Taylormade Stealth Driver

TaylorMade has been a staple in the woods category for a long time; From the solid white RBZ driver to the incredibly popular M line. The launch of their Stealth driver had me excited, as I noticed a large number of tour pros not contracted by TaylorMade using it. I have not always enjoyed hitting drivers, but I have enjoyed hitting the Stealth. By that, I mean that I have sucked at hitting the driver for a long while. I tested it out quite a bit indoors, even going to a TaylorMade demo day at a local golf course to try it. I was impressed, but the cost and my inconsistency with the driver made me hesitant to pull the trigger. Then, once my technique improved and the Stealth 2 launched, I was able to snag an original Stealth for a good price.

Look-wise, I like how simple and sleek it looks when addressing the ball. I like how much of the red carbon face can be seen. I have the 10.5-degree headset down to 9 degrees. It honestly scared me at first. As someone prone to hitting a big right miss, seeing that much of the face gave me the chills; However, after the first few hits and seeing a baby cut, I felt so much better. The shaft I have on the driver is an Aldia incredibly Red, 60S. I do believe this was the stock shaft option when the club was released. The weight and feel are great. I do think all the red gives the club a well-rounded color scheme.

I saw almost textbook perfect numbers while indoor testing. I already hit high spin shots with the driver and adjusting the loft to 9 degrees helped get the spin down, but it is still between 2900-3100 rpm. Other than that, the launch was perfect and the carry was 257-262 yards every time. I don’t get that excited for indoor numbers at all, but seeing how good they were did give me confidence in taking the Stealth out on the course.

There is a reason I don’t get excited about indoor data numbers all that much. If we go by the book, the spin I was producing was too high. I was expecting that some of the shots were going to get lost out to the right. Every tee shot either had a gentle little butter cut or was dead straight. I used the same Vice Pro golf ball indoors and out on the course. All of my shots felt solid, but I did tend to miss low on the face at times. The only drop-off I found was the launch came down. This worked out well though because the ground was firm enough to get some really good rollout. All in all, the Stealth driver helped me enjoy hitting the driver again and, dare I say, gave me confidence in grabbing the driver.

I did want to conduct further testing with some different golf balls. I wanted to see more of how the driver performed with different golf balls as opposed to golf ball testing. I first tried the ProV1 and saw no difference in performance, ball flight, or feel. I then tried the TP5x, and that’s where I noticed some changes. I noticed a bit more height and a much straighter ball flight. This was great, yet I was so used to playing the cut that the first few balls went on a dead straight line OB with ZERO fade. I also saw more total yardage with the TP5x. I wasn’t able to get any carry data out on the course to compare the different golf balls. Next, I tried the Srixon Z Starv and the Kirkland Signature. I found these golf balls produced even more of a fade ball flight and lower launch than the Vice Pro. I will say I still felt I could control the fade, I just saw more curvature than the other golf balls. The last one I tried was the Vice Pro Plus. This golf ball paired I think the best with the Stealth. I got the height and good distance. I do want to mention with both the Vice Pro Plus and TP5x, I felt the forgiveness of these two golf balls was better than the ProV1, Vice Pro, Kirkland, and Srixon Z Star; So I do believe that no matter your golf ball preference this driver will perform very well.

This driver embodies the phrase “the proof is in the pudding.” The indoor data doesn’t quite look as perfect as some other drivers, but it proved itself out on the golf course. For someone who needs confidence with the driver (and has gone such a long time without confidence), I was having so much fun hitting tee shots. I can’t praise this club enough for helping me enjoy the game so much more now.