Tour Edge Exotics 722 metalwoods: What you need to know

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Tour Edge Exotics’ line over the years has leaned toward a certain type of high-speed, low-spin better player, but in 2022 the company is expanding its highest tech lineup of drivers, fairway woods and hybrids. Now there will be a C722 version for that traditional Exotics’ player, emphasizing compact shaping, low-spin and workability, and it will be joined by the E722 collection of metalwoods, where the main calling card will be extreme forgiveness.

PRICE: C722 driver, $430; E722 driver, $400; C722 fairway woods, $300; E722 fairway woods, $250; C722 hybrids, $250; E722 hybrids, $230.

THE DEEP DIVE: Tour Edge Exotics metalwoods have been gaining a foothold with the company’s growing staff of players on the PGA Tour Champions, their advanced use of multiple materials in recent clubs like the Exotics EXS 220, the C721 and C721 Pro, singularly tuned for the demands of better players. Or so you might think. Turns out not all better players want the same thing. In fact, plenty of them prefer drivers, fairway woods and hybrids that exude forgiveness in every way shape and form. In other words, just what the working man needs, too.

That’s why the latest collection from Tour Edge Exotics lineup comes in pairs. The Exotics C722 metalwoods will cater to the low-spin, low-launch and high workability traditional needs of better players, while the Exotics E722 will feature larger footprints with high moment of inertia (forgiveness on off-center hits) and higher launch.

That push toward more forgiveness oddly enough came from the company’s work with better players, said David Glod, Tour Edge’s founder, president and chief designer. He points specifically to the development of the E722 driver, which features among the very highest MOI of any current driver in the market at 5,500 grams/centimeters square (the USGA limit is 5,900).

“A lot of this comes from what we’ve learned on the Champions Tour the last few years and how unique these drivers need to be for different players and that’s why we have the versatility that we have in these drivers,” Glod said. “We could only fit probably a third of our tour players accurately with the C driver, and last year’s Pro driver maybe got us another third, but there’s this missing third we couldn’t get to because they need a deeper CG like we have on the E driver now.”

That deeper CG is a result of some not insignificant gains in discretionary mass. The E722 driver increases the amount of carbon composite that wraps around the crown and sole by 34 percent through a slight thinning of the central beam of titanium and by pushing the carbon composite slightly closer to the crown. It also helps to stretch that front to back measurement of the crown, which results in 10 additional grams of weight savings. That allows for an extreme rear backweight of 30 grams, 18 more than was on last year’s C721, according to Matt Neeley, Tour Edge’s vice president of product development.

“The biggest thing we were trying to attack with that E driver was getting that player a little bit more spin for maximum playability,” he said, noting that the center of gravity is some 50 millimeters behind the face or “just about as far back as anybody goes.”

“Every piece of discretionary weight we have on the E driver is all in the back of it.”

The E722 also enhances forgiveness with its larger face area and a new version of the variable thickness face pattern. The cross-hatched diamond shapes have been redesigned to further improve the way the face flexes on off-center locations at the heel and toe.

Of course, the C722 version of the driver also has gotten an upgrade from last year’s C721, which also includes the same improvements to the diamond-shaped variable thickness pattern. The same saved weight that led to a deep CG and high forgiveness on the E722 is used to create front and back weight ports on the sole. They house 20- and 5-gram weights.

“We wanted to see if we could create two drivers in one with our C722 this year,” Neeley said, noting that with the heavier weight forward the CG is very similar to the C721, which he said was well-received by Champions Tour players. “Even though we have just two drivers this year, I kind of feel we’ve increased our fitting spread by 200 percent because what we actually have are three drivers.”

The distinct differences in workability and forgiveness hold true in the C722 and E722 fairway woods and hybrids, as well. The E models are larger and more forgiving, while the C models are compact and stress workability. While related, they present even starker contrasts than the pair of drivers. For example, the C722 fairway wood uses a titanium face and body, along with a carbon composite crown. It pushes the CG extremely low through the use of a thick rail-like center section of the sole that’s lower than the heel and toe sections. Called a Ryzersole by the company, it puts 90 grams at the very bottom of the club, including an 80-gram tungsten sole weight. There’s also an adjustable hosel to tweak loft, the first time that’s been used on a Tour Edge fairway wood in six years.

The E722, which also features its own version of the Ryzersole, uses a maraging steel face to go with the weight-saving composite crown. Its much larger shape and broader range of lofts, including a 21-degree 7-wood, provides a more confidence-inspiring look at address for average golfers.

The E722 and C722 hybrids use similar versions of that rail-like sole feature to push the center of gravity lower, but the larger E722 features a 10-gram weight in the rear of the sole to add forgiveness, while the C722 places that weight closer to front for reduced spin. The C722 hybrids, which like the C722 fairway woods feature an adjustable hosel, are just 100 cubic centimeters in size, while the E722 hybrids are as much as 15 percent larger. Both models feature a maraging steel face with the diamond-shapes variable thickness pattern.

Neeley said that two-pronged approach to the Exotics 722 metalwoods lineup mirrors the company’s more affordable Hot Launch metalwoods, the C522 and E522.

“It’s interesting because in the past we’ve talked about the tech features in Exotics and how we’ve brought them down to the Hot Launch family,” he said. “Adding this E lineup is a little bit of working the other way around. Being able to learn some of the successes we’ve had on the Hot Launch E products, we’re taking a little bit of those learnings into our Exotics E range.”

The Exotics E722 and C722 metalwoods lineup will be available at retail March 5. They include three lofts on the E722 driver (9.5, 10.5, 12 degrees, all adjustable lofts, +/- 2 degrees; $400) and two lofts on the C722 driver (9.5, 10.5 degrees, all adjustable; $430). The E722 fairway woods come in five lofts (13, 15, 16.5, 18, 21 degrees; $250), while the C722 fairway woods, which are adjustable +/- 1.5 degrees, come in just 13-, 15- and 18-degree lofts ($300). The E722 hybrids come in five lofts (17, 19, 22, 25 degrees; $220), while the adjustable C722 hybrids (+/- 1.5 degrees) also are offered in the four lofts (17, 19, 21, 23 degrees; $250).