Taylormade Stealth 2……it’s happening?????? Black and Red

[radiman]

3 minutes ago, jubilee_links said:

Seen a few stealths out and about - one of my playing partners last week has one. I guess its archer vs arrow but what I saw was the same as reviews - can be super long when you catch it right but seemed less forgiving tha  previous TM drivers.

 

Seen more Callaways but not many....

Coming from the OG Sim to the Stealth+, I do not find that to be true.  I think it's plenty forgiving for its profile.  Definitely more forgiving than the Sim was.  With the Sim, if you missed in certain spots on the face the spin would drop drastically and that's where things could get really squirrely.  I have found the Stealth + to be pretty consistent in a lot of ways. 

[jubilee_links]

Just now, radiman said:

Coming from the OG Sim to the Stealth+, I do not find that to be true.  I think it's plenty forgiving for its profile.  Definitely more forgiving than the Sim was.  With the Sim, if you missed in certain spots on the face the spin would drop drastically and that's where things could get really squirrely.  I have found the Stealth + to be pretty consistent in a lot of ways. 

Cool - as I said its probably player related. Just not seen many out in the wild to get an idea.

[radiman]

3 minutes ago, jubilee_links said:

Cool - as I said its probably player related. Just not seen many out in the wild to get an idea.

I haven't noticed a ton of drivers from this year at my course.  I have seen a couple Cobras which is probably more than I have seen the past 5 years.  A few Stealths and just a couple Callaways.  

[pccasstpro]

22 hours ago, Bentron said:

hasn't stealth been out for 4 months? 

That is a month behind TM's usually product cycle !!! 

[pccasstpro]

I stopped in to see a friend of mine who is a Asst. Pro, his pro has carried minimal stock on the Stealth because of the return rate. They had one of the clubs better players qualifying for the CT AM and crack the face mid round , and at one point late spring had 4 RA's open with TM for cracked/pealing/delaminating faces.  

[underwater]

I see quite a few Stealth drivers out there in bags.  No different than the ratio of TM compared to other brands I've seen in years past.  

 

I've never heard of one cracking - nor has my playing partner who is the local PGA SS General Mgr.

 

Our other playing partner is a fitter and he has an all Callaway bag including fairway woods - except his driver is a Stealth Plus.

 

I think it's a great driver - sounds fantastic.  No hate from me.  As good as everything else.  And everything is good.

Edited June 23, 2022 by underwater

[underwater]

11 minutes ago, pccasstpro said:

I stopped in to see a friend of mine who is a Asst. Pro, his pro has carried minimal stock on the Stealth because of the return rate. They had one of the clubs better players qualifying for the CT AM and crack the face mid round , and at one point late spring had 4 RA's open with TM for cracked/pealing/delaminating faces.  

 

Not doubting your words, but I'd love to see photos.

[pccasstpro]

5 minutes ago, underwater said:

 

Not doubting your words, but I'd love to see photos.

I will have him snap a few when the next one comes in. One of the members is a former Pratt and Whitney engineer who designed turbine blades and he said that combined with a entry point (crack, scratch, slight rock strike, etc.), moisture, then add in any chemicals that contain Phosphorus it is death to carbon fiber based materials. Moisture alone causes expansion and breakdown of carbon.   

[Puttersaurus Rex]

Of course a highly speculative thread is now devolving into Stealth usage on courses, and club failure issues.  Might as well lock it up before there are 24 pages of this.

[underwater]

14 minutes ago, pccasstpro said:

I will have him snap a few when the next one comes in. One of the members is a former Pratt and Whitney engineer who designed turbine blades and he said that combined with a entry point (crack, scratch, slight rock strike, etc.), moisture, then add in any chemicals that contain Phosphorus it is death to carbon fiber based materials. Moisture alone causes expansion and breakdown of carbon.   

 

That's why TM sealed the face with a polymer - but you're right, over time that would get worn off by abrasion and even clean ball friction.

[SUPERG]

The driver is great and I see a ton of them around my course, I see a ton of callaway too.  I will always say this, breakage and face cracking is only an issue on WRX lol. Normal speed golfers do not struggle this much with breaking clubs, it happens but not at the rate it does on WRX, and when it does the OEM makes it right. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by SUPERG

[pccasstpro]

1 hour ago, Puttersaurus Rex said:

Of course a highly speculative thread is now devolving into Stealth usage on courses, and club failure issues.  Might as well lock it up before there are 24 pages of this.

