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Tour Edge EXS Driver Review

By Stuart Goldstein

When Tom Lehman opened up the 2019 PGA Tour Champions season with a victory at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, he did so with the brand new Exotics CBX 119 hybrid by Tour Edge in the bag.

Tour Edge announced that Lehman officially signed a deal to wear a Tour Edge Exotics logo on his chest, to carry an Exotics CBX 119 staff bag and to play their Exotics metalwoods just a few days before the season-opening win.

“Right off the bat, we weren’t sure which CBX was in the bag for the win, the one he played with and won with last year or the new CBX 119 we had just sent him a few days prior to him leaving for Hawaii,” said Executive Vice President John Craig. “We then heard from Tom this week that he instantly fell in love with the new CBX 119 and put it right into play.”

Lehman officially put the Exotics CBX 119 18-degree hybrid with a Project X EvenFlow Black shaft into play for the win. He also had a #2 Exotics CBX Iron-Wood in play.

"I put the CBX 119 directly in the bag for Hawaii and came away with the win to start the 2019 season,” said Lehman. “The CBX 119 is way better than the original I played last year and that one was really, really good. It’s a great step up and I hit key shots with it.”

Lehman erased a four-stroke deficit and won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai by a stroke on the final hole. Lehman finished with a 17-under 199.

"I like the fact that the wind was blowing," Lehman said. "I always feel like when the wind blows, my chances get better. Historically, I've always been a real steady ball striker, and when the wind blows, that's what you really have to do."

He caught the leader with three birdies in a four-hole stretch at Hualalai Golf Club and sealed the win with his second straight 7-under-par 65 round. The victory was Lehman’s 12th PGA Tour Champions victory and his 2nd in the past two seasons while playing Exotics golf clubs.

Tour Edge Signs Tom Lehman to Logo and Bag Staff Deal for 2019

Tour Edge announced today that Tom Lehman has officially signed a deal to play and endorse Tour Edge Exotics and to play their metalwoods on the PGA Tour Champions in 2019. Lehman will feature a Tour Edge Exotics logo on his right chest and will carry a Tour Edge Exotics CBX 119 golf bag.

“I am very happy to announce that I will be carrying the Tour Edge bag and that I am adding their logo for the 2019 season," said Lehman. “I was very attracted to the fact that this is a U.S. owned and operated company and that they build their clubs in the United States. I am proud to join the Tour Edge team in a bigger way for 2019.”

Lehman served as an Exotics CBX hybrid staff player in 2018. He played Tour Edge Exotics CBX hybrids all year en route to a PGA Tour Champions victory and an 18th place ranking in the Charles Schwab Cup.

This year, Lehman will be wearing a Tour Edge Exotics logo and carrying a Tour Edge bag for the first time and will also expand his club usage to other categories with Tour Edge Exotics clubs.

“I had great success all year long with the Exotics CBX hybrid and fairway woods,” said Lehman. “I’ve tested everything out there and I found Exotics to be the best for my game. I look forward to testing other Exotics clubs as well moving forward.”

Lehman finished 19th in the final Charles Schwab Cup points and money standings in 2018 while playing an 18 degree with a HZRDUS Black 105 shaft and a 15-degree Exotics CBX fairway wood.

Lehman earned nine Top 10’s including a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finish for a grand total of $1,012,437 in prize money earned in 2018. Lehman won the Principal Charity Classic June 10th for his 11th career win on the PGA Tour Champions.

"The name Tom Lehman exudes honor and class,” said Tour Edge President David Glod. “He is an icon of our sport, a future Hall of Famer, a Ryder Cup captain and we are proud to have him feature our company logos and for Tom to carry our new Exotics CBX 119 bag. This is a very important signing for Tour Edge as an American owned and operated brand. We feel there is a lot of symmetry between our company and Tom and we look forward to a great year with him in 2019 on the PGA Tour Champions.”

Lehman will make his season debut January 17th at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. He finished 9th in the event last year to start off his season. He is the only golfer in history to have been awarded Player of the Year honors on all three of the PGA Tours: the regular PGA TOUR, the Web.com Tour and the PGA Tour Champions.

“We have made our home the PGA Tour Champions and the number one name you could add to your roster as your Champions company ambassador is Tom Lehman,” said Glod. “We set up on the range at every event in 2018 and over 50 different professionals started playing Exotics. The players have been very thankful for the service we are providing them and it has led to some great relationships and great feedback for me on club design. Feedback from guys like Tom Lehman and Scott McCarron led to our new Exotics CBX 119 line that we are launching at the PGA Show so this has been a very important direction we are taking as a company.”

Lehman will also take part in Tour Edge’s sponsorship of the PGA Tour Champions Learning Center show on the Golf Channel. The PGA Tour Learning Center is a popular Golf Channel television show that features professional tips and instruction featuring the legends of golf from the PGA Tour Champions.

