Gear: Tour Edge Exotics EXS 220 fairway woods
Price: $249.99 with Fujikura Air Speeder, Fujikura Ventus 4T Core or Project X HZRDUS Smoke Yellow shaft
Specs: Stainless steel and carbon-fiber construction with channeled sole waves and back weight. Available in 13.5, 15, 16.5, 18 and 21 degrees of loft
Available: Feb. 1
Tour Edge’s premier fairway wood last season, the Exotics CBX 119, was a hit with the company’s PGA Tour Champions players because it blended multiple materials in a unique way to provide more distance and forgiveness. Now Tour Edge is blending the features of that club along with the unique sole of previously released fairway woods in this season’s Exotics EXS 220 fairway wood family.
To enhance the EXS 220 fairway woods, Tour Edge designers focused on removing weight from specific areas in the head and redistributing it to other spots where it could improve performance.
For example, the stainless steel used in the face is 14 percent lighter than the steel in last season’s fairway woods. The cup face design also was given the same Diamond Face technology that the Exotics EXS 220 driver has, with small diamond-shaped areas designed on the inside-facing side of the hitting area that act like miniature trampolines, Tour Edge said, to allow the face to flex more efficiently at impact.
Tour Edge also designed a pair of carbon-fiber sections into the heel and toe areas on the sole, which reduces weight in those areas and concentrates it into the back and center of the club to increase the moment of inertia and make the club more stable. The CBX 119 had carbon fiber in the sole too, but these carbon fiber areas are larger. A 6-gram weight was added to that area of the sole to further boost moment of inertia.
A sound-enhancing post that Tour Edge calls a Sound Diffusion Bar was designed inside the head to improve acoustics, as was the wavy SlipStream sole that debuted in the 2013 Exotics CB Pro fairway woods. Running from the leading edge to the back of the club, the waves of metal help the club maintain speed as the club enters the hitting area and works through grass and sand.
