TaylorMade's Carbon Fiber Stealth Drivers Deliver Speed

The manufacturer's new 'Carbonwood' line allows for weight distribution to improve launch and spin.

TaylorMade Stealth drivers

• Stealth Plus: Lofts of 8, 9 and 10.5 degrees.
• Stealth / Stealth HD: Lofts of 9, 10.5 and 12 degrees. 
• Additional Specs: Multiple shaft options are available at no additional charge. TaylorMade is also offering a MyStealth option — the Stealth HD can be purchased with a choice of black and chalk on the crown, and six colors for the face, along with eight colors for the sole. 
• Price: $599.99 (Stealth Plus); $579.99 (Stealth, Stealth HD); MyStealth ($699.99).
• Available: Currently available for preorder; in retail on Feb. 4.

Perhaps a little lost in the giddy celebration of the post-crash return of Tiger Woods was the driver in his bag. Woods put the new TaylorMade Stealth in play at the PNC Championship and now the company is introducing four models of the Stealth to the playing public.

I played the new Stealth Carbonwood Driver this past December. Thank you to @TaylorMadeGolf for getting it to me so quickly. Truly an amazing product. #StealthDriver pic.twitter.com/6SfeHLstWk

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 4, 2022

The Stealth has a distinctive red face but that’s just to get it noticed. The real story of the Stealth is that its face is constructed with carbon fiber. Titanium has been the coin of the realm in driver construction for years and deviation from that norm will be closely watched.

The first question will be: How does it sound? People will remember carbon drivers from Yonex and Callaway from more than 20 years ago that disappeared as quickly as they were introduced because golfers loudly disliked the mushy, muted sound of the ball being struck.

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TaylorMade says its engineers have solved that problem with acoustics that produce what the company says is a “bright and powerful” sound. Internal testing shows that golfers like the sound and feel of the Stealth at least as much as the SIM2 and that PGA Tour player feedback has been positive.

Now that the biggest issue is out of the way, the next question is: Why carbon fiber? TaylorMade, which is calling its new line “Carbonwood,” says that the obvious answer is more speed. The company has been working to develop carbon technology for 20 years and wisely stood on the sidelines while other companies’ efforts failed.

In 2016, TaylorMade engineers developed a carbon driver face, made of 60 layers of carbon fiber. Work on the Stealth began in earnest in 2018. Carbon is known for being lightweight and strong but has yet to work in the high-speed impact world of drivers.

In the Stealth, TaylorMade says the 60 sheets of carbon fiber have been strategically placed to solve the impact issue. In addition, the face of the Stealth is only 26 grams, 40 percent lighter than a titanium face. As a result, the face of the Stealth is significantly larger than TaylorMade’s SIM and SIM2 drivers and it also employs the company’s Twist Face technology.

The face is covered with what the company calls “nanotexture,” which is a thin polyurethane layer that is supposed to optimize driver spin in both wet and dry conditions. TaylorMade’s Tomo Bystedt, senior director of product creation, says the nanotexture is the key for this carbon face to be a success in real world conditions.

The larger face is combined with the company’s Thru-Slot Speed Pocket, which is designed for more forgiveness on off-center hits. And aerodynamics are improved by the Inertia Generator on the sole, which resembles a ship’s rudder.

In the Stealth Plus, the weight savings from the lighter face was used to include a sliding 10-gram weight track – for which TaylorMade is famous – to shift weight to customize ball flight. The Stealth Plus is designed to be the lowest spinning model of the line.

The Stealth took the weight savings to place more weight low and deep in the clubhead, which is the tried-and-true method to increase moment of inertia (MOI) and create higher launch with more spin than the Stealth Plus.

The Stealth HD employs draw bias to help golfers who hit slices by shifting the Inertia Generator – the rudder – toward the heel in the clubhead and by increasing MOI. The Stealth Women’s also has draw bias and is lighter in overall weight than the other three models.

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