In 2005, the golf industry was put on notice with the initial launch of Exotics fairway woods and hybrids.
David Glod's passion for club making and design dates to his high school playing days, continuing through his college career, where he played alongside golf legends such as Rocco Mediate and Lee Janzen at Florida Southern College. After college, he became a club professional at the Village Links of Glen Ellyn, the course he grew up playing and learning the game. He soon recognized that designing and crafting golf clubs was his true calling.
In 2005, David Glod made an epic breakthrough in club design. No one in the industry was prepared for such a revolutionary advancement in metalwood technology, especially because it came from the unexpected.
Glod's life up to that point was heavily immersed in all facets of golf. His passion for club making and design dates to his high school playing days, where his hobby for repairing and reshafting his own clubs grew to operating a local repair service for hometown country clubs. He went on to compete at the collegiate level, where he played alongside golf legends such as Rocco Mediate and Lee Janzen at Florida Southern College. After graduation, he became a club professional at the Village Links of Glen Ellyn, the course at which he learned the game. He soon recognized that designing and crafting golf clubs was his true calling, so he got to work.
He spent 19 years producing game improvement equipment including the infamous Bazooka line, but by the early 2000s, he switched gears to fulfill his vision of an ultra-premium Exotics line of clubs tailored to suit the best players in the world.
20 Years of Exotics Launch History
2005 | Exotics CB
The original CB featured the first Combo Brazing technology on a golf club that efficiently welded a Titanium face to a stainless-steel body.
2007 | Exotics CB2
30% lighter than the original Exotics, providing for more discretionary weight. Tour Edge engineers moved the weight to the back of the head to increase the MOI by 30%.
2011 | Exotics CB4
The CB4 Tour was a favorite of many of the world's top players and was the #2 most played fairway wood model at the 2012 Ryder Cup.
2013 | Exotics XCG6
XCG6 featured our first adjustable hosel driver called Shot Control Technology and utilized hexahedron weight pads.
2014 | Exotics CB Pro
The first Exotics club to feature our unique SlipStream Sole Technology, a weave design on the sole that reduced turf interaction and maximized club head speed.
2014 | Exotics E8
E8 "Power Grids" positioned behind the face were engineered to deliver industry-leading balls speeds.
2016 | Exotics XJ1
A combination of a 9-1-1 Ti chassis, AKA "SuperMetal", a Kevlar-Carbon crown and three tungsten sole weights helped create faster swing speeds in these lightweight designs.
2018 | Exotics CBX
The CBX “Spin Killers” brought Exotics back to the professional tours with classic shapes and won us MyGolfSpy’s Most Wanted Fairway Metal of the year.
2020 | Exotics EXS 220
The EXS 220 line was the first Exotics series to feature our revolutionary Diamond Face technology to greate more ball speed across the face.
2021 | Exotics 721
The 721 series debuted Ridgeback technology on the crown of the metals and VIBRCOR technology in the irons made their debut in these popular designs.
2025 | Exotics 725
The 725 series launched the first Tour Edge 10k MOI driver, which created unprecedented stability and accuracy off the tee. The line also launched with three Exotics irons for every player type.
"Exotics changed everything. I think it was all about our speed we were able to create at impact, you know, being the best at that all over the face."
- Tour Edge founder and chief designer, David Glod
Glod and his R&D team had found the secret recipe to be the longest fairway woods in golf with their patented Combo Brazing technique that forged a titanium face with a stainless-steel body. The first golf manufacturer to accomplish this feat.
Utilizing higher-grade materials, fusing a titanium face to a stainless-steel body with proprietary innovation led the first Exotics fairway woods to be positioned at an unheard-of $399.99 price point.
Not only were the CB fairway woods longer than the competition, they were significantly longer. They could not make the CB's fast enough, and it completely changed the trajectory of the company. This ex-golf pro's vision that no one else could see, was advancing Tour Edge from a small Midwest brand into the biggest stage in the game.
"Everybody thought it was kind of crazy. But then when they hit this club, we had testing that proved it was 20 yards longer than anything out there. At the time, this was totally unheard of.
"The innovation was the big thing, and it put us on the map globally. The sentiment was, wow, these Tour Edge guys really have some innovation here. We got a lot of credit for advancing the category and it was well deserved. It was really advanced technology and could only be made as small batch boutique tour type stuff. So, the bigger guys could never go chase this technology."
Exotics was so much longer than anything else out there that the best players in the world started choosing to play Exotics fairway woods and hybrids on the PGA TOUR without any contract in place.
