|  Amongst
the giants of the golf manufacturers, such as PING, TaylorMade,
Titleist Wilson and Callaway, sits Tour Edge Golf. David Glod
established Tour Edge Golf in 1986. In the company's first year,
it generated revenues of $100,000. Fourteen years later, Tour
Edge's iron line was ranked as the third fastest growing brand
by Golf Retailer magazine.
David Glod, president and founder of Tour Edge
Golf, based in St. Charles, Illinois, has made significant contributions
to improving the way the business of golf is conducted. Glod set
Tour Edge apart from other equipment manufacturers with the mission
of providing premium quality golf clubs with the latest technology,
sold for an affordable price and backed by a lifetime warranty.
Glod's mission, commitment to making golf accessible to the public
earned him the 2001 Industry Honors Business Achievement Award
from the International Network of Golf.
From the day the company was launched, in his
garage, Glod's passion and commitment to bringing golfers quality
products at affordable prices has continually driven company sales
to new heights. His credo has always been, "Offer the golfer
and the golf shop an exceptional value and everyone wins."
For 14 years, he has been right on target and continually increased
the company's market share with innovative and well-priced products.
Tour Edge's U.S.P. - Unique Selling Proposition
- has always been to raise the customer satisfaction bar in the
industry. From the onset, Tour Edge has continually demonstrated
its leadership role in providing unequalled customer service by
offering an unprecedented lifetime warranty on all of its golf
clubs. The blend of great prices, superior quality products and
the lifetime warranty has proved to be a tasty elixir to consumers.
Tour Edge nearly doubled its sales annually from 1986 to 1995.
Further, during the volatile late 90's, when other mid-size companies
skyrocketed to spectacular heights only to see their profitability
crash as a result of losing their focus, Tour Edge remained stable
and continued to post record breaking growth. Glod has directed
Tour Edge so consistently that the company has not experienced
a decrease in sales volume since it was founded. A rarity in the
golf industry. A rarity in any industry. According to Glod, "As
long as we provide the golfing public with great products at great
prices, Tour Edge will grow."
Perhaps the most amazing facet of the Tour Edge
story is how the company's success was realized without the benefits,
or perils, of multi-million-dollar marketing and advertising budgets.
Keeping product prices at a minimum and quality at a maximum leaves
little room for high-level sponsorship of Tour pros or massive
television and print ad campaigns that can build a brand. Word
of mouth, a loyal customer base, effective media relations and
a lot of guts are the foundation upon which Tour Edge was built.
It takes more than guts to build a brand name
club company. It requires great product. Hence, product development
and innovative design has allowed Tour Edge to maintain and remain
in the upper echelon of leading edge golf technology in recent
years. At the 1999 PGA Merchandise Show, Glod introduced a revolutionary
concept, the Iron-Wood. The Lift-Off Iron-Wood™ launch coincided
with the release of the PRGR Zoom 200i and the much heralded Taylor
Made Rescue. The concept was easily the hottest technology of
the year - perhaps of the late 90's. Tour Edge positioned the
club as a long iron replacement, helping to create a new category
of golf club -- the iron-wood -- a category name that Tour Edge
has trademarked. Since the Tour Edge introduction, more than a
dozen companies have responded with similar club offerings.
The metamorphosis from a garage start-up to an
industry player has been remarkable. Today, the company's products
are distributed worldwide. The company is currently leading the
Darryl Survey utility club count on the Senior PGA Tour with its
Iron-Wood. Collecting five victories in 2001 on the Senior PGA
Tour, Tour Edge has definitely earned the admiration of the world's
top players.
I've seen the products in the bags of winners
such as John Schroeder, Sammy Rachels, Gil Morgan and Allen Doyle,
the Senior Tour's leading money winner.
Jesse Patino, Miller Barber, Vicente Fernandez
, Mike Smith and Stewart Ginn, also Senior Tour players, use Tour
Edge equipment. What is interesting to note is that of all these
players, only Vincente Fernandez is under contract to Tour Edge
- an exceptional testimonial to the validity of a company's products.
 They
can also be credited with growing the game of golf. When players
are presented with affordable, high-quality equipment options,
they get into the game more quickly, stay in the game longer and
enjoy the game more.
The latest in the Tour Edge line are the J-Series
fairway woods and the Lift-Off Hyper Steel driver and fairway
woods that conform to USGA's C.O.R. limitations, but barely. The
clubs provide unprecedented distance for golfers looking for extra
yardage from their metalwoods.
