312.6 yards a pop.

Scheffler said before the week, the new Qi4D appealed to his eye right away, “always the first test” for him. After testing it a few times throughout the season, Scheffler never ended up putting TaylorMade’s 2025 driver, the Qi35, in play, making this a much shorter testing process. He said he and fitter Adrian Reitveld took a lot away from that experience for this year.”

“We learned a lot throughout that process of what I like to see in a driver, the way it needs to perform for me specifically,” he said on Wednesday. “Going into this year, I feel like Adrian and the whole team at TaylorMade had a really good kind of idea of what my eyes needed to see in order for the driver to be able to work. We went through a lot of different kind of options for what the face needed to be specifically for me and felt like we’re in a good spot, and then the testing was a lot simpler this time around for sure.”

Thanks to in-hand photos from legendary Getty Images photographer David Cannon this week, we can see Scheffler’s Qi4D has a noticeably different face than other Qi4D drivers we’ve seen on global Tours. While most of the Qi4Ds have a muted grey face (except for Rory McIlroy, who has a brighter grey face), Scheffler’s is the same bright blue color that was on his Qi10.

The brighter color helps Scheffler see the face better on his low-lofted — 7.5˚ — setup, which contributed to the new driver checking the look category off much quicker.

Scheffler was also quick to add a matching Qi4D 3-wood to the bag, something that shouldn’t be taken for granted given how successful his previous Qi10 3-wood was. Both clubs still have the same Fujikura Ventus Black 7-X and 8-X, respectively, in them.

Rory did what?

Since Rory McIlroy’s 2017 signing with TaylorMade after a brief but adventurous equipment-free agency following Nike’s 2016 departure from the hard goods space, the biggest constant in his golf bag are his RORS Proto irons.

McIlroy’s RORS Protos — modified versions of TaylorMade’s P730 blades from 2017 — have been a part of each one of his 16 PGA Tour wins since joining TaylorMade, including his Grand Slam-clinching Masters victory in April, and he’s played the 5-through-9-iron just about every time.

But this week, McIlroy made a shocking change. McIlroy swapped out his 5- and 6-irons in the RORS Proto and his P760 4-iron for more forgiving, larger P7CBs.

McIlroy tested a full set of P7CBs this week as he was looking to tighten up his distance control and ultimately decided on gaming the long irons. According to SMS on Tour, the equipment surveyor on the DP World Tour, McIlroy found the short irons launched a little higher than his RORS Protos and thought he would need more time to get used to them.

The P7CB long irons that went in feature a unique sole geometry with added bounce on the leading edge and trail edge relief that’s more similar to the P760 4-iron that McIlroy has played for years.

We expect this to be McIlroy’s last appearance of the year, save for the Golf Channel Games later this month. Still, it’s certainly a development worth following, especially because McIlroy seems to be following a growing trend on Tour.

More and more, longtime blade users are setting aside their butter knives for larger, more forgiving cavity-back irons. Just this fall, Billy Horschel switched from Titleist’s 620 MB to the T100. Fellow TaylorMade staffer Nelly Korda went from the P7MC to the P7CB in her irons as well.

Whether it be for more launch, better distance dispersion, or a combination of both, the best ball strikers in the world are increasingly seeking more help with their irons. It’s also a trend we’re seeing with drivers too!

Through three rounds this week, McIlroy is five under, just outside the top-20.

Sam Burns kicks off Quantum-mania

Callaway dropped their Quantum lineup of drivers on the USGA Conforming list this week and Sam Burns was the first staffer to put it in play.

Burns gamed a Quantum Triple Diamond Max 9+ head, meaning the actual loft of the head is probably closer to 9.75.

Burns is putting on a show off the tee so far this week at Albany, leading the field in driving distance with over 323 yards a pop and missing just five fairways in two rounds. He’s three under after rounds of 71 and 70.

We still don’t know a lot about this driver, but the heads added to the conforming list this week were telling. Firstly, the fact that Burns is in the Triple Diamond Max is a good sign for fans of the larger Tour-favorite driver, which didn’t come to retail until the spring in the Elyte and Paradym Ai-Smoke lines. The TD Max is simply a larger and more forgiving version of the Triple Diamond, which is Callaway’s Tour-model driver.

In addition to the standard Triple Diamond, there was also a Triple Diamond “TD” head added to the list in left-hand only. The Triple Diamond Tour Draw was a new addition to the Elyte lineup this year and offered a head optimized for players who prefer a draw off the tee. Although, this driver ended up in the bag of Min Woo Lee, a predominantly left-to-right player, who used it to help promote a left start line.

If the left-handed Triple Diamond TD is a “Tour Draw” head, it could have presumably been for Akshay Bhatia, who likely would have used in the same way as Lee, to help him start the ball right for a fade. But, Bhatia was still with his trusty Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS this week.

Lastly, there was also a Max-D head, but no Max or core on the list, as of yet. Alex Noren is currently in the Ai-Smoke Max-D and stuck with that gamer this week.

The driver wasn’t the only change for Burns this week. He also became the latest adopter of Callaway’s Apex MB ’26 irons, which continue to spread throughout staffers and non-staffers like wildfire, especially for a blade.

This article originated on Golf.com