2023 TaylorMade Stealth 2 – GolfWRX

We have four very lucky members visiting TaylorMade’s global headquarters in Carlsbad, California to try out their new 2023 Irons and Carbon Irons before they’re released to the world. These members will be the first to experience TaylorMade’s new products for 2023. Follow in the GolfWRX Forums!

The four lucky WRXers – @Olde Maroon, @Kylekoz17, @gticlay, and MFBach – got to get the full Kingdom experience plus gear for TaylorMade’s new Stealth 2 woods and irons.

Read more about the Stealth 2 family below.

And check out some product introductions straight from the kingdom.

TaylorMade Stealth 2 drivers

TaylorMade Stealth 2 Fairway Woods

TaylorMade Stealth 2 Rescue

Here are some member comments.

oldmaroon: “I’m sure you’re overwhelmed with Stealth 2 content due to today’s block date. I personally know I woke up to about a dozen video review notifications on YouTube, so I think you saw at least one of those (maybe more). What can I give you that can’t Those pros? Well, for better or worse, I can share my entire TM shooting experience and the proper experience from an average golfer’s perspective.”

So, a little bit about me. I’m 41 with two kids and a busy job (like many of you), so golf has fallen behind for me in the past five years or so. I now sit at 16 handicap (up from a low of about 10) And I play about 15 rounds a year lately. I’m pretty sure I buy more clubs/poles here at BST each year than I do… As you might expect, I struggle with consistency. I’ve been a member of the GolfWRX forums for just over About a decade ago, I’ve learned a lot, I’ve spent a lot, and I’m enjoying the spirited environment.”

“Coming into this trip, I had never fit in before. My pre-fitting bag was as follows:

• 9 * SIM card, Tensei 1K 65x
• Cobra F9 3w @ 15.5*, GD IZ 7s
• Cobra F9 19h, 22h, GD IZ 85s
• Titleist TS2 25h, Ventus Velo 8s
• Srixon ZX5, MMT 105s
• Cleveland CBX 2 Wedges (50/55/60) Recoil 110 F4
• Odyssey Stroke Lab 2-Ball

“As you can see, it’s a real combination of what I expected would be true for my (limited) skill level.

“I’ll skip to the hole line and let you know where I ended up after fitting in with Chandler (who was amazing – more on that later):”

• Stealth+ 9.0 (down to 8.75* and 1-click upright), Fuji Ventus Blue TR 6x
• Stealth HD 3w (upped up to 16*), Fuji Ventus Blue TR 7s
• Stealth + 4 hours, Fuji Ventus Blue HB 8s
• P790 5-7, MMT 105s
• P770 8-PW, MMT 105s
• P770 GW (bent to 49*)
• Milled grinding 3 (high rebound) 54 (bend to 53 *) and 58 *, MMT wedge shafts 125s

“A spider putter that will remain a secret…but I can say I went with a simple toe hold, which helped prevent a slightly closed face on impact.”

“I know I’m going to jump around, but I want to get straight into the fitting experience with Chandler (who also gave us a presentation for the launch of the new line of SGI irons). Chandler has worked in several roles on Taylormade and is a golfer himself, so he brings great perspectives. Just about everything we covered.Most importantly for me, it was great at getting me through my initial nerves and getting me comfortable quickly (except when the drone buzzed over my shoulder mid-swing).

“We dived straight into the big stick, which was an advantage. I was hoping to swing hard and punch those nerves. Chandler had me hit my current driver (again, SIM Max 9* with Tensei 1K 65x). Historically, my favorite shot has been a slight equalizer. , and my fatalities are when I try to control it and it feels tight – then it’s a duck hook and I’m leaving. I swing around 105, a little higher if I warm up and/or have a beer. Today, I had a little bit of blocking, but the connection was fine. The launch was low At around 9* (very common for me).The launch angle was about neutral or even slightly negative, which isn’t typical for me but that’s the challenge with an inconsistent player.

Chandler put me right in the Stealth 9* in one place with my Tensei Orange 65s (because I’ve historically played balance bars to assist my AOA). It felt smooth and helped bump up the AOA a bit, but it was too loose for me and my dispersion suffered. It also spun to over About 3000 killing my distance.

Next up was the AD-XC 6s Graphite Design. This shaft felt great for swing and helped a bit with scattering, but the launch was too low and the spin stayed too high. The result was a low elevation which, combined with headwinds in the Kingdom, resulted in a loss of distance. We could to do better.

Chandler installed Ventus TR Blue 6s in the Stealth+2 head, and we saw some immediate results. The spin dropped a few hundred turns and the ride was more penetrating. The launch also increased slightly to about 11*. The shaft felt great. I previously tried the original Ventus Blue and it was A little too loose for me. The black was too manly for me. The Ventus Blue TR really hit Goldilocks territory. However, my journey started off a little right. Chandler said he had another tweak to make.

Then he switched it all up, and gave me a Hulk pole. I’m sure he just needed a quick rebound so he wanted to watch me struggle to keep the ball on the planet. We had some fun laughing building after building, and he casually handed me his real plan.

Stealth + 2 with Ventus Blue TR 6x. When he gave me the club back, I didn’t notice it had spiked (I tried not to look at any changes he made). I immediately started belting after driving right down the middle (which I can’t stress Enough is not something I’m usually able to do). The flight was noticeably higher and more penetrating. It turned out to put it upright one degree, put the weight toward the heel, and drop the loft a touch. With these changes, we found the winner.

