Gear: Tour Edge HL4 driver
Price: $199.99 with UST Mamiya shaft and Lamkin Z5 grip
Specs: Forged 6-4 titanium body with variable-thickness cup-face design. 9.5, 10.5 and 12 degrees (standard); 10.5, 12, and 13.5 (offset version)
Available: August 1
Tour Edge’s Exotics line of clubs is made with a spare-no-expense philosophy and utilizes multi-material designs and the latest technologies. At the same time, Tour Edge is not abandoning golfers who can’t afford those clubs. The company touts the HL family as being the most solid investment in golf, and with the release of the HL4 driver, Tour Edge again tries to bring game-improving technologies to players at a budget-friendly price.
Forged from 6-4 titanium, the new HL4 driver (HL stands for Hot Launch) is designed to be a point-and-shoot bomber. It has a titanium cup-face design that is thicker in the center and thinner around the edges to broaden the sweet spot and protect ball speed on mis-hits. The crown also aerodynamically slopes from front to back to help golfers generate more speed with the same amount of effort.
By making the HL4 deeper from face to back and adding a weight in the back of the sole, Tour Edge pulled the center of gravity down and farther back, away from the hitting area. This should help golfers produce a higher launch, but the biggest benefit is a higher moment of inertia. Tour Edge said the MOI in the HL4 is 12 percent higher than the HL3, the driver it replaces, so it is significantly more stable and resists twisting at impact more effectively.
In addition to the standard HL4 driver, Tour Edge will offer an offset version of the club. By adding offset and positioning the clubface slightly back, golfers who tend to make contact with an open face should be able to square the hitting area to their target line more quickly and hit straighter shots.
