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Today, I’ll be reviewing the TaylorMade Qi35 fairway wood.
The Qi35 is TaylorMade’s newest fairway wood release and successor to the Qi10. Engineered to be viable for a wide range of golfers, it’s meant to deliver an optimal blend of distance, forgiveness, launch, versatility, and adjustability.
How does the Qi35 fairway wood actually perform when put to the test? How does it compare to the previous generation? Who is it best suited for? Is it worth putting in the bag?
Here’s what will be covered in the review:
Read on to learn what you need to know to make an informed purchase.
Note: Unless otherwise indicated, stock shafts and stock grips are used when evaluating clubs and the 3W is evaluated in the case of fairway woods. In most cases, the golf clubs reviewed on Golfstead are acquired temporarily for testing purposes and are not purchased. The review that follows is based on the personal experience and research of the author. Because everyone’s swing and body are different, results with a particular club may differ from person to person.
What are the reviews like?
The Qi35 fairway wood won a gold medal on the Golf Digest 2025 Hot List and enjoys wide praise from critics and consumers, with a 4.8/5 (98% recommended) rating on the official TaylorMade store.
What People Like
- solid distance
- good forgiveness
- adjustable head
- easy to hit
- looks great at address
What People Don’t Like
- glossy sole finish wears quickly
The Features
The Qi35 fairway wood has a premium multimaterial construction consisting of carbon, steel, aluminum, and lightweight chromium. Combined with a center of gravity (CG) that is optimized for each loft, the result is consistent performance from a variety of lies.
The fairway wood also benefits from a 4° loft sleeve that enables the adjustment of loft, lie and face angle. There are 12 possible sleeve variations that can increase or decrease the loft and lie angle by ±2°, and the face angle by ±4°. This allows golfers to dial in their ball flight.
In addition, many proven and tested TaylorMade technologies return in their latest iterations, including:
- Infinity Carbon Crown: this special carbon crown design extends virtually all the way to the top line to cover nearly the entire top of the fairway wood, enabling weight savings that are redistributed to increase MOI.
- Thru-Slot Speed Pocket: this pocket increases sole flexibility, leading to increased ball speed and forgiveness low on the face.
- Carbon Twist Face: 60 layers of carbon sheets are strategically arranged to maximize energy transfer and ball speeds in all regions of the face.
Stock Info
The Qi35 fairway wood is available in 3W, 3HL, 5W and 7W at lofts 15°, 16.5°, 18° and 21°, respectively.
The stock graphite shafts are the Fujikura VENTUS Blue Fairway 5 & 6, and the stock grip is the Golf Pride ZGRIP. Custom options are available.
If you’re interested, full information on the fairway wood, shafts, grips and their specs can be found here.
Below are the specs of the Qi35 fairway wood. Click or zoom to enlarge.
The Performance
In the sections that follow, I’ll talk about my experience with the Qi35 fairway wood. Let’s jump right in.
Distance
Based on my field test, the Qi35 appears to have a small advantage in ball speed over the Qi35 Max of about 1-2 mph. Spin is generally lower by at least a couple hundred RPMs.
In my case, I was seeing a fairly significant carry distance advantage of nearly 10 yards, but your ultimate distance results may vary.
Having said this, distance is excellent overall and is competitive with the latest models of other reputable OEMs.
Forgiveness
I would say that the forgiveness of the Qi35 fairway wood is good based on my testing.
It’s definitely not as forgiving as the Max and Max Lite models, but there is some stability at impact that limits the loss of ball speed on mis-hits. Dispersions are also respectable.
Having said this, your poor strikes certainly have the potential to miss the target pretty significantly, whether you’re trying to hit a narrow fairway off the tee or find the green on a long approach.
Playability/Trajectory
The Qi35 fairway wood tends to produce a mid launch with mid spin. Both launch and spin are modestly lower than the Max model, and the flight bias is more or less neutral.
Most golfers with faster swing speeds should have no trouble getting the ball airborne, but slower swingers may struggle in this regard, particularly with the 3W.
Nevertheless, this club has great versatility both off the tee and off the deck. The 4° loft sleeve can be used to change the loft and flight bias of the club (draw or fade), and there is inherent workability in the Qi35 on top of that.
The Look
The Qi35 fairway wood has a 185cc head size, which is somewhat on the larger side. The profile is fairly stretched back, but not as stretched as the Qi35 Max, and has a hint of a pear shape.
Similarly, the face is on the shallow side but not as shallow as the Max model. This allows great playability from both tight lies and off the tee.
One of the most striking visual aspects of the Qi35 fairway is its chromium carbon fiber theme. This theme, which is found across the entire Qi35 family of drivers, fairways and hybrids, has a matte finish on the crown and glossy finish on most of the sole.
Unlike past fairway wood models from TaylorMade, the sole aesthetic is relatively clean with understated logoing. The mostly monochrome colour scheme consists mainly of a lighter grey, punctuated with a couple light green accents.
The Sound & Feel
The Qi35 embodies the kind of feel I love in a fairway wood. It’s muted but also quite solid, and the ball feels powerful and responsive with good compression off the face.
The sound of the Qi35 fairway wood is a crisp “snap”. It’s a bit sharper than I was expecting and not entirely consistent with the feel, but you can tell there are forces at work that are dampening the acoustics.
Mis-hit feedback is good overall, as mis-hits lack much of the responsiveness and solidness of center strikes and generally sound worse.
Where To Buy This Fairway Wood Online
You can order a Qi35 fairway wood with your choice of loft and shaft, or optionally do a full customization, on TaylorMade’s official store.
Another option is Global Golf. They offer a performance guarantee, a try-before-you-buy program (UTry), club trade-ins, and other incentives designed to enhance the buying experience.
You can also buy the Qi35 fairway wood from PGA TOUR Superstore and Amazon.
Don’t forget about eBay, where you can often find unbeatable deals on new and used golf equipment.
Final Thoughts
A worthy successor to the Qi10, the TaylorMade Qi35 is a rock solid fairway wood that offers well-rounded performance with loft sleeve adjustability.
Distance is competitive with other fairways from other OEMs, and the club is forgiving and versatile out of a variety of lies. Throw in a modern confidence-inspiring look and sublime feel, and the Qi35 is a real joy to hit in all respects.
Are you interested in the Qi35 fairway wood? Have you played it? What’s your experience? Tell us about it in the comments below.
