NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Nelly Korda picked up close to where she left off in 2024, finishing runner-up to A Lim Kim in the LPGA 2025 season opener at Lake Nona. In her bag by the end of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions was the TaylorMade Qi10 Max 10.5-degree driver she experienced so much success with last year in scoring seven wins in 16 LPGA starts.
But it didn’t start out that way.
In December at the Grant Thornton Invitational, where Korda teamed up with Daniel Berger, the women’s world No. 1 was spotted using a then prototype TaylorMade Qi35 Max 10.5-degree driver. She showed up in Orlando, Florida, for the Tournament of Champions with the Qi35 and put it in play in the first round.
“Tried to dial in the driver a little bit more; the Qi35 which I’m playing – going to put in play this week for the first time,” Korda said of her offseason work before the tournament started. “Just a little bit of equipment changes, but, yeah, other than that, not really anything (new).”
Despite hitting 12 of 14 fairways in a 1-under 71 opening round, Korda went back for the second round to her reliable Qi10 Max 10.5, with which she led the tour in total driving, was third in strokes gained off the tee and 20th in driving distance last season.
Korda hit 33 of 42 fairways the last three rounds, but scores of 67, 67 and 65 didn’t have her running back to the new Qi35 just yet.
“I played the Qi35 yesterday and went back to my Qi10 today,” she explained. “It was just some things that I need to dial in a little bit more, so just went back to my old trusty. I think if you’re not confident in one part of your game it kind of leaks to everything else. Not saying that I’m not going to put it in for the rest of the year, but there is just a couple tweaks that I want to do to it before putting it in to actually play for my whole set to be confident.”
The typically methodical Collin Morikawa was not as hesitant to commit to the new TaylorMade Qi35 LS driver, which he debuted in his runner-up finish to Hideki Matsuyama’s record-setting performance at The Sentry to start 2025. Switching over from the Qi10 LS he used for most of 2024, Morikawa saw immediate results by leading the field in total driving at Kapalua – ranking second in accuracy, seventh in strokes gained and top 10 in distance.
Morikawa spent two months meticulously demoing Qi35 LS driver heads to find the exact feel and fit for his eye at address so he doesn’t overcompensate when he swings if something is just a tad off.
“For me, it’s a lot just finding one head that looks really, really good, (but) also you hit it in the center of the face,” Morikawa told GolfWRX.com. “You can get the same exact head, but just the way the weights are, everything is built a little different. It’s been good. I found a head that I like, but it’s taken a little bit of trial and error.
“If it doesn’t look square, I’m going to manipulate my hands, manipulate my body to swing it the right way. After that, it’s just launch and spin for me. … Normally it’s launching too low with too much spin. So it’s how do you raise it up but also keep that swing the same without trying to hit up on it.”
Morikawa finished T17 in his second start of the season at Pebble Beach, ranking eighth in driving accuracy (41 of 56, 73.21 percent) and 26th in strokes gained off the tee.
Scott Michaux