Tour Edge Hollow Body Exotics: What’s old is new again

Tour Edge is bringing back a blast from the past with their Hollow Body Exotics line of iron woods. Targeted at the mid-range price point and advertising aggressive potential for distance, they’re an intriguing look at technology coming full circle.

When information on the new Tour Edge Hollow Body Exotics CBX Iron Woods hit my email, just like the Cobra Superlites, I was reminded of clubs from long ago. This time, two clubs came to mind, one was because of the way the Tour Edge clubs look and the other was because of the way these Tour Edge clubs are made.

First off, Tour Edge Iron Woods information featured pictures that look like a really fat-backed iron, like a rescue club.

It reminded me of a company that launched its new products at the PGA Merchandise Show in the late 1990s. They were called Wedgewoods. Not a wood, not an iron. Like a wedge with a fairway wood back.  Or like a 7-iron with a fairway wood back.  It gave you confidence just looking at the thing. Like there’s no way I can miss this shot with that much club.

The inventor of Wedgewoods called them hybrids because the club combined two ideas in one.  Half wedge or half iron and half wood. In addition, it wasn’t like a Rescue Club where you were restricted to a couple of lofts. With Wedgewoods, you could buy a set. Today, you can still buy Wedgewoods in lofts from that of a 5-iron to a 58- degree wedge.  And right now, there’s a special promotion on the 7 Wedgewood, which you can get for about $50.

While I couldn’t remember the details behind the creator of the Wedgewoods, someone else did.  They were created by Michael Wanchena.  The original club was a 38-degree lofted hybrid.

The other clubs that I thought of when the Tour Edge Hollow Body information came to me were much more mainstream.  They were made by TaylorMade and debuted in 1987.

After his success with the TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon drivers, the late Gary Adams, founder of TaylorMade and considered the father of the modern metal drivers and metal fairway clubs, expanded his line to include irons.  After a couple of years making what looked like traditional clubs, Adams hit on the idea of a set that would have hollow irons for the 1-4-iron and then traditional irons for 3-PW.

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They were called Tour Preferred TD. The hollow cavity allowed Adams to move the weight around, giving golfers more blast per swing with the longer irons that, typically, were harder for the middle handicap players to hit. How popular they were with golfers is known only to TaylorMade. But it was 1991 when they introduced the next iron set. So they worked for several years.

Until now, the use of hollow clubs and of iron woods has been mostly dormant though, except for the Rescue Club, which was also TaylorMade creation. However, Tour Edge, typically known for modestly priced clubs, like the fabulously named Bazooka Driver, has branched out in recent years with a more expensive line which they call Exotics. The highest priced driver in the Exotics line is still much more affordable than a new TaylorMade or Callaway driver. The Exotics driver is just $300, and it has a titanium face.

Now enter the new Tour Edge Hollow Body Exotics CBX Iron Woods which are the 21st century version of this idea with hollow construction in the irons. And now, instead of being available in just mid-irons to wedges, they are available from the 2-iron down.

From reading the description of the irons on their website, the clubface is created to provide trampoline effect for balls when they come off the face of the club. Any trampoline effect is good for golfers who want more distance. Let’s face it, who doesn’t? Even Cameron Champ would take more distance if he could get it.

The new clubs are available in sets from 2-iron to sand wedge.  Wedges are available as pitching wedge, approach wedge and gap wedge. They are so new that the pricing isn’t yet on the Tour Edge web site. However, for earlier sets, without the low irons, they can be ordered in 17 custom lengths, from 2” long to 2” short, with six grip sizes, five choices of lie and five shaft flexes.

Six Web.com players used the Exotics EXS irons last season according to Tour Edge, and the clubs also made appearances in the bags of PGA Tour Champions players. The reason they can’t say who is that Tour Edge does not have a contract with those players. Still, those with a keen eye may be able to pick them out.

The Exotics CBX are $899.99 for a 6-piece set, $1049.99 for a 7-piece set, in steel. Individual clubs can be purchased for $150 each.