The Stealth fairway woods have internal weights to shift the center of gravity. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Fairway woods are typically less than half the size of a modern driver, so there is not as much room for designers to work with when they want to change how a club behaves. 

However, TaylorMade designed both the Stealth Plus+ Titanium and Stealth to be longer from front to back, and that created the space needed for two internal weights, one behind the face and the other in the back. TaylorMade fairway woods typically have a weight in the front to help lower the center of gravity to increase ball speed and get the ideal hitting area into the center of the face. They rarely, however, have a back weight.  

In the Stealth Plus+ and Stealth, adding internal mass to the back of the sole pulls the center of gravity away from the hitting area, and that increases the moment of inertia and makes the clubs more stable. TaylorMade said the Stealth is the highest-MOI steel fairway wood the company has ever produced. 

Both clubs also feature Twist Face, a design that peels back the high-toe and low-heel areas to help mis-hits fly straighter.

The Stealth fairway woods have a clean, all-black crown design. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

TaylorMade woods have been given white or contrasting silver toplines for years to help golfers aim and align shots more easily, but the Stealth Plus+ and Stealth fairways have matte-black crowns and black faces. They are the cleanest-looking fairway woods the company has designed in years, but if you look closely while addressing the ball, you will see a thin white stripe at the top of the hitting area, just below the topline. It is subtle, but TaylorMade’s testing showed it provides enough of a contrast to help players get the face pointed down the intended target line. 

TaylorMade Stealth Plus+ fairway wood (David Dusek/Golfweek)

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. 

TaylorMade Stealth fairway wood (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The standard Stealth fairway wood looks like the Stealth Plus+, but it is made using stainless steel, is slightly larger and does not have an adjustable hosel. 

There is a Speed Pocket slot in the sole of the Stealth to improve performance on low-hit shots. It is larger than the Speed Pocket in the Stealth Plus+, so TaylorMade designers did not have room to put in the adjustable hosel’s receiving piece. TaylorMade is making a “fitting version” of the Stealth with an adjustable hosel available to custom fitters to make it easier to try different shafts. 

The Stealth does, however, have a very large carbon-fiber crown that wraps around parts of the toe and the heel. This reduces the weight in the top of the club, lowers the center of gravity and encourages a higher ball flight.