TaylorMade Stealth fairway woods

TaylorMade wrestled internally with the name of this club because it has more features than the standard fairway wood, but it is not necessarily made exclusively for more-accomplished players. In the end, it was decided that adding “Plus+” would let golfers know there is more going on in this club. 

The biggest benefit is the use of titanium in both the face and the chassis. Titanium is lighter than steel, and along with a carbon-fiber crown, using titanium instead of stainless steel created even more discretionary weight, which allowed designers to give the Stealth Plus+ Titanium an 80-gram soleplate. TaylorMade has offered a titanium fairway wood with a large steel soleplate for the last two seasons, but most of the mass in the SIM and SIM2 Titanium’s soleplate was in the middle. The Stealth Plus+’s V-shape sole has been updated to spread the weight more to the toe and heel areas. As a result, it not only helps lower the center of gravity, it has more perimeter weighting, raises the moment of inertia and increases forgiveness. 

The Stealth Plus+ has a massive 80-gram split soleplate to lower the center of gravity. (David Dusek/Golfweek

TaylorMade said the new split-designed steel sole weight works so well that the Stealth Plus+’s moment of inertia is 12 percent higher than last year’s SIM2 Titanium and 18 percent higher than the SIM Titanium, which has a larger head.  

The Stealth Plus+ also features a large Speed Pocket slot in the sole directly behind the leading edge to help protect ball speed on low-struck shots. It has an adjustable hosel that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the club’s loft by as many as 2 degrees. 

So, the Stealth Plus+ produces a higher ball flight with less spin, which along with the ball speed created by the titanium face, creates shots that fly father than either the SIM or SIM2 fairway woods.