Carbon Faced Drivers

[Jensen]

After some research, I’m concerned about the TaylorMade QI4D driver as it has a carbon face. I’m in the hunt for a new driver, but after the issues with the Stealth 1, 2 and QI models wonder whether I should avoid the QI4D.
Don’t fancy paying north of £500 only for something to come with a 2 year warranty.
Thoughts/experiences and input appreciated

 

[RichA]

Anecdotal, but the only two guys I know who’ve broken them were visiting the driving range twice a week.
Probably one in three people I play with seem to use TM carbon faced woods and haven’t mentioned any issues.
My alternative driver is a Stealth 2 HD and I haven’t had any problems yet in 2 years.

 

[jim8flog]

I have seen drivers with a Titanium face where the weld of the face to the head has started to come apart.
I have had my Stealth Driver for some time but I hardly ever go on a range and certainly no longer hit the ball hard and it only gets used on about 8 of the holes where I play.

 

[Jason.H]

I’ve known a couple of guys that have had warranty claims on their Stealth drivers. Personally I’d avoid carbon face drivers. It’s a lot of money to invest and it’s not like they perform better.

 

[Imurg]

One thing I've found with them, especially the Qi35 that my PP has, is that the face never shows a ball mark...ok, he's a slow swinger but I've had a go with it and it's spotless...every driver I've ever had...and I've had a few...has shown a ball mark...

 

[Jason.H]

I love that my Titleist driver always leaves a ball mark so I can check where I’m striking the ball. Amazingly when putting the head cover on it seems to clear the face.

 

[Golfnut1957]

My own personal view is that I would touch them with a barge pole. Up until recently, I lived on eBay, even now, I spend a seriously unhealthy amount of time on there.

I've seen countless clubs with damage from use or abuse, but not too many failures and now there seems to be, not a glut, but far too many TM drivers with popped faces or crowns.

I saw one just last week with the crown off, a great price, I thought about buying it and attempting a repair, but in the description the seller had already tried gluing it back on, and it just came off again.

I have also read that TM are great if the club is under warranty, but don't want to know if it isn't. See last week's thread.

Post in thread 'Stealth Driver warranty claim - lack of support and customer care'

Feb 5, 2026

I am reading a bit more about the issues with the Stealth and Stealth 2 - from what I am gathering (helped a bit by Gemini AI) it appears that the issues are less prevalent in the newer carbon face models. But it remains odd design: adding the enormous complexity of a carbon face for no tangible (data) benefit. It's not as though these carbon face drivers are out performing other top of the line drivers in any way.

OP needs to go the the retailer and negotiate a settlement, I'm sure it will turn out fine.

• Klimski

If you have circa £600 to spare and intend to keep it, it may be worth a shot, but I haven't got a club in my bag that I have owned for more than a year, my irons which I got last April are the oldest clubs, so buying a new driver which is gaining a reputation for unreliability is just throwing money away, and 2nd hand are still expensive. If the face popped.............eek

 

[D-S]

My own personal view is that I would touch them with a barge pole. Up until recently, I lived on eBay, even now, I spend a seriously unhealthy amount of time on there.

Sorry to be pedantic but I assume you mean you wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole as wanting to touch them with said such an implement, seemingly, appears to be a bit odd.

 

[Golfnut1957]

Sorry to be pedantic but I assume you mean you wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole as wanting to touch them with said such an implement, seemingly, appears to be a bit odd.

No need to apologise, you are of course quite right.

I won't bother editing the original, we'll settle for this as the correction

 

[KenL]

Loads of people I play with have had TM carbon faced clubs. Never heard of any issues.

 

[Klimski]

Go with Ping. There are at least two threads on this board dealing with TM issues and warranty issues. Why bother, there are so many alternatives. And there's a new YouTube clip where an expert tests 7 yrs of TM driver's and the TM Sim driver was as good as the Qi4 ...

 

[Smoj]

was a decent thread about this a few weeks ago.. but I'll recur.
I had a stealth hd for several years, had some wear, yes, but never broke on me, but after playing with a carbon face driver for so long, as soon as you go back to a metal driver it just feels and sounds so much better, and in my case, going from a stealth hd to a ping g430, the amount of forgiveness i gained with a ping was off the charts. That said i've always loved the look of the stealth, it has that Cylon Battlestar Galactica vibe

 

[Klimski]

Here's the link to the testing:

 

[Neilds]

Go with Ping. There are at least two threads on this board dealing with TM issues and warranty issues. Why bother, there are so many alternatives. And there's a new YouTube clip where an expert tests 7 yrs of TM driver's and the TM Sim driver was as good as the Qi4 ...

The trouble with expert tests is the expert can hit the centre of the club face more often than we can. Over 7 years drivers have improved distance on off-centre strikes rather than when hitting the sweet spot. A test done by a mid handicap player would probably show completely different results.

 

[Golfnut1957]

The trouble with expert tests is the expert can hit the centre of the club face more often than we can. Over 7 years drivers have improved distance on off-centre strikes rather than when hitting the sweet spot. A test done by a mid handicap player would probably show completely different results.

The one to watch in that case is "Ask Golf Nut". He doesn't seem to be that popular and a lot of the time he is focused on Mizuno, but he test clubs at 3 different swing speeds and hits them all over the face.

His videos can be a hard watch as he goes through the data almost shot by shot, you get all the data, swing speed, ball speed, location of strike and of course outcome. He also shows a heat map of the efficiency of a club, which can either confirm that is club is as forgiving or otherwise.

Long date-driven videos, but I find them more useful than most.

 

[Neilds]

Not

The one to watch in that case is "Ask Golf Nut". He doesn't seem to be that popular and a lot of the time he is focused on Mizuno, but he test clubs at 3 different swing speeds and hits them all over the face.

His videos can be a hard watch as he goes through the data almost shot by shot, you get all the data, swing speed, ball speed, location of strike and of course outcome. He also shows a heat map of the efficiency of a club, which can either confirm that is club is as forgiving or otherwise.

Long date-driven videos, but I find them more useful than most.

Not into all the technical data, and not too worried about how other people hit a club. Would much rather try a few myself and pick that way.

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

Go with Ping. There are at least two threads on this board dealing with TM issues and warranty issues. Why bother, there are so many alternatives. And there's a new YouTube clip where an expert tests 7 yrs of TM driver's and the TM Sim driver was as good as the Qi4 ...

The only driver I’ve broken was a Ping G something. The hosel cracked, which it turns out was quite common.

 

[Taz]

Ross is very good.
His bottom line is get fitted.

I plan a visit this year

https://youtube.com/@epgolfstudios?si=SEi048kNnOwDAWTz

 

[Jensen]

Thanks guys for all your input. Will be approaching TaylorMade with a large element of caution