Tour Edge Awarded Five 2019 Golf Digest Hot List Awards
Tour Edge announces that five of their new products were honored with a highly coveted 2019 Golf Digest Hot List award. The results were announced in the March issue of Golf Digest currently on newsstands.
Tour Edge Exotics metalwoods won four awards, including a Gold medal. Only three other manufacturers received four or more 2019 Hot List awards for metalwoods.
Two-hundred and twenty two clubs were put to the test that is dictated upon 45% Performance, 30% Innovation, 20% Look/Sound/Feel and 5% Demand in the annual golf equipment awards going on 16 straight years.
Tour Edge now has 12 in-line products that have won a Golf Digest Hot List award. The big winner for Tour Edge in 2019 is their new Exotics EXS line.
#1 2019 Hot List Winner – Exotics EXS Driver
The already award-winning Exotics EXS driver (awarded ING’s top Product Ingenuity among Market Leaders at the PGA Merchandise Show) added more hardware to the trophy case with a win in the Hot List driver category.
The Exotics EXS Driver earned 4.5 stars in Innovation, 4 stars in Performance and 4 stars in Look, Sound and Feel.
The player comments from the test on the Exotics EXS Driver were as follows:
Low-Handicapper: “The carbon-fiber clubhead produces the soft, duller sound that I like, and there’s no discernible vibration.”
Mid-Handicapper: “The EXS is one of the easier drivers for launching the ball in the air, and the ball flight was easy to control.”
High-Handicapper: “My drives had consistently low spin with high trajectory—the formula for distance.”
Quote from the Club Designer on Exotics EXS Driver:
“I have been putting a lot of focus into getting a driver back on the Hot List so it is wonderful to see the Exotics EXS Driver win a Hot List award,” said Tour Edge President and Master Club Designer David Glod. “I believe that with all the tech behind this driver and the improved carbon and acoustics that we have a shot to be considered a top three performance driver in golf at a price that no one can touch.”
#2 2019 Hot List Winner – Exotics EXS Fairway Metals
Winning a Gold medal in the 2019 Hot List was the Exotics EXS fairway metal. The verdict on the gold–winning club in Golf Digest read: The design features a weight-saving carbon-composite toe that keeps the center of gravity low and forward for less ball spin. Additional weight has been pushed to the perimeter for extra off-center-hit forgiveness. The variable-thickness face is made of a thin, high-strength steel and wraps around the crown, toe and sole to improve flex. Two movable weights on the heel (11 grams) and rear (three grams) can toggle between a draw and neutral setting.
The EXS fairway metal earned 4.5 stars in Innovation, 4.5 stars in Performance and 4 stars in Look, Sound and Feel.
The player comments from the Hot List test on the Exotics EXS Fairway Metals were as follows:
Low-Handicapper “Has that old-school 3-wood shape. Easy to manipulate from any lie.”
Mid-Handicapper “Does everything I asked, with oomph.”
High-Handicapper “Sounds like a fastball hitting a catcher’s mitt.”
Quote from the Club Designer on Exotics EXS Fairway Metals:
“The fact that the EXS fairway won a Gold medal from Golf Digest shows that we have really delivered with the EXS line,” said Glod. “The driver and hybrid had the same performance metrics as the other Gold winners; it is always the demand category that brings us down to the Silver category. Since we have always been known for our fairway metals, we had more weight in the demand category, hence lifting us to the Gold level. That should show consumers that we can hang with anybody!”
#3 2019 Hot List Winner – Exotics EXS Hybrid
#4 2019 Hot List Winner – Exotics CBX 119 Hybrid
Two Tour Edge hybrids won 2019 Hot List awards. The Exotics EXS hybrid and the brand new Exotics CBX 119 hybrid both won Hot List hybrid awards.
Golf Digest described the EXS hybrid as “aimed at non-elite swing-speed players”. With the new Exotics CBX 119, Golf Digest recommended “it should tell you something that the changes from last year’s CBX came from tour-player input.”
Both hybrids are in play on the professional tours, but the Exotics CBX 119 was the first to the winner’s podium in 2019, as it was in the bag for Tom Lehman’s season-opening victory at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
The player comments from the Hot List test on the Exotics EXS hybrid were as follows:
Low-Handicapper: “The ball gets up fast.”
Mid-Handicapper: “Even toe hits carried.”
High-Handicapper: “I like the shallow face and the rounded edges, and you even got playable results when you dug it in the ground.”
The player comments from the Hot List test on the Exotics CBX 119 hybrid were as follows:
Low-Handicapper: “Easy to shape the ball.”
Mid-Handicapper: “This is black coffee: strong as you can take it.”
High-Handicapper: “The rail helps, telling you it’s not afraid to get dirty. Impact is like a good punch.”
Quote from the Club Designer on Exotics EXS hybrid and Exotics CBX 119 hybrid:
“We’ve been manufacturing hybrids as long as anyone in the business so I am especially proud that both the Exotics hybrids made Hot List,” said Glod. “Both hybrids are in play on the pro tours. The EXS hybrid is a very forgiving hybrid that is easy to launch for any player looking to replace long irons. The CBX 119 is a hybrid that a player looking for a low-spinning, distance oriented hybrid, even into the wind will benefit from. It typically won’t go left, which is why so many professionals gravitate towards it.’”