"The next thing you know, we had the #1 player in the world and the FedEx season Champion choosing to play Exotics 3-woods and there were big-time guys. Masters. US Opens. Open Championships. Ryder Cups. You name it, Exotics was in the mix. And again, all by choice of the player. They discovered it for themselves, and we supported them as much as we could without having some kind of deal in place."
"The PGA TOUR play was out of this world. You know, like Kuch, we had Kuch going at the time too. He would come up to us at the PGA Show going, 'That's the greatest 4-wood I have ever hit!' We had some serious buzz going out there and had found lightning in a bottle. Today, it is tough to do on the main tour where every club is paid for. It was a little bit easier back then...15, 20 years ago."
11 victories on the PGA TOUR soon followed. A phenomenon was born. The Exotics franchise catapulted Tour Edge into the ultra-premium market and 20 years later, Exotics has become synonymous with innovation and state-of-the-art performance.
The Tour Edge R&D team reacted quickly to the momentum and applied their findings from the fairway wood across more club categories including drivers and hybrids. The Exotics name became known for utilizing higher-grade materials, designs, and cutting-edge innovations. One of the biggest distinctions of an Exotics design is the shaping of the club heads.
"I think we are really good at shapes. We are connected at the base level of the game, knowing what a good player's eye wants to look at. And I think it puts us in a nice position and a big reason why we've been able to be so successful on the professional tours."
With Exotics metals, Tour Edge was able to add to the success of their world-class fairways and hybrids by making a colossal jump in the performance of Exotics drivers. Over 45 different PGA TOUR Champions players have put an Exotics driver in play over the past three seasons without any endorsement.
Exotics drivers have become an industry leader in sound and feel, adjustability, MOI properties, ideal CG positions and spin rates for every golfer and swing type.
Exotics became known as a disruptor in the golf industry, taking on the larger companies' ultra-premium offerings and winning head-to-head battles on tour, and surprising amateur golfers in custom fittings.
Glod and company continued to push the envelope on developing new innovations and technology. An expansion of the Tour Edge R&D department and a clear focus on being at the very top of the maximum-forgiveness-for-every-player positioned the brand for success the following two decades, and counting.
The latest Exotics release, the 725 Series, has brought the brand full-circle back to its roots of disruptive performance that is taking the golf world by storm.
The 725 Series was introduced to the PGA TOUR as prototypes in 2024 to help the design team get as much feedback as possible for the final 725 designs.
Even as prototypes, they took off with extremely fast player adoption, becoming Tour Edge's most played drivers, fairway metals and hybrids on the 2024 tour, accounting for over 50% of the brand's metals in play in the tour. 20 different players chose to put the prototype metals into play in 2024 before the 725 series was even launched.
"We have always been known as a fairway wood and hybrid company due to the unheard-of performance we started producing back in 2005 with our first Exotics launch. I truly feel like the Exotics metals are back in a big way with these releases for 2025."
20 Years of Exotics Launch History
2005 | Exotics CB
The original CB featured the first Combo Brazing technology on a golf club that efficiently welded a Titanium face to a stainless-steel body.
2007 | Exotics CB2
Tour Edge engineers moved the weight to the back of the head to increase the MOI by 30%, while also creating a lighter club.
2011 | Exotics CB4
The CB4 Tour was a favorite of many of the world's top players and was the #2 most played fairway wood model at the 2012 Ryder Cup.
2013 | Exotics XCG6
The XCG6 was the first Exotics driver that featured an adjustable hosel that was called Shot Control Technology and utilized hexahedron weight pads
2014 | Exotics CB Pro
The CB Pro was the first Exotics club to feature the unique SlipStream Sole Technology, which was a weave design on the sole that reduced turf interaction and maximized club head speed.
2014 | Exotics E8
The E8 featured "Power Grids" positioned behind the face which delivered industry-leading ball speeds.
2016 | Exotics XJ1
A combination of a 9-1-1 Ti chassis, AKA "SuperMetal", a Kevlar-Carbon crown and three tungsten sole weights helped create faster swing speeds in a lightweight design.
2018 | Exotics CBX
The CBX "Spin Killers" brought the Exotics line back to the professional tours with classic shapes and won MyGolfSpy's Most Wanted Fairway Metal of the year.
2020 | Exotics EXS 220
The EXS 220 line was the first Exotics series to feature the revolutionary Diamond Face technology to generate more ball speed across the face.
2021 | Exotics 721
The 721 series debuted Ridgeback technology on the crown of the metalwoods and VIBRCOR technology debuted in the irons, which made them a popular deisgn.
