CALLAWAY PARADYM Ai SMOKE MAX vs TAYLORMADE Qi10 | 2024 Drivers

This 2024 drivers comparison features the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver and TaylorMade Qi10 driver. The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver features Callaway’s new AI Smart Face, designed to improve performance on mishits with an innovative, unique clubface structure. The TaylorMade Qi10 driver uses a lighter Infinity Carbon Crown to optimally distribute mass throughout the clubhead for the best performance.

0:00 Intro
2:39 Testing (TaylorMade Qi10)
6:36 Testing (Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max)
8:45 Data & Conclusions

In this video, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by Jake Montgomery, master club fitter at 2nd Swing’s Minneapolis store, to test and review the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver and the TaylorMade Qi10 driver.

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hey golfers I’m Drew molder second Swing Golf outside today at Les bolad golf course on the driving range with Mr Jake Montgomery Master Club fitter at our Minneapolis store and um Jake we’ve got a fun head-to-head here I would say these are probably two of the most popular drivers of the Year absolutely uh the tailor made qi1 just the core standard model the Callaway Paradigm AI smoke so yep um we’re going to do just a head-to-head test we’ve got launch monitor We’ve Got Jake to do some swinging today we got some conditions by the way to hit t- shots today so bear with us here the wind is going like that and it’s pretty strong but um talk to us about those two models what you’ve seen from each so far this year absolutely so I would say first thing with qi1 low spin for a core model this is not their LS model I have definitely fit the most people into this I usually see about two to 300 RPMs lower spin than other Max or kind of mid forgiveness models there but asmoke it’s ball speed if someone needs more efficiency on an offc Center stke this smart face does a really good job of maintaining that ball speed if you look on the inside of this face here it’s like a mountain range they have a bunch of different thicknesses that is all to maximize ball speed at each location on this face yeah the QI this thing is all carbon they are able to reposition that wait for launch and spin pretty much however they want yeah so that’s kind of how I see these two models when I’m explaining them to Golfers we’ll see what the results show us today yeah it is kind of interesting to see the different I guess strategies that Taylor Made and callway have taken to providing that forgiveness the tailor made side is is just weight optimization of putting the weight in the right spot to optimize the performance on Center or off center hits with the Callaway it’s the face structure primarily right with the different thicknesses on the face we’ve talked about the AI smart face um and how it’s you know it’s that design of the structure of the face is such that no human could think of it right that’s kind of the idea is that it’s it’s a computer made or computer designed Club face so um and also talk to us about the the shafts we got today we have we’re going with uh Ventus in these V TR blue 6X so these are mid launch low spin shafts they fit a wide range of golfers most people need a little more help getting the ball up the air in terms of a launch angle standpoint assuming their spin is in a good place right we’re spinning the ball at 35 4,000 don’t necessarily need higher launch went that a little lower let the spin take it up but for most people this shaft works very well very stable pretty good for the spin sweet yeah so I’m excited to see what happens here today we’re going to normalize the buttons on the on the or normalize the data on on the launch monitor so that’ll help us out today uh but yeah tailor made Q10 callway Paradigm AI smoke Max let’s get after here absolutely I have no idea where that golf ball that felt pretty good it’s just slight cut I I looked up and I saw nothing spin one Club speed little spinny there but some good ball speed and Good carry numbers there for sure and again hitting into the wind here it’s a little bit different than hitting in a nice indoor track tour van Bay the spin back down yep one 1.50 on the smash both of those balls carried exactly 272 yards we’ll take that overdraw so yeah 2083 on the spin with that ball yeah 267 car just a little bit kind of a lower line maybe a slight M hit there for you that ball should not spin at off that one is a beautiful shot with this with this that was so toey 263 yeah kind of like a knuckler there didn’t yeah the smash Factor does show 144 so not quite a perfect strike there but to see the ball still you know bound out there to 278 it’s worth something MH that’s going to be Spiner all right so we’ve got we’ve got our five shots here um the qi1 first of all just tell me what you see when you look down at that one um you know what kind of you know do you like the shape do you like how the way the crown is set up all those things I like the look quite a bit I mean I like a more traditional kind of glossy finish there this sits a little bit more open as well which me is usually kind of a drawer of the golf ball that looks very good um I wasn’t the biggest fan of the red face but the blue face doesn’t bother me at all it looks almost black at a dress so it doesn’t kind of catch your eye too much there it just sets up best way you can describe it is clean looks great yeah yeah I definitely think they’ cleaned it up nicely I also agree with you on the red face it was when I would hit that it was almost difficult for me to like align myself straight just with you know you couldn’t really tell what was centered what wasn’t uh but I like the blue face a lot more uh let’s kind of look at some averages here so your average carry there was 266 on the spin rate we’re talking about 2702 so that is pretty good considering I was hitting it pretty much all yeah there was a couple of like low face shots that you mentioned that you thought were going to kind of Spike up there into the mid 3000s that really stayed kind of low so um that’s worth noting there um the ball speed that we’ll talk about 163.5 pretty good there’s a couple there year your Club speed actually went up above like I think it was 112 113 so uh you’re you’re kind of getting a group of things out here yeah yeah um we’ll also talk about launch at 11.0 on average and then we’ll talk about the Apex height as well is on average 100 ft yeah that’s pretty much right where I want it so lot of really good numbers there from the qi1 um now we’ve talked a little bit or you mentioned the Paradigm AI smoke some of the things that you would I guess that differentiate it from the qi1 so I guess based on the numbers that we’ve talked about here what would you expect from that one I’d expect to see a little higher ball speed like I said that thing does really good in ball speed I miss it um spin rate might be a hair higher than this just cuz like I said for Max model this is pretty low spin um I’m curious to see which