Scottie Scheffler discusses switching into an unreleased TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver and 3-wood in Hawaii
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This time last year, Scottie Scheffler was an equipment free agent without a PGA TOUR victory. A lot has changed since then.
Scheffler won four times in a two-month stretch last spring -- including his first major triumph at the Masters -- en route to winning PGA TOUR Player of the Year. In the midst of those eventful two months, Scheffler also inked an endorsement deal with TaylorMade.
Scheffler’s most notable gear changes in 2022 included a switch into TaylorMade’s Stealth Plus driver at the beginning of the year, and a switch into TaylorMade’s Stealth 16.5-degree fairway wood prior to winning the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play event (remember, the TaylorMade Stealth fairway wood finally replaced his longtime Nike VR Pro fairway wood that he’d used for a decade!
Scheffler is wasting no time upgrading to TaylorMade’s latest and greatest. He has the TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus prototype driver and a Stealth 2 3-wood in the bag at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Scheffler ranked 19th in Driving Distance (311.6 yards) last season and 100th in Driving Accuracy. Scheffler said Wednesday, however, the new Stealth 2 driver may move him up the rankings in the latter category by offering more stability on off-center strikes.
“The testing process, it was pretty simple for me,” Scheffler said Wednesday from Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course. “This was, I think, an easy fitting. The driver, when we were going through the fitting … I noticed at first it was really stable. So if I was hitting it left, the ball would always kind of hang left, and then if one head was going too far right, the ball would kind of hang there. So the thing I noticed, and was excited about, was how stable it was. And getting into it was pretty seamless. I went up to The Kingdom (TaylorMade’s fitting center in Carlsbad, California) this winter and just kind of got into the driver, and the numbers were matching up nicely, and I thought it was a lot more stable, so I put it in play.”
His driver is so new, in fact, that TaylorMade hasn’t yet announced any technical information about the design. It just went onto the USGA Conforming Club List earlier this week.
Judging by the photos of Scheffler’s new Stealth 2 Plus driver, it appears that TaylorMade is staying with the red TwistFace – uniquely made from 60 layers of carbon – that the company introduced in its previous Stealth drivers. The red carbon face, according to TaylorMade, helped achieve faster ball speeds when compared to the titanium that is standard in today’s drivers.
It does appear that TaylorMade has made some changes from the Stealth Plus to the new Stealth 2 Plus driver, though. The crown seems to have a glossier black finish compared to its predecessor, and the sole appears to feature a redesigned sliding adjustable weight near the front of the sole.
Although Scheffler has changed into the new Stealth 2 Plus 8-degree head, he’s sticking with the same Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X shaft that he used throughout 2022.
Scheffler is also upgrading into a new Stealth 2 fairway wood with 15 degrees of loft. As he explained on Wednesday, when he’s testing out new fairway woods, Scheffler first looks for the club to produce the correct distance to create the desired yardage gaps in his set. Then, from there, he wants to see that he can hit all of the different shots he requires from a fairway wood.
“I always look for distance first (with a new 3-wood),” Scheffler explained. “Like, when we do the fitting, we'll get it going the right distance, and then (see) if I can hit all my shots. I noticed with this one I was able to hit kind of down into the ball more, and so that part excited me. The front edge sat a little bit squarer, so it's got a little better look to
While Scheffler’s new TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver and Stealth 2 fairway wood are still unreleased and unannounced by the company, Scheffler already sounds comfortable with the new designs. He’ll put them to their first competitive test on Thursday when he tees off at 12:15 p.m. local time in the opening round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions.