TAYLORMADE STEALTH PLUS
LOFTS 8° / 9° / 10.5° STOCK SHAFT Project X HZRDUS Smoke Red RDX 60 (Mid Flight), Mitsubishi Kai’li White 60 (Low Flight)
VERDICT Usually, once our pro’s test shots have been averaged, there’s no more than a handful of yards covering the top few models. Never in 15 years of testing have we seen a driver out-perform its peers by 12 yards of carry distance. We’re pretty shocked by Stealth Plus putting in such a strong performance. We’d tested the model before when it out-performed Callaway and Ping, with tidy but not groundbreaking ball speed and carry distance gains (2.8mph and four yards). But those numbers were nothing like what we saw in running our full 2022 driver test. The difference in part can be explained in switching our test pro out of a recommended shaft (that to him felt hard work) and into the stock (low-flight) Mitsubishi Kai’li, and, boy, are we glad we did. To put the Stealth’s performance into context, it produced a ball speed 1.1mph faster than any low-spin driver we hit. By 12 yards, it was the longest driver within the category (it was also our longest overall driver by three yards). The Plus also was flat-out best at protecting ball speed loss on off centre hits, and second best at minimising carry distance drop offs (only beaten by PXG’S 0811 X Gen4 by two yards. In anybody’s book that’s outstanding across-theboard performance. After what we’ve seen we’re comfortable naming the Stealth Plus as our best low-spin driver of 2022, an award we’ve never bestowed upon a single driver (be it low-spin, forgiving or draw biased) before. We’re certainly not saying everyone will see a gain of 12 yards; that’s just not the case. What we are saying is if you’re looking at buying a new low-spin driver in 2022, you’re missing out if you don’t at least see what Stealth could offer. To put some context around our test pro’s performance, Neil’s never played a Taylormade driver before. Yet he’s very excited about getting the Stealth Plus out onto the course, particularly because he loves its crisp sound just as much as any performance gain.