#5 2019 Hot List Winner – Exotics CBX Iron-Wood Set
Also in the winning bag of Lehman’s in Hawaii was a singular club from our final 2019 Hot List winner, the Exotics CBX Iron-Wood Iron set. Winning the Hot List award in 2019 in the category of Super Game Improvement irons was the Exotics CBX Iron-Wood set, a revolutionary set that consists of all iron-woods; a hollow-body design combined with a traditional forged iron look and feel.
The idea behind the Exotics CBX Iron-Wood set is to produce the distance and forgiveness of a metalwood combined with the feel and control of a forged iron set with progressive offsets to match from club to club.
Here was the verdict from the pages of Golf Digest on the CBX Iron-wood set: “When you’ve produced hollow-body clubs for two decades, you learn some things. In Tour Edge’s case, it’s that making these iron- woods solely for long irons wasn’t enough. Having previously produced its CBX Iron-Wood in 2- through 5-irons, the design now extends through the entire set. A thin, L-shape face made from a springy Japanese steel provides power, and a rounded sole and progressive offset offer an easy transition to the middle and short irons.”
The player comments from the Hot List test on the Exotics CBX Iron-Wood were as follows:
Mid-Handicapper: “At contact, the sound has an energetic hybrid feel.”
High-Handicapper: “Interesting how they all look like driving irons. With so much help built in, I feel like it’s impossible to not hit it solidly.”
Quote from the Club Designer on Exotics CBX Iron-Wood set:
“With the CBX Iron-Wood, you have a tour-winning club that is one of the more popular driving iron type clubs on the professional tours, said Glod. “To have a set as revolutionary as the CBX Iron-Wood set win shows me that iron sets are headed more to this hollow-body design that combine properties of irons and woods. I think this is just the start of what designs like this can offer every type of golfer.”
Below are the other clubs currently in-line with Tour Edge that have earned a Golf Digest Hot List designation:
#6 Hot List Winner Exotics CBX Fairway Wood
#7 Hot List Winner HL3 Triple Combo Iron Set (HL3 Hybrids/HL3 Iron-Woods/HL3 Irons)
#8 Hot List Winner Exotics EX 10 Fairway Wood
#9 Hot List Winner Exotics EX 10 Hybrid
#10 Hot List Winner Exotics XJ1 Fairway Wood
#11 Hot List Winner Exotics CBX Forged Iron Set
#12 Hot List Winner Exotics EXd Iron Set
“We are proud that Tour Edge products keep resonating with the testers of the Golf Digest Hot List,” said Glod. “Currently, we have four fairway woods, six hybrids and iron-woods and four iron sets that are in-line and that have been honored by Golf Digest available to the golfing consumer. As our chief designer, that really is good way for me to measure that I have been producing top notch clubs in the industry in every category.”
About Tour Edge
In 1986, David Glod founded Tour Edge with a focus on offering golfers with high quality and technologically advanced golf products that were as cutting edge as they were affordable. He is now considered one of the preeminent master club designers in golf club design and has led Tour Edge to be a Top 10 manufacturer in every club category.
Tour Edge products have been put in play on the PGA TOUR, PGA Tour Champions, LPGA Tour and Web.com Tour, as well as European professional tours, and have been in play in every PGA TOUR major event and in Ryder Cup competitions, leading to 18 wins for players playing Tour Edge products on the PGA Tours (10 PGA TOUR, 7 PGA Tour Champions and 1 Web.com Tour).
In 2018 alone, Tour Edge clubs have earned seven wins, nine runner-up finishes, 34 Top 5 finishes and 60 Top 10 finishes on the three PGA Tours. Tour Edge, an American owned and operated company for more than 32 years, manufactures and sells golf clubs under three distinct brand names: Exotics, Hot Launch and Bazooka.
- Exotics products bring futuristic technologies to the marketplace with tour preferred designs and smaller production runs. Exotics clubs utilize higher-grade, avant-garde materials and manufacturing methods that have led Exotics to establish itself as a leader in quality craftsmanship and to redefine what is possible in golf club performance.
- Hot Launch has forged a name for itself as a producer of high-quality premium game improvement golf clubs from driver to wedge. Hot Launch has proven to provide the greatest custom fit value in golf and includes an unprecedented guaranteed 48-hour custom fit delivery program.
- Bazooka represents the absolute best value available in golf, offering advanced players, beginners, women and juniors the best in playability and affordability.
All Exotics and Hot Launch clubs are hand built in the United States in Batavia, Illinois and then distributed throughout the world. Every Tour Edge club comes with a Lifetime Warranty and a 30-day play guarantee.
Media Contact:
Jon Claffey
Vice President of Marketing
Tour Edge
Phone: 800-515-3343 Ex: 110
Email: jclaffey@touredge.com