This new technology trend is based on stretching
the limits of coefficient of restitution [C.O.R./spring-like effect]
to increase driving distances by up to 15 yards for the everyday
golfer. The C.O.R. is the ratio of rebound velocity to initial
velocity. For instance, a golf ball fired at 125 feet-per-second
at a clubface and rebounds at 100 feet-per-second will have a
coefficient of restitution of 100/125 or .8. The USGA's limit
for metal woods is .83.
Like the Bazooka 320 J driver, Tour Edge's new
J-Series titanium fairway woods increase the clubface's spring-like
effect by combining a four-piece, forged, beta titanium head with
an extremely thin clubface. The forged titanium minimizes air
pockets and impurities in the metal allowing for an extremely
thin crown and face for increased flex. The more the face and
crown flex at impact, the greater the spring-like effect created.
The face stores energy, like a spring, so it
can efficiently transfer the energy back to the ball. To further
enhance the rebound effect of the J-Series metalwoods, the clubfaces
are progressively thinner from the 3-wood to the 9-wood. This
progressive technology produces the highest possible rebound rate
for each wood in the set.
The design goal for the J-Series fairway woods
was to approach the USGA's limit on spring-like effect without
crossing the threshold. In an independent test, the C.O.R. of
the Bazooka J-Series exceeded the C.O.R. of the best-selling fairway
woods of the top golf manufacturers -- by as much as six percent.
To review the comparative results visit their
website, www.touredge.com/productpages/jseries.htm
"The Bazooka J-Series is the longest hitting
fairway wood on the market," reports Glod. "We refined
the technology variables necessary to make the J-Series an extremely
hot-faced but legal fairway wood."
Developing hot-faced, long-hitting clubs wasn't
the only challenge presented to the Tour Edge engineers. They
were also charged with producing clubs at affordable prices.
Exhaustive research and testing led to the development
of Tour Edge's proprietary X-88 Hyper Steel. The superlative strength
of X-88 allowed the club designers to create an oversized, steel
clubhead with thinner walls than those found in past models. The
result is a two-piece, 255cc driver, appropriately named Lift-Off,
which produces a spring-like effect not ordinarily possible in
stainless steel designs. In the fairway woods, the X-88 Hyper
Steel also allowed for a shallower face for exceptional control,
feel and sound.
The X-88 forged Lift-Off Hyper Steel metalwoods
use the same progressive face thickness technology as the J-Series
[from a 2.4 mm clubface in the driver, to a 2.0 mm clubface in
the 5-, 7- and 9-woods] for optimum spring-like effect.
During our testing of the Lift-Off fairway woods
at Torrey Pines Golf Course and Aviara Golf Club, our panel of
25 testers were all unanimous in their conclusion of how each
immediately noticed how the ball rocketed off the face of these
clubs and of the extremely positive feed back they received. Our
testers were enamored with the beautiful aesthetics of the woods
and the great set-up at address.
Due to the increase of the sole weight and lowering
the center of gravity, getting the ball airborne from any lie
-- fairway, thick rough or hardpan seemed to impress our testers
as did the price of these fairway woods.
 Similarly,
Tour Edge's new DG4 Super Spin Wedge series also delighted our
testers. As with putters, wedges are highly individual and weight
and feel are essential. The majority of our test panel found the
wedges to be highly effective and playable. The wedges set up
well and the aesthetics are excellent.
Finally, Tour Edge also offers numerous sets
of irons and putters for all types of players.
The future looks even brighter for them as the
company continues to take bigger bites of the market-share pie
with its progressive club designs that give players the playability
benefits they demand at a price they can afford. Glod and Tour
Edge aren't about flash, hype or a high profile. They're about
smart business, stability, growth, quality and innovation. Simply
stated, Tour Edge is one of the most solid and consistent growth
producers in the golf industry based upon a solid commitment to
consumers and the game.
Tour Edge clubs are distributed throughout the
world. Availability ranges from some of the finest green-grass
locations in the country to the largest discount golf shops.
Pricing (MSRP):
Bazooka 320 J: $450.00
Lift-Off 255cc Driver: $225.00
Lift-Off Ironwood: $200.00
Lift-Off Hyper Steel Fairway woods: $225.00
Super Spin Wedges DG4: $90 graphite/ $75 Steel
Prices do vary and can be found for
less than suggested retail.
For more information on the entire line
of Tour Edge products: 800.515.3343 www.touredge.com |
Tour Edge Golf
