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The TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver offers immense forgiveness, strong ball speeds, and wonderfully satisfying sound.

Introduction

TaylorMade’s highly publicised “Fargiveness” catch phrase for the Stealth 2 family may seem a little contrived, but hearing Rory say it is gold.  I chuckle every time I hear it in that Irish accent.  I’d like to hand him a piece of paper with forgiveness and fargiveness both spelled out and have him say both words, just to see if there’s an actual difference.  But I digress.  You’re here to learn about the TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, so let’s jump in.

Looks

First, the headcover – it’s really nice.  I particularly like the hexagons in the red section and the crisp white stitching.  Pulling off the cover my eyes were drawn to the distinctive satin finish of the red framework.  Add to that the asymmetrical angles of the Inertia Generator, the gloss black finish, and red pinstriping and you have a sole that is both modern and classy looking.

At address, the Stealth 2 driver maintains that classy look with a clean field of black.  The red framework, now visible on the trailing edge of the crown, provides definition to the shape.  While the roundness of the crown is clearly skewed towards the toe, the position of the alignment logo “T” spotlights how toe-centric the design really is.

What truly makes the Stealth 2 driver unique in the looks department is the red carbon fiber face.  With closer examination, I realized the hexagon pattern I liked on the headcover was in fact a larger representation of the face.  A wonderfully cohesive look overall – especially when you factor in the colors employed on the Ventus shaft.

Sound & Feel

Surprisingly, this was my first time hitting a carbon face TaylorMade driver, and let me just say – the sound and feel of the Stealth 2 is very satisfying.  Impact sound is a crisp “snap” similar to what you’d hear cracking a tree branch the size of a drum stick across your knee.  Volume was in the 4-5 range and fairly consistent across the face.

Through the impact zone, the feel was also consistent – solid and stable with every reasonable strike.  It felt like every ball hit between the white groove graphics was dead center unless I was truly focused on contact location.

Performance

The highlight of my TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver testing was the forgiveness.  Even during my “get to know you” phase, the driver delivered strong ball speeds.  And as I became more comfortable with the shaft and head, the Stealth 2 really delivered solid, and repetitive, distances.  I mention the head specifically, because the optimum strike location is visually heel biased – trust the alignment aid.

Billed as mid-low spin, I found it on the low side.  The stock Fujikura Ventus TR Red is a great shaft, but not a perfect fit for me.  On the plus side, I’m confident that my spin could be brought up with a shaft change, and the results could be really impressive.  We say “get fit” all the time for a reason.

The science behind fargiveness revolves around carbon technology.  TaylorMade designers utilized twice as much carbon in the Stealth 2 compared to the original Stealth driver.  There’s an exploding graphic on the TaylorMade website that that illustrates just how much of the head is carbon – and it’s shocking.

By saving weight in nearly every element of the driver head, mass was distributed exactly where best suited for stability and, you guessed it, forgiveness.  The most obvious example is the 25 gram tungsten weight pod of the Inertia Generator – precisely positioned to boost MOI.

Conclusion

For the golfer seeking both distance and forgiveness, the TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver is a must try for 2023.  Fargiveness may be sound like just a clever marketing word, but it perfectly defines the TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver.

TaylorMade Stealth 2 Driver Price & Specs