2025 | Exotics 725
The 725 series launched the first Tour Edge 10k MOI driver, which created unprecedented stability and accuracy off the tee. The line also launched with three Exotics irons for every player type.
Exotics irons have also been a mainstay on the PGA TOUR, most notably in the bag of Bernhard Langer for 6 victories and the 2021 Schwab Cup championship season.
The all-time winningest player on the PGA TOUR Champions with 47 victories, will be playing in his 41st and final Masters this season with his Exotics irons leading the way.
For 2025, the Tour Edge design team spent a lot of time forging a plan to be able to offer an Exotics iron for every player. This led to the development of three different models in the 725 Series: C725, E725 and X725 irons.
The C725 player's distance iron is designed to be more player-centric with a thinner top-line and sole, while the game improvement E725 iron is created to be the highest MOI iron ever produced by Tour Edge.
The brand-new X725 iron design is inspired by the brand's patented ironwood technology, which includes a shallow face, heavy offset and draw enhancing technology to create the first-ever Exotics super game improvement iron.
"The Tour Edge design team has used a tremendous amount of player feedback to get these three irons exactly where they need to be to be a leader in their respective categories."
More About CEO David Glod & Tour Edge
In 2025, Tour Edge proudly celebrates 39 years of excellence as a globally renowned manufacturer of premium golf clubs and bags, serving golfers worldwide.
Founded in 1986 by David Glod, the company's journey began in his garage, where he initially focused on club repairs. Over time, this small operation evolved into the production of boutique golf equipment, distributed to retailers and green grass shops throughout the Chicagoland area.
Believing there was a unique opportunity to provide high-quality performance-based innovation at competitive prices, Glod embarked on creating his own line of golf clubs. In 1987, he designed his first club, quickly establishing himself as one of the sport's leading innovators.
To date, Glod holds over a dozen design patents and 30 trademarks in the golf industry. Under his leadership, Tour Edge has compounded success, with the company's clubs claiming 40 PGA TOUR victories.
Today, Tour Edge operates in 40 countries and employs more than 100 people across North America. The company remains privately owned, with majority of shares held by the Glod family. This makes Tour Edge a proudly family-owned & American-operated business.
Tour Edge hand crafts all of its premium golf clubs at their world headquarters located in Batavia, Illinois. Tour Edge also offers golfers the unique benefit of the industry's only lifetime warranty on hardgoods.
20 Years of Exotics Launch History
2005 | Exotics CB
The original CB featured the first Combo Brazing technology on a golf club that efficiently welded a Titanium face to a stainless-steel body.
2007 | Exotics CB2
30% lighter than the original Exotics, providing for more discretionary weight. Tour Edge engineers moved the weight to the back of the head to increase the MOI by 30%.
2011 | Exotics CB4
The CB4 Tour was a favorite of many of the world's top players and was the #2 most played fairway wood model at the 2012 Ryder Cup.
2013 | Exotics XCG6
XCG6 featured our first adjustable hosel driver called Shot Control Technology and utilized hexahedron weight pads.
2014 | Exotics CB Pro
The first Exotics club to feature our unique SlipStream Sole Technology, a weave design on the sole that reduced turf interaction and maximized club head speed.
2014 | Exotics E8
E8 "Power Grids" positioned behind the face were engineered to deliver industry-leading balls speeds.
2016 | Exotics XJ1
A combination of a 9-1-1 Ti chassis, AKA "SuperMetal", a Kevlar-Carbon crown and three tungsten sole weights helped create faster swing speeds in these lightweight designs.
2018 | Exotics CBX
The CBX “Spin Killers” brought Exotics back to the professional tours with classic shapes and won us MyGolfSpy’s Most Wanted Fairway Metal of the year.
2020 | Exotics EXS 220
The EXS 220 line was the first Exotics series to feature our revolutionary Diamond Face technology to greate more ball speed across the face.
2021 | Exotics 721
The 721 series debuted Ridgeback technology on the crown of the metals and VIBRCOR technology in the irons made their debut in these popular designs.
2025 | Exotics 725
The 725 series launched the first Tour Edge 10k MOI driver, which created unprecedented stability and accuracy off the tee. The line also launched with three Exotics irons for every player type.
In 2005, the golf industry was put on notice with the initial launch of Exotics fairway woods and hybrids.
David Glod's passion for club making and design dates to his high school playing days, continuing through his college career, where he played alongside golf legends such as Rocco Mediate and Lee Janzen at Florida Southern College. After college, he became a club professional at the Village Links of Glen Ellyn, the course he grew up playing and learning the game. He soon recognized that designing and crafting golf clubs was his true calling.