Why shut it down? It is relative to the evolution of the conversation about a possible equipment update or upgrade..... This is great Point  & counterpoint conversation !  

[pccasstpro]

1 hour ago, underwater said:

 

That's why TM sealed the face with a polymer - but you're right, over time that would get worn off by abrasion and even clean ball friction.

Chevrolet also said they clear coat sealed my Silverado's paint and it is flaking, chipping and rusting !! Polymers are great but the one thing, like with many coatings, you sacrifice flexibility for durability and vise versa.   

[getair23]

1 hour ago, Puttersaurus Rex said:

Of course a highly speculative thread is now devolving into Stealth usage on courses, and club failure issues.  Might as well lock it up before there are 24 pages of this.

Kindly add: (not so) humble swing speed brag and the (really) old go to: TM release cycles are out of control to your list.   

[Puttersaurus Rex]

44 minutes ago, pccasstpro said:

Why shut it down? It is relative to the evolution of the conversation about a possible equipment update or upgrade..... This is great Point  & counterpoint conversation !  

Which is fine for other sub-forums (equipment, 19th hole).  This is “tour and pre-release”, not “speculative rumors and opinions about pros and cons”. 
 

The amount of “rumor” threads from now until January can drown out actual updates from reliable sources.  OP hasn’t even commented here since they posted.  Which can be viewed as a “trust me bro” thread.  
 

Now if this was an actual photo leak, or confirmed rumor...go for it.

[underwater]

On 6/23/2022 at 10:05 AM, pccasstpro said:

Chevrolet also said they clear coat sealed my Silverado's paint and it is flaking, chipping and rusting !! Polymers are great but the one thing, like with many coatings, you sacrifice flexibility for durability and vise versa.   

I hear you.  Have you felt the polymer used on the Stealth?  It's rubber.  So if you get a chance, dig your nail into he face of the stealth driver, it feels like the protective sticker is still on it, but it's not.  It feels like rubber cement.

[MCoz]

On 6/22/2022 at 11:29 PM, Bunkersarebigcups said:

TBH, I dont think so.

Maybe in the + model, but for the rest (Hybrids, "normal" fairway) they didnt even go to titanium yet. Carbon is the way to go for a driver as metal faces were maxed out.

 

Plus, I am not sure if Carbon will be any good on a club that is used off the deck... Just in terms of durability

I have been hitting my Stealth off the fairways quite a bit on the longer 5 pars, especially into the winds. No issues at all and very good performance. I use a 9* head. 

 

[MCoz]

On 6/23/2022 at 9:21 AM, getair23 said:

Kindly add: (not so) humble swing speed brag and the (really) old go to: TM release cycles are out of control to your list.   

Taylormade releases are now one-half of what Callaway does and Callaway has twice as many driver choices currently TMs multiple releases stopped about 5 years ago . . .  

[MountainKing]

On 6/23/2022 at 8:34 AM, radiman said:

Coming from the OG Sim to the Stealth+, I do not find that to be true.  I think it's plenty forgiving for its profile.  Definitely more forgiving than the Sim was.  With the Sim, if you missed in certain spots on the face the spin would drop drastically and that's where things could get really squirrely.  I have found the Stealth + to be pretty consistent in a lot of ways. 

 

Yeah I second this one for sure.  Probably the most forgiving TM drive I've played to date.  You can knock this thing off center and the ball maintains speed and holds it's line pretty well.  In general I'm about 50% with fairways hit, last year with the sim 2 I was 47%, this year I'm at 67% with the Stealth +.  Oddly tho my GIR are way down, so maybe I'm not sure how to play from the fairway as often as I have been this year....

[Bdck]

On 6/23/2022 at 9:17 AM, underwater said:

 

Not doubting your words, but I'd love to see photos.

Ball went through dead center.  I hit it hard (~210 ball speed) but the pgass folks said it was the 3rd one they saw that day.  Albeit the others were just dislodged face inserts.

 

[underwater]

39 minutes ago, Bdck said:

Ball went through dead center.  I hit it hard (~210 ball speed) but the pgass folks said it was the 3rd one they saw that day.  Albeit the others were just dislodged face inserts.

