- 3 minutes ago
Joel Tadman tests the Tour Edge Exotics ball on the launch monitor and the golf course to see what golfers can expect from the performance.
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00:00Now TourWage makes some very impressive golf clubs but it's trying to take on the
00:03titans of the golf ball market with this. It's the Exotics golf ball, it's a
00:08three-piece urethane covered golf ball that the brand says produces incredible
00:12numbers. It's time I put that theory to the test to see if it's all hype or if
00:17the Titleist Pro V1 has something to worry about.
00:28Okay so here it is, this is the TourWage Exotics golf ball and this is the
00:32technology. I'm not going to go into it now in this video if you want to read more about that
00:35hit pause, check it out but I'm going to open the box and see exactly what we're dealing with with
00:41this golf ball. I've got one ready out of the box and this is it. It has a pretty good
00:47looking feel
00:48to it I would say. It's got a little tacky feel to the cover and I've got a Titleist
00:51Pro V1 to compare it with, latest iteration. You'll see actually the Titleist does have a slightly more
00:57brighter white sheen to it versus the TourWage which is a little bit duller but it's not too
01:02dissimilar. The TourWage has got the new TourWage logo on it, it's sort of undergone a little bit of
01:07a rebranding here which I quite like. The Exotics side stamp looks pretty good, going to help you
01:12with alignment if you usually align on the greens but what I have noticed with the Exotics ball in
01:16particular it does have that visible seam that runs all the way around the equator of the golf
01:22ball and I think Titleist did have a seam back in the day but they've obviously gone to a seamless
01:26construction now. Obviously every golf ball when you're joining two halves of the cover together
01:31there's going to be a joining point but Titleist have managed to cover that or sort of made it a
01:35bit
01:35more seamless so to speak whereas the TourWage that is visible but it's not going to affect performance.
01:41There was a time back in the day where if you line the seam up with the golf ball you
01:44get a few more
01:44yards off the tee. That's not the case anymore with the symmetry test that the USGA run.
01:49I'm going to test it in a couple of different orientations to make sure golf balls don't perform
01:53differently depending on how you align the seam so you're not going to have any concerns there.
01:57Generally speaking it looks like a pretty good premium ball. I think it's time we put it to the
02:01test. I'm going to hit some wedge shots here on the practice screen at Peter Vermilson, see how it
02:05reacts on those shorter shots and then we'll get some data. Right so I'm just going to chip a few
02:10away.
02:10Got a pretty standard chip shot here, tight line to a pin about 10 yards away but before I do
02:15I'm just
02:15going to do a little wedge bounce test and I think that was the TourWage. That's the Titleist. I think
02:23the Titleist feels a little bit more lively, a little bit more click to it, slightly louder sound versus
02:30the TourWage which I think does feel and sound a little bit softer so that's interesting. Let's hit a chip
02:37shot here with the TourWage. See what sort of reaction we get when it lands and what sort of
02:43flight we get. That popped up quite high. A little bit of grab but not loads. I've got my towel
02:51here,
02:52let's just make sure the face is nice and dry and hit one with the Titleist because it'll be
02:58interesting to see how they compare on a pretty bog standard chip shot.
03:05Right you can see how much lower that came out, way more spin on that one. I don't know if
03:10you,
03:10hopefully you picked that up. Loads more grab on a shorter shot. Let's try the TourWage again.
03:18That was really interesting, like chalk and cheese those two flights.
03:23TourWage, I've hit that a bit hard. Again that's releasing out quite a lot. Let's try the Titleist,
03:30revert back to that one, see if we can hit a similar shot, maybe a little bit too hard.
03:39Again, much lower, way more check. So the differences between the two balls are becoming
03:46a little bit clear. One more with the TourWage.
03:52Well to be fair that one came out pretty low and gripped up nicely. Maybe I spoke
03:57too soon, so I think inconclusive. Looks like the Titleist might be giving me a slightly lower flight
04:02which suggests a little bit more friction on the face and a little bit more spin on that second
04:06bounce. But then that TourWage, that last ball, definitely put the cat amongst the pigeons, was
04:11very similar to the Titleist in terms of flight and spin. So not massive difference. Do think the Titleist has
04:17a little bit more action on the greens on this sort of standard chip shot. We're going to hit a
04:20few
04:20more shots, different lies around the greens and then we're going to head inside and capture that
04:24all-important launch monitor data.
04:39Right, so I've come indoors to the studio here at Peter Milton Golf Club. I've got the Foresight Sports
04:44GC Quad Launch Monitor ready to go and I'm going to hit a 50-yard pitch shot, a 7-iron
04:49and a driver
04:49with the TourWage Exotics Golf Balls and I will do the same with the latest iteration of the Titleist
04:55Pro V1 Golf Ball to see how the data compares. Let's get the test underway.