one wins out dispersion because in my fittings it really is 50/50 is it you never really know what driver is going to suit a player best until you try it um every company has a driver trying to do the same thing it’s just which one fits best with your swing right yeah that’s where we always try not to say the best driver of the year is this because it really it does vary person to person now we have maybe some drivers that fit into more people uh but it doesn’t mean it’s the best one especially for you the the viewer watching this so um all right let’s go grab the Paradigm AI smoke Max here let’s do it that was hit pretty good yeah yeah that’s a really good ball there 272 spin was down nicely as well at 2298 for that one um yeah you definitely caught that one in the right spot mhm oh yeah little pull there but pretty good yeah I mean a slight pull but that’s I mean I also think it’s it’s showing up to you visually little more less than yeah you got to keep that in mind there but that one’s at 2700 spin 262 um really good there Peak uh height was 99 ft what was my smash on that cuz it didn’t feel completely Center it was 149 on the smash I’ll take that so oh yeah wind is taking that draw a little farther then then uh felt real good wow that’s low spin that is low spin look at that 1739 I’m curious what it’s going to end up with the ball speed here cuz you were I think it was 163 with the q1 so I think I was swinging that one a little quicker you were you were definitely the smash Factor comparison I believe this one’s more efficient so far oh yeah yeah that was caught pretty well it’s a perfect t- shot for a day like today yeah little lower low piercing 165 ball speed there is 1900 spin this pretty good so far this is uh I don’t know what you’re playing for a driver but this is a pretty darn good setup right here I am liking the numbers we’re seeing yeah let’s get let’s get one more good one here this is pretty good oh look at this yeah that was probably the best shot of the day Jake Montgomery came to play today folks 163 ball speed whoa low low spin that that feel like a knuckler a little bit high on the face I mean it was a little high on the face there interesting there so we have a we have a pretty clear difference in spin rates here now granted this is a small sample size we’re using the well they are nice range balls but the range balls nonetheless here at Les bowstead so things to consider however um I’ll bring up the differences here we got a two yards further in carry with the AI smoke um 268 to 266 the total difference or excuse me total distance is nine yards further with the AI smoke because of that SP that lower spin which we’ll get to here uh 2702 with the qi1 2024 W with the AI smoke so and that is probably a little bit to do with hit location unfortunately this does not show the hit location so we’re not going to be able to bring that up but you commented a couple times about how you felt like the QI 10 you hit them low on the face and this one you higher on the face I hit this way more Center spin rate does not surprise me that it was better just per a contact standpoint I added more Spin To That qi1 by hitting it the way that I did yeah um what was the smash Factor comparison on the yeah let’s do that let’s do that smash Factor qi1 average 147 AI smoke was 148 yeah so I remember a couple of there was a 144 that you had with the qi1 I believe one of those low face swings so um that’s something to note there but I do want to say the the like I’ll show you the ovals here but look how despite how the the red circles there despite how maybe inconsistent you were I I try not to you know disparage you a little bit but the qi1 you weren’t as consistent but the oval is still very you know it’s it’s a narrow oval meaning that distance didn’t that 100% that’s something we very much look for in the bay a lot of people have a really long left Miss cuz it Doesn’t spin at all and a very short right Miss yeah if we are hitting it left side of the Fairway right side of the Fairway maybe leaking into the rough a little bit but it’s a straight line across yeah I love that cuz then your shots are a lot more consistent and predictable yep and you you know too when you’re out there on the golf course you have a pretty solid range of of distance that you know your driver is going to go even if you hit it off the heel or you hit it in the toe uh you still you’re going to get that same distance there so um couple other things to note I’m just going to bring up the average height you were hitting the Q 10 higher as well probably due to that spin yeah 100 feet versus 90 feet and then uh the launch angle as well worth noting very very similar there so 11.3 to 11 so very comparable um so I again it really just it comes down a little bit to how you were hitting the ball a little bit but I think we saw great performance from both of these in different areas depending on what you’re looking for right so you got like the qi1 was very very forgiving very um generous and maybe not so good a Wings by you it made me look a lot better than I hit it yeah and then the AI smoke was just extending your powers a little bit there low spin there so um I guess in terms of to kind of start wrapping this up it was a very you know kind of a quick head-to-head here outside dealing with the wind and everything but to kind of provide that synopsis of these two drivers if someone’s watching this they’re kind of still like I’m not really sure after watching this what would you say yeah so I mean I would say we saw what I kind of expected with the asmo little faster ball speed it was getting out there pretty far um the spin rate that we had out of that Qi was very good for where I was hitting it usually heel strike for me is like 3,000 RPMs to spin I don’t think we got much above 20 I think there was2 that were over 3,000 but the a I mean for the for the average to be still that 27 range 26 range is really good absolutely yeah um this to me just kind of proves my point of why you should come in and get fit yeah this driver was clearly better for me the asmoke I hit it better I hit it more centered I hit it straighter I hit it further yeah um there is an inherent reason as to why I liked this driver more than the QI they’re both fantastic drivers this one just worked better with my swing mhm yeah there’s there’s it’s as we mentioned before it’s it’s all about how it works for your swing and that’s going to vary a lot from Club head to Club head and that’s why at second swing we love to fit the club head first because uh the way your swing reacts and the ball reacts off there is going to be different for me or for you uh and for you the viewer at home so Callaway Paradigm AI smoke Max tailor made qi1 two awesome drivers in 202 they’ve been super popular so far both in the fitting Bay and then of course if you’re watching golf on TV you’re probably seeing a lot of players using them as well so uh go get fit get with someone like Jake and uh find out which of them is better for your swing so Jake thanks again for joining us today this was some great stuff no problem [Music] h [Music]