Tour Edge Introduces Hot Launch 522 Series
Medium and high-handicappers are always on the hunt for more help from their golf equipment. The search for clubs that are easier to hit goes far and wide. Tour Edge believes it’s coming to the rescue of those players with the company’s new Hot Launch E522 and C522 series, which is nearly a full-bag line — drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, iron-woods and wedges.
E is for Extreme Spec, super game-improvement clubs with exceptionally low center of gravity (CG), shallow clubfaces, more offset and shorter shaft lengths — all in an effort to allow players to easily get the ball in the air.
C is for Competition Spec, game-improvement designs, which have classic shapes and sit square at address. They have a high moment of inertia (MOI) for added forgiveness but with the technology to launch the ball with more speed.
Tour Edge is best known for its Exotics line that has developed somewhat of a cult following for the company’s fairway woods used among better players and some touring professionals. Now, a few PGA Tour Champions players are endorsing Exotics. Company engineers have taken aspects of what makes Exotics popular and put them to work in the designs of the new Hot Launch 522 lines.
“This is a running upgrade over the (Hot Launch) 521 series,” said David Glod, president and founder of Tour Edge. “We’re bringing as much technology to this lineup from Exotics that we can to extend performance benefits to every golfer type.”
Both the E522 and C522 metals feature the company’s Diamond Face 2.0 technology, which features 42 diamond shapes of varied thickness behind the face to enhance and widen the sweet spot. In addition, the diamond shapes create what the company calls “mini-trampolines,” which are combined with Cup Face construction for faster ball speeds and better results on hits on all areas of the clubface.
A number of golf instructors insist that high-handicap players who need super game-improvement clubs would benefit from shorter shaft lengths, especially in the driver and fairway woods. Tour Edge is putting that to use with the E522 woods and its Control Length shafts, which the company says will improve accuracy, increase smash factor and create more contact in the center of the face.
The E522 irons are hollow-body construction, which moves the CG extremely low and back for added forgiveness. And the shallow-cup, thin-forged face creates ease of launch and increased ball speeds.
Tour Edge has put game-improvement technology in the E522 wedges with the company’s new Houdini sole. It features a curved leading edge, which the company says reduces turf interaction by 35 percent, which is to say there’s less digging.
The C522 irons use Vibrcor, a high-grade thermoplastic urethane (TPU) that is used in the Exotics 721 line of irons. The TPU is placed in the C522 irons’ undercut pocket, which the company says produces more speed off the face and better overall feel through sound dampening at impact.
The C522 wedges, called SuperSpin by Tour Edge, also uses Vibrcor and features a cavity-back design for more forgiveness. The leading edge is beveled to reduce digging and the sole is curved and more rounded to help with lies in the rough and to make bunker shots easier. The wedges also have extra weight behind the top of the club, which helps those shots hit high in the clubface that generally fall short of the target.
The entire Hot Launch 522 Series will be available in over 1,000 authorized fitting locations starting Oct. 1. Retail prices will be $249.99 for both the E and C drivers, $159.99 for both E and C fairway metals and $139.99 for the E and C hybrids. The C522 Irons will sell for $79.99 per iron, while the E522 Irons will retail for $99.99 per iron. The E and C wedges will both cost $89.99 per wedge.