Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa’s Driver Clinic

It’s a collaboration of Distance x Forgiveness off the tee, as Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa share their secrets with Qi35 Driver.

Rory is known for his prodigious length off the tee, and has used it to capture the career Grand Slam.

Collin is known for being one of the straightest drivers of the ball on the planet, consistently ranking in the top-10 in accuracy.

The two major champions are here to share their secrets on technique, swing thoughts using the new Qi35 Driver.

Learn more about Qi35 Driver here: https://tmgolf.co/YTQi35

[Music] [Music] Hey Rory, we’re here with the QI 35 driver to talk about distance and forgiveness. So, uh I think we start with the distance aspect. Okay. Show us some shots here. All right. All right. Happy to. So, you’ve been uh consistently obviously one of the longest drivers on tour. I think you’ve gone second first the past few years. Yeah. Um talk about, you know, for someone who is 5’9. Yeah. Right. Or a little smaller than most people out there. Yeah. How have you gained? I mean, you’ve always been fast, but how have you consistently stayed at the top and continuously getting faster with what you have in your hands? Yeah. Um, yeah, I think it’s a combination of of a lot of things. I think the obviously the equipment that we both use is is a big part of it, but then yeah, I think there’s there’s always for me, I’m a little older than some of you guys, so like there’s this there’s always this thing in the back of my mind is well, I have to try to keep up with the young guys. So, it’s always been this continuous like, okay, try to get a little bit faster and a little bit stronger every year so that like I know that these guys that are coming through and like coming out of college that I can hopefully still compete with them. So, it’s always just been that okay, what can I do? So, I think it’s just this having it in my head. It’s like, okay, well, this is, you know, like driving’s always been a strength of my game. So, how can I keep my strengths as strong as possible? So, I work on that and then if I do have any weaknesses, then I just try to chip away at those. But I think we all have like the foundations of our game, whatever that’s built upon. And for me, that’s definitely off the tea. Um, so I’ve always just tried to keep that as as strong as possible. Nice. All right, let’s see it. All right, you going to hit just the kind of normal stock high driver? Uh, yeah, pretty much. I mean, yeah, this hole doesn’t I mean, if anything, it sits a little bit of a cut, so I’ll maybe try to hit one of those. You’re probably a little better at that than I am, but I’ll try. I mean, with how much speed you have, do you I I feel like I’ve seen you this year. I think I played or maybe I saw it at the US Open, like I saw you hit the really low like in a way fairway finder, but something that’s still going off the ball like at 180, 85. Yeah. Do you like to work that since you have the speed you to kind of gauge it? I think having the speed it enables you to try to hit some of those other shots. Um, and yeah, I mean to yeah, to get it in play. Obviously, the further you hit it, the more chance you have of it going offline. So, to me, if I really need to hit a fairway, bringing the ball flight down is definitely a big um, you know, ting the teing the ball a little lower and and flighting it down. And it just mean for me it gets on the it gets on the ground faster and and has less of a chance of getting offline. Yeah. No, I love that shot. It’s nice when you have speed and you can kind of keep it Yeah. in the air for quite some time. I’d say that’s pretty stock right there. Pretty standard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Put that on repeat. Yeah. Right next to each other. Take that. Love that one. So, what would you say like how important is the fitting process in getting the right driver for you? Yeah. Versus getting a driver for max distance. Yeah. I think there’s a balance because you obviously want to get a driver that you can you can somewhat maximize your distance, but at the same time it can’t be completely out of control. Like if I wanted to maximize distance, I would have the thing spin at like 1,700 and I’d have it launch at 15 and but it’s just it’s so out of control. So it’s a it’s a blend. Um, what would you say like right now if you were getting like your driver in play or this Qi35? Yeah. Are you on the spin like you are on the higher spinning side? Yeah. So, I would say I I’ve I’ve started to gravitate because I’ve gotten a little more speed. I can use a little more spin to keep it under control. So, yeah, I used to really try to be like a 21 or 2200 type of spin. And now I’m more gravitating to like 24 2500 just that extra two or 300 RPMs of spin just helps it stay online a little bit more. And do you like your driver because there’s so much versatility like you, you know, adding weights. I know some guys like it to be very draw biased, very fade biased. Are you kind of in the neutral? Yeah, I would say I’m neutral. I I’m a big um when I look down at a driver, I don’t like to see it closed or see a lot of face and see it left. Um, so I my drivers probably look maybe slightly open to most people. So I’ll take it uh maybe like a higher lofted head. So say this is a this is a nine degree head. Um, and I’ll turn it down to like