Taylormade Stealth Drivers from £469
GM Verdict
Once again, Taylormade has deviated from the status quo of driver design with its latest range, fittingly called Stealth. The name likely comes from the more subdued look at address – gone is the chalk white strip at the front of the crown that helped with alignment – but peer round the corner and you’ll instantly notice the red carbon fibre face. It’s a first in golf, has been 20 years in the making and is sure to catch your eye.
There are three models – the Stealth Plus, Stealth and Stealth HD. We tested them all against each other and also the outgoing SIM2 models on a Trackman launch monitor at King’s Golf Studio, with Titleist Pro V1x golf balls, to see what you can expect from the performance.
For faster-swinging golfers or those looking for low spin and a certain shot shape, Taylormade has designed the Stealth Plus driver. In the same loft and shaft set-up, the Stealth Plus was the lowest-launching and spinning of the three heads. For us, it was also the longest, producing outstanding ball speed, carry and total distance performance, while the sliding weight affords extra control of direction or shot shape. What really impressed us during our testing was how consistent it was. In our experience, lower-spin drivers can be harder to hit, but the Stealth Plus delivered good distance from a consistent ball flight, shot after shot.
It’s also worth highlighting that we produced one of the fastest ball speeds we’ve ever had during a club testing session with the Stealth Plus. As a result, it was
nearly ten yards longer than the SIM2 Max driver through the air and a little more in total.
For us, the Stealth driver model delivered an extra three miles per hour in clubhead speed, which, along with a big reduction in spin versus the original SIM Max, translated into more distance.
What impressed us most about the Stealth was that despite the average smash factor dropping to 1.46, the ball speed remained high. The spin rate was lower but consistent and so was the ball flight. It was long and straight throughout our indoor testing, but really impressed during our oncourse testing. It found seven of 11 fairways in its first outing despite not being custom fitted, while also being long and battling crosswinds noticeable well – it blew us away, frankly.
How much of this was down to the carbon face is hard to tell, and while we wouldn’t say the performance gains are huge in comparison to last year’s SIM2, the Stealth drivers will be very hard to beat in 2022.
“THE STEALTH DRIVERS MAY NOT REPRESENT A MAJOR LEAP FORWARD IN PERFORMANCE, BUT THE BAR OF INNOVATION HAS BEEN RAISED”
Neil Tappin, GM digital editor