The Tour Edge Exotics line of golf clubs is celebrating its 20th Anniversary, and with it a full new line of offerings. I’ve had the equipment for a little over a month now with the chance to test the gear pretty extensively on my Foresight Quad Max, as well as get out on course and play a few rounds with the gear. Here are my top four findings so far.
1. Tour Edge’s new look
With this launch, and the launch of the Tour Edge golf balls, the company is striving to enter a new demographic of golfers. They want to make sure that people know that it’s cool to play Tour Edge regardless of skill level, gender, or yes… age. Most golfers who know of Tour Edge typically associate them with the older crowd. Some of that is due in part to the company’s start in 1986 carrying a legacy with golfers through our current time, but it’s also because they’ve mainly established their presence on the PGA Tour Champions. They’ve seen tons of success on that tour with guys like Bernhard Langer and Scott McCarron, but they haven’t been able to use that influence to bring in a younger demographic.
The new Exotic lineup brings us a fresh look with new modern graphics as well as more “mainstream” material usage and technology that golfers have come to expect. You’ll also notice that they’ve taken a new step in their marketing as well, using a more “athletic” demographic to help shape the new vision of the company. The new lineup looks great. Very modern approach, a simply stated design, and a very cohesive look and feel across all the new products, from the large and in charge Exotics MAX game improvement iron all the way up to the new Exotics LS driver.
2. What hasn’t changed
There were a couple of things that didn’t surprise me one bit about the new equipment, and most of them are centered around the players’ irons specifically. Both the new Forged MB and Forged CB have a familiar shape that still LOOKS like they have the DNA of Tour Edge inside them. A little bit thicker toplines, a touch more offset, and a larger overall blade than you may expect from the category the irons are in.
This is all on purpose, and it’s a common bit of feedback from the older generation of skilled golfers who play the gear. Not a ton of companies are still offering options with this approach, and I actually really like that Tour Edge is sticking to this design ethos.
A little bit larger platform allows the clubs to be easier to hit without being visually jarring or inefficient at impact. With a little bit more mass to play with, I noticed that both of the players’ irons were far more forgiving than their category name would suggest they might be.
The MB specifically was lots of fun to hit. It’s a slightly sleeker package than the MB with a slightly thinner sole that gets through the turf really well, and it provides plenty of ball speed, a little bit more than I’d get from other MBs on the market.
And then there’s the offset. I will admit, the offset takes a second to get used to, but the purpose of the offset shows in performance. It’s part of what makes the irons so friendly. There’s just a little bit more time to make sure that that club face is square through impact, and in my testing I’ve always found some offset on a smaller iron helps to make it just a little bit easier to flight as well. It’s a bit of an old school way of thinking, again, a very Champions Tour-esque way of thinking, but it works.
3. The Exotics MAX Driver is very good
This was the one that shocked me the most. I think in general, Tour Edge is a little bit slept on for their woods, particularly their fairway woods, but this new Exotics MAX driver is the best one I’ve ever seen from them.
Being a MAX product, it boasts 10k MOI properties which, as you may have guessed, makes the driver very forgiving. But it doesn’t create forgiveness at the sacrifice of the performance that a better player wants. Take a look at this screen shot from my Foresight QuadMax.
The MAX hangs out right alongside the LS head, but it does it in a more forgiving package. The crazier part is that the LS head I was testing was a 9º head but I had the MAX in a 10.5º. Which again tells me that the MAX head wasn’t designed to be super high launching and spinny to achieve the forgiveness metrics they were after. It was designed as a players’ driver that works to achieve a higher level of forgiveness without giving up the performance.
But it’s also a GREAT driver for a player who may be at a slightly lower skill level to see easier to use performance out of a forgiving package. Not every player who needs forgiveness also needs launch and spin, but it can be hard to separate these characteristics. Tour Edge has done a great job here with the MAX head, something I am actually looking forward to testing out more over this winter.
4. Options for everyone
One of the things I have always loved about Tour Edge is that they consistently make products for lower-skilled players, and players who don’t produce a ton of swing speed. In the past we’ve seen their Hot Launch series of clubs perform very well for this category of golfer, and it’s always nice when the Exotics lineup treats them well too.
With the new Exotics Family we get an Exotics Lite driver and fairway wood, both with decreased headweights and some built in offset, as well as an Exotics MAX hybrid and the Exotics MAX iron, both of which are incredibly easy to launch products with tons of forgiveness while remaining nice to look at. And all the product looks like it belongs in the Exotics Family. The new more modern design is apparent in everything with LITE or MAX on it just like the players’ options, and they feel like they belong in the same conversation. A common point of feedback from golfers in this category across the industry is that they feel like they’re left with options that look cheap, or aren’t taken seriously. Tour Edge has squashed that with these clubs.
I’m excited to see Tour Edge see a bit of a revival with the 20th Anniversary of Exotics. The company stays pretty under the radar, and lots of golfers haven’t had a chance to experience their equipment, but it’s definitely worth a go. For me, they’re a local company about 45 minutes away from my house, with roots in the area at a couple local clubs, so it’s easy to spot Tour Edge out on the course and we take for granted the product that’s more popular here outside of Chicago than anywhere else.
My grandpa used to actually go and see David Glod in his garage to get clubs built. It’s all a very cool story with lots of heritage, and it’s good for the game of golf when brands like this find success. The new gear is definitely worth a shot to see if it fits in your bag, and if it does, you’ll save a few bucks over the competition as well.