In 2005, David Glod made an epic breakthrough in club design. No one in the industry was prepared for such a revolutionary advancement in metalwood technology, especially because it came from the unexpected.
Glod's life up to that point was heavily immersed in all facets of golf. His passion for club making and design dates to his high school playing days, where his hobby for repairing and reshafting his own clubs grew to operating a local repair service for hometown country clubs. He went on to compete at the collegiate level, where he played alongside golf legends such as Rocco Mediate and Lee Janzen at Florida Southern College. After graduation, he became a club professional at the Village Links of Glen Ellyn, the course at which he learned the game. He soon recognized that designing and crafting golf clubs was his true calling, so he got to work.
He spent 19 years producing game improvement equipment including the infamous Bazooka line, but by the early 2000s, he switched gears to fulfill his vision of an ultra-premium Exotics line of clubs tailored to suit the best players in the world.
20 Years of Exotics Launch History
2005 | Exotics CB
The original CB featured the first Combo Brazing technology on a golf club that efficiently welded a Titanium face to a stainless-steel body.
2007 | Exotics CB2
Tour Edge engineers moved the weight to the back of the club head to increase the MOI by 30%, while also creating a lighter club.
2011 | Exotics CB4
The CB4 Tour was a favorite of many of the world's top players and was the #2 most played fairway wood model at the 2012 Ryder Cup.
2013 | Exotics XCG6
XCG6 featured our first adjustable hosel driver called Shot Control Technology and utilized hexahedron weight pads.
2014 | Exotics CB Pro
The first Exotics club to feature our unique SlipStream Sole Technology, a weave design on the sole that reduced turf interaction and maximized club head speed.
2014 | Exotics E8
E8 "Power Grids" positioned behind the face were engineered to deliver industry-leading balls speeds.
2016 | Exotics XJ1
A combination of a 9-1-1 Ti chassis, AKA "SuperMetal", a Kevlar-Carbon crown and three tungsten sole weights helped create faster swing speeds in these lightweight designs.
2018 | Exotics CBX
The CBX “Spin Killers” brought Exotics back to the professional tours with classic shapes and won us MyGolfSpy’s Most Wanted Fairway Metal of the year.
2020 | Exotics EXS 220
The EXS 220 line was the first Exotics series to feature our revolutionary Diamond Face technology to greate more ball speed across the face.
2021 | Exotics 721
The 721 series debuted Ridgeback technology on the crown of the metals and VIBRCOR technology in the irons made their debut in these popular designs.
2025 | Exotics 725
The 725 series launched the first Tour Edge 10k MOI driver, which created unprecedented stability and accuracy off the tee. The line also launched with three Exotics irons for every player type.
"Exotics changed everything. I think it was all about our speed we were able to create at impact, you know, being the best at that all over the face."
- Tour Edge founder and chief designer, David Glod
Glod and his R&D team had found the secret recipe to be the longest fairway woods in golf with their patented Combo Brazing technique that forged a titanium face with a stainless-steel body. The first golf manufacturer to accomplish this feat.
Utilizing higher-grade materials, fusing a titanium face to a stainless-steel body with proprietary innovation led the first Exotics fairway woods to be positioned at an unheard-of $399.99 price point.
Not only were the CB fairway woods longer than the competition, they were significantly longer. They could not make the CB's fast enough, and it completely changed the trajectory of the company. This ex-golf pro's vision that no one else could see, was advancing Tour Edge from a small Midwest brand into the biggest stage in the game.
"Everybody thought it was kind of crazy. But then when they hit this club, we had testing that proved it was 20 yards longer than anything out there. At the time, this was totally unheard of.
"The innovation was the big thing, and it put us on the map globally. The sentiment was, wow, these Tour Edge guys really have some innovation here. We got a lot of credit for advancing the category and it was well deserved. It was really advanced technology and could only be made as small batch boutique tour type stuff. So, the bigger guys could never go chase this technology."
Exotics was so much longer than anything else out there that the best players in the world started choosing to play Exotics fairway woods and hybrids on the PGA TOUR without having any contract in place.
"The next thing you know, we had the #1 player in the world and the FedEx season Champion choosing to play Exotics 3-woods and there were big-time guys. Masters. US Opens. Open Championships. Ryder Cups. You name it, Exotics was in the mix. And again, all by choice of the player. They discovered it for themselves, and we supported them as much as we could without having some kind of deal in place."
"The PGA TOUR play was out of this world. You know, like Kuch, we had Kuch going at the time too. He would come up to us at the PGA Show going, 'That's the greatest 4-wood I have ever hit!' We had some serious buzz going out there and had found lightning in a bottle. Today, it is tough to do on the main tour where every club is paid for. It was a little bit easier back then...15, 20 years ago."