eight. All right. So by turning the loft down, then it opens the face up a little bit and it looks better to me. So I’d much rather do it that way. I know some people are the other way where they’ll take an 8 degree head and and put loft on it to like nine or nine and a half and and like that face angle, but I’ve never I’ve never liked that. So, yeah, the fitting process is super important. And, you know, once I find something that I like, I just try to try to stick with it and don’t tinker too much. Love it. All right, I’m gonna age you a little bit here. Give me your thoughts on just the evolution of the driver. You know, what we have in your hands today. We have I think we have two different models. Um like what have you seen? What have you enjoyed about this new Qi35 versus the previous models? And yeah, um let’s hear it. Yeah, I think for me the one the awesome thing like when we transitioned from like stealth to Qi, so like Qi 10 last year and obviously Qi35 this year, I think the the forgiveness of the driver has just been incredible. Um, my misses are so much better. Um, and I I I’ve started to feel like I my misses do what I what I want them to do. So, like, you know, I’m usually a like I if I miss the driver, I’ll miss it on the heel and it’ll start left on me and it’ll cut back to, you know, to center line and like that’s that’s the miss I want to see. So, the the misses are, you know, we’re not going to swing it perfectly every time. We’re not going to middle it every time. And if you can have a driver that you can trust that when you don’t put your best swing on it and it still, you know, it still finds a way to get out there and it doesn’t put you in too much trouble, like that’s that’s huge. So, but yeah, the drive the the the evolution of the drivers since I’ve been with Tailor Made. Um, you’re going even from the M series to the SIM to the Stealth to now the Qi. Um, you know, you know, I started and there wasn’t, you know, the drivers didn’t have twist face, for example, and now they do. And so, and then going from a titanium face to a carbon face, you know, so there’s been a lot of, but I think going to that carbon face from the stealth onwards, um, I feel like it’s been a lot more consistent and, um, as I said, the misses have been a lot better. All right. Well, let’s see. Let’s see a few more. Uh, just tell me what you’re doing it. Let’s let’s see one that you’re kind of going to give it, you know, almost 100%. You need a little bit more to cover. They don’t there’s not really many bunkers at 315 320, but yeah. So, um say if I’m really going after one, uh I’ll put the ball up in my stance a little bit like almost um like level with my front foot and then I’ll w I’ll probably give, you know, if this is like a normal driver stance for me, I’ll maybe just widen my right foot a touch. Weights kind of the same or you lean Yeah. Yeah. Weight’s kind of kind of the same. I think the right foot being a touch wider. I can, you know, I still want my weight evenly distributed, but I can maybe just have a little bit more like Okay. tilt. Yeah. Just to try to hit up on it a little bit more. And then from there, like what I I like putting it up in my stance because I feel like my left arm and the the shaft are like one line. Okay. And then I when I turn back I can like where are you thinking about the speed aspect of the swing or you’re just letting it go? It’s from for me it’s from the top. So I don’t really try to do much different on the back swing. I just try to make a big full turn. And then from there it’s really like you know shifting the pressure back into your left side. And then for me I feel it’s all right side. So like a slap shot in hockey where I feel like everything turns through together. So, like I do this exercise in the gym with a medicine ball where it’s like a shot put throw. And it’s almost like I imagine when I’m swinging the driver hard, it’s like I’m doing that shot that throw with the medicine ball. That’s sort of what I try to recreate. Not bad at all. Yeah, I’ll take it. So yeah, obviously you’ve improved a lot um in accuracy off the tea over the last few years. Like do you what are the keys or is there anything specifically that you’ve done or worked on um to try to improve that accuracy? Yeah, I mean for me it’s having a consistent shot shape. Okay. It’s using the fairway as much as I can. I mean just how you can use speed and work the ball and work the shot. I like to play obviously the cut and the fade. So I I try and take the left side out of play where I can aim as far left as I want and just know the ball is never going there. And for me that’s going to maximize the fairway, maximize my miss. Yeah. Um speed, you know, for me the speed being a lot little bit slower, it helps a little bit, right? Like the faster you are, the more offline you are, but you still got to hit fairways. And I focus so much on hitting center of the face. Yeah. that I think people they don’t get lazy, but they see the face that’s getting so much bigger and so much more forgiving. It’s good. Yeah. But you still got to want want to hit the center. And that’s for me, like when I’m off, I’m most likely hitting it a little bit off the toe. So, I like to just focus on hitting the center of the face and playing the cut or the tight pull. Trying. It’s trying. But like for me, like that’s the farthest left. Yeah. That’s just that’s just like that’s like the farthest left I