Golfweek Q&A: Why TaylorMade is slowing its driver release schedule

Last Friday, TaylorMade Golf confirmed that it is moving its metalwood lineup (drivers, fairway woods and hybrids) to a two-year product cycle. That means the Qi4D family introduced in 2026 will remain the company’s flagship metalwood line through 2027, with the next major driver launch expected in 2028. Golfweek spoke with Brian Bazzel, a vice president at TaylorMade who is in charge of product creation, as well as research and development, about why the company made the decision, what it means for golfers and fitters, and how modern driver production is changing.

Golfweek: TaylorMade, for a long time, has been one of the companies that leads the metalwood category. The cadence has been that every year new drivers come out. What changed internally that made you decide the time is right to now move to a two-year product cycle?

Bazzel: I don’t know if it was so much an internal change as it was sort of studying what was going on in the market. Certainly, there’s things happening inside the building related to the advancements of innovation, and the impact or the complexity of those innovations to deliver more performance. We’re definitely studying and understanding what it takes these days to stay on top of things.

And the reality is, it just is more complicated to show significant gains. So, between what consumers are doing externally and what it would take internally to do the things that we think are meaningful, it kind of added up to this decision. Golfweek: How much did the fact that you’re getting close to the limits on things like moment of inertia (MOI), ball speed and overall performance factor based on the USGA and R&A rules, go into this decision?