11 victories on the PGA TOUR soon followed. A phenomenon was born. The Exotics franchise catapulted Tour Edge into the ultra-premium market and 20 years later, Exotics has become synonymous with innovation and state-of-the-art performance.
The Tour Edge R&D team reacted quickly to the momentum and applied their findings from the fairway wood across more club categories including drivers and hybrids. The Exotics name became known for utilizing higher-grade materials, designs, and cutting-edge innovations. One of the biggest distinctions of an Exotics design is the shaping of the club heads.
"I think we are really good at shapes. We are connected at the base level of the game, knowing what a good player's eye wants to look at. And I think it puts us in a nice position and a big reason why we've been able to be so successful on the professional tours."
With Exotics metals, Tour Edge was able to add to the success of their world-class fairways and hybrids by making a colossal jump in the performance of Exotics drivers. Over 45 different PGA TOUR Champions players have put an Exotics driver in play over the past three seasons without any endorsement.
Exotics drivers have become an industry leader in sound and feel, adjustability, MOI properties, ideal CG positions and spin rates for every golfer and swing type.
Exotics became known as a disruptor in the golf industry, taking on the larger companies' ultra-premium offerings and winning head-to-head battles on tour, and surprising amateur golfers in custom fittings.
Glod and company have not stopped pushing the envelope on developing new innovations and technology. An expansion of the Tour Edge R&D department and a clear focus on being at the very top of the maximum-forgiveness-for-every-player movement that has taken over the research and development for every brand.
The latest Exotics release, the 725 Series, has brought the brand full-circle back to its roots of disruptive performance that is taking the golf world by storm.
The 725 Series was introduced to the PGA TOUR as prototypes in 2024 to help the design team get as much feedback as possible for the final 725 designs.
Even as prototypes, they took off with extremely fast player adoption, becoming Tour Edge's most played drivers, fairway metals and hybrids on the 2024 tour, accounting for over 50% of the brand's metals in play in the tour. 20 different players chose to put the prototype metals into play in 2024 before the 725 series was even launched.
"We have always been known as a fairway wood and hybrid company due to the unheard-of performance we started producing back in 2005 with our first Exotics launch. I truly feel like the Exotics metals are back in a big way with these releases for 2025."
Exotics irons have also been a mainstay on the PGA TOUR, most notably in the bag of Bernhard Langer for 6 victories and the 2021 Schwab Cup championship season.
The all-time winningest player on the PGA TOUR Champions with 47 victories, will be playing in his 41st and final Masters this season with his Exotics irons leading the way.
For 2025, the Tour Edge design team spent a lot of time forging a plan to be able to offer an Exotics iron for every player. This led to the development of three different models in the 725 Series: C725, E725 and X725 irons.
The C725 player's distance iron is designed to be more player-centric with a thinner top-line and sole, while the game improvement E725 iron is the highest MOI iron ever produced by Tour Edge.
The brand-new X725 iron design is inspired by the brand's patented ironwood technology, which includes a shallow face, heavy offset and draw enhancing technology to create the first-ever Exotics super game improvement iron.
"The Tour Edge design team has used a tremendous amount of player feedback to get these three irons exactly where they need to be to be a leader in their respective categories."
More About CEO David Glod & Tour Edge
In 2025, Tour Edge proudly celebrates 39 years of excellence as a globally renowned manufacturer of premium golf clubs and bags, serving golfers worldwide.
Founded in 1986 by David Glod, the company's journey began in his garage, where he initially focused on club repairs. Over time, this small operation evolved into the production of boutique golf equipment, distributed to retailers and green grass shops throughout the Chicagoland area.
Believing there was a unique opportunity to provide high-quality performance-based innovation at competitive prices, Glod embarked on creating his own line of golf clubs. In 1987, he designed his first club, quickly establishing himself as one of the sport's leading innovators.
To date, Glod holds over a dozen design patents and 30 trademarks in the golf industry. Under his leadership, Tour Edge has compounded success, with the company's clubs claiming 40 PGA TOUR victories.
Today, Tour Edge operates in 40 countries and employs more than 100 people across North America. The company remains privately owned, with majority of shares held by the Glod family. This makes Tour Edge a proudly family-owned & American-operated business.
Tour Edge hand crafts all of its premium golf clubs at their world headquarters located in Batavia, Illinois. Tour Edge also offers golfers the unique benefit of the industry's only lifetime warranty on hardgoods.