would go. Exactly. It’s a straight ball and I that’s never going to get you in trouble. No. And that’s what I try and do is I I think the forgiving aspect is amazing because that’s what I’ve seen with the QI10 this past year brought everything into the fairway and knowing what that that’s going to be in the Qi35 but also have the power still. Yeah. That’s what I’m looking for because for me if I gain a few miles per hour throughout this off season, throughout the training, like that’s huge. like that’s going to be a few yards for me that’s going to matter. I just want to stay in the fairways. So, it’s just about aiming left and really swinging within myself. Like I don’t have nice I don’t have as much of a of a jump if I were to try and hit it really really hard. Yeah. But I know that swing I can play on a Thursday of a first round and have it on the 18th hole of a Sunday. It’s kind a driver fitting. What are you specifically looking for? Like what like like you looking for a certain spin rate or launch angle or you know Yeah. I mean, first thing is like how it looks, right? I think you tal you talked about that you want it for you, you like to see not a lot of loft. You want it to look very square to just open. For me, I like it very square. I actually like it if anything a tick closed. Yeah. Um but that’s because I like to start it left, hit the cut. Yeah. Um launch angle’s huge for me. You know, I I swing pretty level with the driver. I don’t swing as up as as you would. I mean, you swing a few up on it probably. I don’t swing up on it. So, I have to get the launch. And with the speed I have, you know, that’s going to matter a lot with distance. I look at the spin. I I used to play a lot lower spinning driver. Now, I try and get fitted kind of mid 2000s. It might lose two yards. Yeah. But two yards is nothing when you’re adding two more fairways for a day. Absolutely. And for me, you know, I used to really want a fade bias driver, but what I’ve noticed is my swing is naturally a fade. Yeah. So, I want it to be neutral. Yeah. And then from that setting, just kind of aim straight and let it just peel back. Yeah. You don’t Yeah. You don’t want to if you have a fade swing and a fade bias driver, it’ll just start to move a bit too much in the air. And that’s what I noticed. It was kind of It was nice for a little bit and then you’d kind of work off of it too much. Yeah. In a bad way. Yeah. Pretty. just get So, could you walk us through like your your thought process when you’re stepping into a driver and and sort of what you see and like do you visualize that shot shape or, you know, what what what goes into, you know, hitting that really consistent fade all the time. The I think the way my wrist works, I hold on to the face a lot longer than most, right? So, if you were to feel a cut, you hold on to the face. Yeah. For me, that’s kind of my natural motion. So I rotate really hard left and I just hold the face a little bit more square. Yeah. Which in turn keeps it open and I love to just visualize that shot. So ever since college, I’ve kind of built that through my entire golf game essentially and I like to visualize a shot. So like on a fairway like this, I’m going to look at the left center kind of where that last ball is on the left and say, “Okay, you know, if I were to piece it together, I want it to start here, kind of fall back there.” And I don’t I think when I get too guyy with my hands, that’s when I have too much curve. That’s when you might see one that starts right. But for me, a straight ball is still going to fall right. So that’s why I like to think I’m going to aim straight and kind of play a straighter shot down the left side. Yeah. Knowing that I have fairway right. Yeah. Versus try and get a little guide with it. Um for me, guidy with my hands is bad. Yeah. I think for a lot of us it’s it’s a dangerous game because our body stops and uh you know I like to just you want to let loose. You want to be free when you when you swing your driver the best like it’s you know where the ball’s going. You know where the misses are. And you just have to understand what your swing does. Does it draw? Does it fade? Does it miss left? Does it miss right? And from there you can kind of take that to the next level of saying, “Okay, well how do I maximize my fairway?” Yeah. And hit more. I think that’s a great feeling for all of us is that feeling of being able to like release the club or release the driver and it not go left, right? Like that I think all of us serve. That’s what we’re all after. Like that’s a that’s a really nice feeling to have when you’re stepping up and you need to hit a good T- shot. Yeah. I’ll walk you through kind of my stock fade. Um I I mess around with tea heights a little bit kind of depending on the day. Yeah. So I mean I think we’re all the same. A little lower if if I’m not hitting it so well. a little higher if I’m feeling like I’m bleeding something. But honestly, it’s very stock. I mean, the ball’s pretty far forward. The main thing is is when I aim left, I’m not setting like I’m not setting my club face open to hit a cut as if I were with an iron. Yeah. Like everything’s pretty square down the left side. And I’m just going to kind of rotate. The biggest thing for me is rotation. If I stop rotating, the ball’s going to start right and go right. And um that’s the miss I’m going to have, but not something I always want. Yeah, really good. That works.