Tour Edge has grown from garage club maker to major player

Tour Edge has grown from garage club maker to major player










Tom LaMarre, The Sports Xchange March 28, 2013 5:20 PMThe SportsXchange



For several years after its inception in 1986, Tour Edge did a nice, little business as something of a specialty golf club company.

David Glod, who played college golf at Florida Southern withRocco Mediate and Lee Janzen before becoming a teaching pro, started the company in the garage of his condo in Warrenville, Ill.

"We were a driver and fairway wood company and then we got into the iron business," said Glod, who now operates the company out of a 5,500-square-foot facility in Batavia, Ill. " ... (In the beginning) my garage was the cut room and my bedroom was the finishing and painting room."

How times have changed.

These days you can fill your golf bag, or everybody's in your foursome for that matter, with Tour Edge equipment, which by the way is state-of-the-art and right on the cutting edge.

"I think our product line is as big, or bigger, than any equipment company here," said a Tour Edge rep, waving his arm to include Titleist, Callaway, TaylorMade, Ping, Nike and Adams, all the heavyweights who had booths of varying sizes on the floor of the PGA Merchandise Show in January at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Don't look for your favorite player on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour or Champions Tour to endorse Tour Edge equipment on the Golf Channel, because the company does not pay golfers to use its equipment.

It speaks volumes that some of them do, anyway.

Brandt Snedeker won the Tour Championship and claimed the FedEx Cup with the help of a Tour Edge Exotics 3-wood.

"It's definitely one difficult club to find the perfect fit for, but I did with this Tour Edge Exotics CB4," said Snedeker, who was the best player in the world early this season, winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in addition to finishing second twice and third once.

"This is a relatively new 3-wood, its a Tour Edge Exotics 13-degree 3-wood (and) its kind of a little bit higher launch for me. It's got a Diamana shaft in it so. It kind of helps me get (the ball) up in the air a little."

Others who are using or have played Tour Edge clubs at one time or another include Tom Watson, Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, Nick Faldo, Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, Tim Clark, Brian Gay, David Duval, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gil Morgan, Hee-Won Han, Stacy Prammanasudh, Mika Miyazato, Sean O'Hair, Spencer Levin, Ryan Moore, Bruce Fleisher and Kevin Streelman.

Tour Edge's first big breakthrough came in 1999, with the Lift-Off Iron-Wood, one of the first hybrid clubs, which was selected as ING's "Breakthrough Product of the Year."

"I remember writing in a press release that this was the wave of the future," said Jay Hubbard, who then was Tour Edge's vice-president of marketing. "I guess I was right, because now everybody has hybrids."

Tour Edge has had success in recent years with its Bazooka titanium woods and its Exotics line, which made its debut in 2005 and includes every type of club you can put in your bag--from driver, to fairway woods, to hybrids, to irons, to putters.

This year, Tour Edge introduced its Exotics XCG6 line, which includes a full set or irons, hybrids and fairway woods, plus the company's first adjustable driver. With the twist of a wrench supplied with the club, golfers can adjust the face, angle, loft and lie.

Just like the big boys.