Tour Edge Announces New Exotics CBX Fairway and Hybrid 119 Versions Independent Tests Show CBX 119 13 Yards Longer on Average than Top-Selling Fairway Metals

Tour Edge officially introduces the Exotics CBX 119 fairway metals and hybrids, new versions of the tour-winning and award-winning Exotics CBX models originally launched in August of 2017.

Modifications were made to the Exotics CBX fairway metals and hybrids based off of feedback from Tour Edge’s Tour Staff on the PGA Tour Champions and some of the other 50 plus professionals who put Exotics into play on tour in 2018.

“We spent every week out on the professional tours this year servicing the players with Exotics clubs,” said Tour Edge President and Master Club Designer David Glod. “Obviously we learned a lot on how we could improve the CBX metalwoods by working so closely with the legends of the game.”

With the new Exotics CBX 119 fairway metal, Glod and his R&D team combined the shapes of the original CBX with the more compact, deeper-face CBX T3 model to create the ultimate fairway metal shape.

“Even if a change was slight, in terms of say a couple millimeters, we took it into account,” said Glod. “The end result is that we made even better versions of the best metalwoods on the market and the majority of the changes made were based on direct Tour player feedback.What better person is there to talk to about how to improve a golf club than a group of tour players who had already put CBX into play and that represent over 200 PGA TOUR victories in their combined careers?”

With a goal of further reducing spin off of the metalwoods already known as “The Spin Killers”, the Speed Ramp Sole was widened by 15% to create higher MOI and an even higher CG. The higher CG helped to reduce spin even more than in the previous iteration and created more wind-defying distance out of what had already tested as the longest fairway metal on the market.  

The wider and deeper Speed Ramp Sole design surrounds a larger carbon fiber section on the sole of the new CBX 119 design, allowing for more weight to be positioned in the preferred location closer to the face of the clubhead. The stainless steel Speed Ramp Sole design also improves turf interaction, allowing golfers to hit the fairway metals out of the rough or deep divots. The ramp on the Speed Ramp Sole extracts the ball from the turf while the chrome stainless steel wings  in a “horseshoe” shape  expands the sweet spot on the face and surrounds and protects the ultra-light carbon fiber cap.

Glod estimated that he was able to save another 10% of the weight of the clubhead due to the increased carbon fiber area, leading to 50 grams of weight out of the 215 gram total head weight being placed up and forward in the clubhead to reduce spin.  

By combo brazing a Titanium face plate to a stainless steel body combined with carbon fiber on the sole, Glod and team saved 25% of the weight of the clubhead to use towards CG manipulation.

“Reducing spin is the number one key to adding distance to a lofted club like a fairway or a hybrid,” said Glod. “If we will lower the spin significantly, we will win the distance battle. This is not as easy as it sounds. It’s tough to lower spin in combination with loft. We knew we had to concentrate on CG manipulation and the only way to do this was to make the only fairway wood and hybrid ever made with Titanium face, combo brazed on to stainless steel and with carbon fiber on the sole have even lower spin rates than what we had accomplished before.”

The independent test results from a recent Golf Laboratories robot swing analysis confirm that Glod and team have again succeeded in reducing spin and providing greater distance than any other fairway metals available on the market. The CBX 119 ranked 1st in total distance,1st in carry distance and #1 in lowest spin rates against four of the top selling fairway metals on the market. The CBX 119 3-wood averaged 13 yards more total distance and 10 yards more carry distance over Taylor Made M3, Callaway Rouge, PING G400 and Cobra F8. It also bested the four clubs with 358 RPM less spin than the four clubs tested against on average at a 110 MPH swing speed. The new Exotics CBX hybrid integrates new technology designed to push the boundaries of low-spin distance combined with tour-inspired feel and workability. The new CBX 119 Hybrid- shorter heel to toe for more workability and lower spin results, and less face progression. The modified design is also a taller face that produces more power and less spin. The larger Beta-Titanium face makes for more face flex, or CT, making the hybrid hotter off the face than its previous iteration.

“Again with the hybrid, we molded the old design with tour player feedback to come up the new 119 version,” said Glod. “With the new CBX 119, the changes to the hybrid are a little more visible than the fairway. The club seems more compact at address and with a blunter toe; even though it is the same exact CC’s as the original. These extra CC’s went to the face height. The 119 will also have more pop off the face due to the beta-Titanium face.”

Tour Edge Signs Scott McCarron to Logo Staff Deal for 2019 Two-time winner in 2018 will expand club usage with Exotics

Tour Edge announced today that Scott McCarron has officially signed a deal to play and endorse Tour Edge Exotics and to play their metalwoods on the PGA Tour Champions in 2019. McCarron will feature a Tour Edge Exotics logo on his left sleeve.

McCarron served as an Exotics CBX hybrid staff player in 2018. He played Tour Edge Exotics CBX hybrids all year en route to two PGA Tour Champions victories and a 2nd place finish in the Charles Schwab Cup.

This year, McCarron will be wearing a Tour Edge Exotics logo for the first time and will also expand his club usage to other categories with Tour Edge Exotics clubs.