Let’s make Tour Edge great again

The Tour Edge Exotics line of golf clubs is celebrating 20th anniversaryand with it a whole new line of offers. I’ve had the gear for a little over a month now with the opportunity to test the gear quite extensively on mine Quad Max Forecastas well as get out on the 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 release of the Tour Edge golf balls, the company is trying to tap into a new demographic of golfers. They want to make sure people know it’s okay to play Tour Edge regardless of skill level, gender or yes…age. Most players who know about Tour Edge usually associate them with the older crowd. Some of that is due in part to the company’s beginnings in 1986 carrying a legacy with golfers into our current time, but it’s also because they’ve largely established their presence in PGA Tour Champions. They’ve seen a lot of success on that tour with guys like Bernhard Langer and Scott McCarronbut they haven’t been able to use that influence to bring in a younger demographic.

The new Exotic lineup brings us a new look with new modern graphics, as well as more mainstream material use 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 company’s new vision. The new lineup looks great. Very modern approach, a simply stated design and a very cohesive look and feel in all the new products, from the big and loaded Exotics MAX game-improving iron to the new Exotics LS driver.

2. What hasn’t changed

There were a few things that didn’t surprise me at all about the new gear, and most of them are specifically centered around the players’ irons. Both the new Forged MB and Forged CB have a familiar shape that still looks like they have Tour Edge DNA within them. Slightly thicker top lines, a more offset touch and an overall larger blade than you might expect from the category the irons are in.

This is all on purpose, and is a common reaction from the older generation of skilled players playing the device. Not a ton of companies are offering options with this approach yet, and I actually really like that the Tour Edge is sticking to this design ethic.

A slightly larger platform allows the clubs to be easier to hit without being visually distracting or inefficient at impact. With a little more mass to play with, I found both players’ irons to be much more forgiving than their category name might suggest.

MB specifically was a lot of fun to hit. It’s a slightly sleeker package than the MB with a slightly thinner sole that rides the ground very well and offers plenty of ball speed, a bit more than I’d get from other MBs on the market.

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And then there’s the compensation. I’ll admit, the offset takes a second to get used to, but the purpose of the offset shows in the performance. It’s part of what makes irons so friendly. There’s just a little more time to make sure the clubface is square at impact, and in my testing I’ve always found a trade-off in a smaller iron that helps make the flight a little easier as well. It’s a bit of an old-school way of thinking, again, a very Champions Tour-like way of thinking, but it works.

3. Exotics MAX driver is very good

That was what shocked me the most. I think in general Tour Edge is a bit of a sleeper on their woods, especially their fairway woods, but this new Exotics MAX driver is the best I’ve ever seen from them.

Being a MAX product, it boasts 10k MOI properties, which as you might have guessed, makes for a very fake driver. But it doesn’t create the forgiveness at the sacrifice of performance that a better player wants. Take a look at this view from my Foresight QuadMax display.

The MAX stands next to the LS head but does it in a more forgiving package. The craziest part is that the LS head I was testing was a 9º head, but I had the MAX at a 10.5º. Which again tells me that the MAX head was not designed to release and spin super high to achieve the forgiveness measurements they were looking for. It was created as a golfer driver that works to achieve a higher level of forgiveness without sacrificing performance.

But it’s also a GOOD putter for a player who might be at a slightly lower skill level to see the easier-to-use performance from a forgiving package. Not every player who needs forgiveness also needs launch and spin, but it can be difficult to separate these characteristics. Tour Edge has done a great job here with the MAX head, something I’m actually looking forward to testing more this winter.

4. Options for everyone

One of the things I’ve always liked about Tour Edge is that they consistently make products for lower skill players and players who don’t produce a ton of swing speed. We have seen them in the past 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 reduced head weight and some built in offset, as well as an Exotics MAX hybrid and Exotics MAX iron, both of which are incredibly easy to launch, very forgiving products while remaining pleasing to the eye. And the whole product looks like it belongs to the Exotics family. The new, more modern design is evident on anything with LITE or MAX on it as are the player options, and they feel like they belong in the same conversation. A common point of feedback from players in this category across the industry is that they feel like they are left with options that seem cheap, or not taken seriously. Tour Edge has it down 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 many golfers haven’t had a chance to experience their equipment, but it’s definitely worth a go. For me, they are a local company about 45 minutes from my house, with roots in the area at several local clubs, so it is easy to spot Tour Edge out on the course and we take for granted the product that is most popular here outside of Chicago than anywhere else.

My grandfather actually used to go and see David Glod in his garage to build clubs. It’s all a very interesting story with a lot of heritage and it’s good for the game of golf when brands like this find success. The new device is definitely worth a shot to see if it fits in your bag, and if it does, you’ll also save a few bucks over the competition.

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