 

 

 

WOW!  Thanks for posting.    That's incredible.  I don't have that level of pop at about 106mph so I'm safe from harm lol.

[USMgolfer1]

On 6/23/2022 at 9:58 AM, SUPERG said:

The driver is great and I see a ton of them around my course, I see a ton of callaway too.  I will always say this, breakage and face cracking is only an issue on WRX lol. Normal speed golfers do not struggle this much with breaking clubs, it happens but not at the rate it does on WRX, and when it does the OEM makes it right. 

Cracked 2 M5 Tours and Taylormade never sent me a replacement for either…so they don’t always make it right 

[getair23]

2 hours ago, MCoz said:

Taylormade releases are now one-half of what Callaway does and Callaway has twice as many driver choices currently TMs multiple releases stopped about 5 years ago . . .  

Yes, I completely understand.  This was a meant to be a tongue in cheek adding to @Puttersaurus Rex's post and typical/ predictable responses in TM forums, see below.  At this point in time the only thing I know  is that we have many many sleeps before we know anything on this one, besides the additional 17 yards we will all enjoy 😄.   

 

[BottleCap]

1 hour ago, USMgolfer1 said:

Cracked 2 M5 Tours and Taylormade never sent me a replacement for either…so they don’t always make it right 

Maybe because they were the tour and not the retail sku?

[grumpy84]

No thanks. Pretty underwhelmed with the entire stealth line. The driver is hideous IMO. Looks like they had a bunch of OG sim heads laying around and gave it another paint job and glued in a silly carbon face....

[GrandStranded]

On 6/21/2022 at 10:59 AM, PhilWhitUK said:

The only ones I have seen belong to a YouTuber who recently got fitted (plays at our club).  I do see a lot of SIM and I think many people playing more golf or coming back to golf upgraded last year and don’t have money this year.  I haven’t seen any of the new Callaway either.

 

Even some of the top juniors I see are sticking with previous versions of clubs (again SIM is very popular).  I would be really interested to see how sales figures are for all the OEMs this season.

Same. Callaway is on their 3rd month long edition of a 50% trade in bonus for the Rogue ST line, and it hasn’t been 6 months since the release date yet.

No way they’re doing that if the clubs are selling well.

Another thing, go to their website. It’s shocking how few customer reviews they have for the lineup. With the economy the way it is right now, the OEMs picked a bad time to Jack up pricing this year.

[GrandStranded]

The Stealth driver was such a WRX darling pre release. TM outdid themselves with their marketing campaign, but guys here went gaga like I couldn’t believe.

No club was going to ever live up to that hype.

[USMgolfer1]

1 hour ago, BottleCap said:

Maybe because they were the tour and not the retail sku?

They were retail it was the “M5 Tour” head. Not off the tour van. Caved a face in and no replacement. Bought one off eBay and within a year the carbon fiber on top cracked and started to break off. TM said it didn’t affect the performance of the club and wouldn’t replace it either. Luckily for them TM drivers are the only ones that look open enough to me turning it down to 7°. Had a TSi3 and couldn’t hit anything but draws and Callaway drivers are left city for me as well. 

[chgolfer01]

On 6/22/2022 at 8:26 AM, third-times-a-charm said:

Dont see any over here either. Lots of past models and if it's new it's the Rogue line.

Had the rogue st max ls, switched to a stealth plus and picked up around 20 yards. I must be in the minority after reading this thread lol 

[underwater]

1 hour ago, chgolfer01 said:

Had the rogue st max ls, switched to a stealth plus and picked up around 20 yards. I must be in the minority after reading this thread lol 

 

I'm a Stealth Plus player but I gave the Triple Diamond a run on Friday on my home track and even in the D-setting (which uprights the lie angle - nothing more) I couldn't turn that thing over to save my life.  In fact it was WORK to hit it straight without a 12 yard cut.  Much of my home course moves right to left off the tee box.

 

..So what ends up happening, I found, is that you start changing your move to not push or cut this driver (I have a dramatic inside-out move).  That change starts trickling into your bag and influencing your other clubs.  Yuck.  At the turn I put my relatively neutral Stealth Plus back in and it was much less stressful.     (/topicDetour)