Going into this, I never would have guessed that I would have ended up in plus form. Chandler’s adjustments have improved my strike so much, and the club has so much inherent tolerance, that I’ve got better spreads than I’ve ever had.

“Chandler was an absolute genius all along, spotting flaws and making adjustments to meet my needs. He was also full of surprises, but more on that in a bit (typing on my phone is so slow that this report will take up to the right time).”

@kylekoz17: “As for the driver, I hit a few shots with the 9*TSi3 to establish the baseline. It hovered around 165 balls at speed and about 2,500 laps, which is something I’m very happy about on a January swing in the Northeast. One of the things we wanted to do was improve My down angle which was about 40. Target was less than 35. We tried heads 8,9 and 10.5*.The 10.5 didn’t fit right away, so we took our time finding the right combination of head and shaft between 8 and 9 heads.As for yesterday’s swing, The 8* might have been the right fit, but we were also talking about a mid-season swing and took that into account when deciding which one to go for.In the end, we went with the 9* header with the Tensei Orange 65x because it was such a good combination of spin, ball velocity and downward angle that it We think it would be suitable in the summer as well. The No. 8 was great and the 30* pitch angle would do forever, but I think the spin was just a touch too low.”

Two things about the driver that really impressed me:

“1. Efficiency of ball velocity as I started to slow down after hitting a lot of balls. My swing velocity was a few miles per hour less because I was tired and the ball was still bouncing off my face and the distance didn’t really change

2. Forgiveness. If I remember correctly, I was hitting 167 ball speed with the Stealth 2 Plus at about the same swing speed as my TSi in the same loft, so my MPH gain was a couple good, but my mistakes were very good. My step is High spin right shot so when I catch low shots to the face or heel I always go back and check spin and distance.It was amazing to see ball velocities at 162-164 with spin remaining under 3k.This is unheard of, And honestly I had my proper crossbow catching the ball to my face when I said I missed, but we confirmed my hits with the Trackman. The carry distances were about 10-15 yards shorter than the hard hits.”

gticlay: “I was really excited about getting into the Stealth2 + Fairway offerings. They threw us a curveball by introducing a new model – the Stealth2HD model. It’s a new big, mid-height, 3-watt faced head that will get the ball rolling quickly. This was almost immediately after That I thanked the presenter for keeping his fairways with a deeper face, so he gave in to his mouth except that it was designed for someone new to golf, or who always struggled to get the ball off the fairway wood.”

“I hit both 3w’s and 5w’s. For trails we started with 3w’s and based on the irons and driver combinations I already had a shaft chosen for me – an AD DI 7X Graphite Design shaft. At 75 grams it’s a bit lighter than the Ozik Black Tie 80M -X which I’m playing in a TI R9 “paint break” 3w now. We started with the weight in neutral but ended up with it all the way forward to help the head work for my swing. I also hit the IZ-6 shaft, but didn’t feel With that feeling I like about the shaft (I didn’t know I had such a strong preference for a particular type of shaft before that.) In order to see the flight of the ball he wanted, my hitter put my weight all the way forward saying he didn’t think I’d have a problem losing forgiveness. provided by the rear center. The sun was in my eyes, so my shots were hard to see when I started, but by the end of the 3w mount I was hitting it on a white cocking post plus my swing allowed pretty good numbers.”

“When we got to 5w I was starting to get a little tired but he came out and gave me the club and said ‘I think you’re going to like this setup.’ I hit two excellent shots and one that leaked a bit to the right – the club was probably the most solid I’ve ever felt… good on The launch. I let myself have a look at what a shaft it was and a Blue Ventus 9-X. I hit another shaft just to be sure but no, that 9-X was love on the first flight. I had never hit a Ventus shaft before, so it was nice to meet your moment.”

“Even though I hit it first the driver was my first wooden mount. It created something similar to the current player – Epic Max LS. I hit a few different shafts but the last one was the one I played in the latter part of 2021 and the first 2/3 of Year 2022 – Tensei Orange 65-X. Because of the very crisp graphics, I knew exactly what it was (I tried not to look at the bars when I hit it) and it immediately felt familiar and comfortable. With the 10.5* head brought down a notch, we ended up where my experimenter wanted me To “live” that is 12* launch and 1700 high, 1800 rpm. The only time I looked at the numbers it said 12.1*, 1776 rpm. I have to say it felt good when the experimenter next to us watched , commenting how really good the flight sounded and asking “how many yards did that flight go!”. It’s not like my SS is too high but the ball was already there on a couple of sloppy shots. Compared to the empty aluminum he could feel/the sound of my previous driver , the Stealth Driver looks very nice and solid.

So if I were to describe Stealth2 Carbonwoods in one word – I’d say SOLID. Solid feel, solid ride, solid sound. I can’t wait to play with them.

*One last note – the gen 1 fairway foresters didn’t have the inverted cone “donut” technology in the face, but they added that to the 2nd generation fairways so they should be more forgiving on more of the face.

*Ok, one last note – I’m not sure if they changed the white line on top of the face, but I can’t even remember seeing it during fitting. I’ve never hit gen 1 stealth lanes so can’t speak to those, but I think you have to look up the line if you want to use it vs. being “in your face” on setup.

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Read more about the Stealth 2 family below.