05:20Okay, so I've done all my testing here on the short game area at Peter Milton Golf Club. I've hit
05:24chip
05:25shots, pitch shots, bunker shots, shots out of the rough, you name it, I've hit them all and then
05:29I've gathered my data indoors in a controlled environment on the launch monitor to see exactly
05:34how the Tour Edge Exotics Ball performs and how it compares to the Titleist Pro V1. And the data
05:39and the findings are really interesting. So starting with a 50-yard pitch shot, there's hardly any
05:45difference between these two golf balls. I'll flash up the data on the screen, you can see here the
05:50Titleist Pro V1 was spinning around about 100 RPM more but hardly anything in it. Very similar ball
05:56speed, similar launch angle and obviously a very similar spin. So not really much in it and I have to
06:02say,
06:02hitting some additional short game shots around the green here, I noticed the Tour Edge Ball was
06:08spinning just as much as the Titleist to be honest. It does feel a little bit softer than Titleist,
06:12but in terms of control and spin, it's very comparable. So, and that theme continued with the
06:19Seven Iron. You can see here the numbers are almost identical. Pretty much exactly the same ball speed,
06:25exactly the same launch, exactly the same spin, just under 6,000 on Seven Iron, exactly the same peak
06:30height and exactly the same carry distance at 169 yards. Very competitive, but exactly the same.
06:37And now we move on to the driver. And here there's, you could argue there's where the biggest difference
06:42in between the two balls lie, but it's not a big difference by any means. And I'll flash it up
06:46on the
06:46screen. You can see here the Titleist was around about a mile an hour quicker than the Tour Edge Exotics,
06:52but not a great deal in it. But the Tour Edge Ball did actually launch about a degree
06:56higher and created a two yard higher peak height than the Titleist. So that is a considerable
07:02difference compared to all the other clubs that I've tested between the two golf balls. Spin was
07:06very similar and the Pro V1 was a yard longer on average than the Tour Edge. So very, very competitive.
07:13And it's really interesting to see, looking at the numbers and the experience that I had around the
07:17green here, not much in it between these two golf balls. But there's one test I really just
07:22want to do because when you're testing golf balls indoors on a launch monitor, it's using algorithms
07:27to calculate the ball flight and the distance and the total distance. So I want to put this to the
07:34test out on the golf course in a real-world environment, hit some shots with both of these
07:37golf balls, really assess the effect of the dimple pattern and the overall design to see exactly,
07:43actually on the golf course, are there any significant differences in distance between the Tour Edge
07:48Exotics and the Titleist Pro V1. So let's get on to the golf course and hit a few shots.
07:52Okay, so the Tour Edge ball has passed every test, I have to say, with flying colours, but this is
07:57the
07:57last hurdle. It has to overcome a real-world environment test with Driver. Now, we're looking
08:02at things like stability of flight, the consistency of the flight, but also to see if the differences
08:07we saw in the launch monitor actually materialise out on the golf course. And then we're also going to
08:11see where these tee shots finish. So I've got pink castle tees to make sure I'm teeing the ball up
08:16the same height every time. I'm going to hit three hopefully good drives with the Tour Edge Exotics,
08:22then three with the Titleist Pro V1, probably interspersed, switching between the two as we go
08:26through. But I just want to see what actually transpires in a real-world environment. We've got
08:31a little bit of wind in two off the left, so it'll be a really tough test on this difficult
08:35hole here at
08:36Peter Milson, the fourth hole. Let's see what we do. This is the Tour Edge golf ball first.
08:45I've hit that one pretty nicely. Just down the left
08:51in the rough, but it was a good hit. And obviously we saw on the launch monitor
08:56that the Tour Edge did fly a little bit higher than the Titleist, but actually went
09:01lower than I was expecting. So let's hit another one with the Tour Edge.
09:08Oh, that's a nice shot. A little bit higher, a little bit down the right.
09:13Okay, let's hit one more with that, the Tour Edge, and then we'll hit some with the Titleist,
09:22so dealing in between those two would be lovely.
09:29There we go. Right, we're in business. Three pretty good ones with the Tour Edge. Let's hit three
09:35with the Titleist Pro V1. Oh, that is nutted. I mean, that was probably a better hit than what I
09:45did with
09:45the Tour Edge, but... Oh, that's a bit left down where that first Tour Edge ball went.
09:57Okay, not the best hit. I mean, looking at the flight, pretty similar in terms of height.
10:02You know, I'm watching it in the clouds. There's not much difference there.
10:10Oh my goodness me, that is absolutely nutted. Right, let's go and see where those golf balls
10:16finished. Very interesting. I have to say, curvature of the flight, sort of stability of the flight,
10:21trajectory, peak height, very similar. So comparable in terms of the viewing experience
10:25off the tee. Let's go and see where they finished. Right, so we're up on the fairway here. Six shots,
10:30no gimmies. These are exactly where they finished. I've not touched them, I promise. And here is one
10:36of the shots I hit with the Tour Edge golf ball. And you see, if you walk along, so the
10:40tee's up there,
10:40so this is the sort of rough hitting area. That is the straightest one I hit with the Tour Edge,
10:47and then the other Tour Edge ball is over in the rough. So I hit two in the rough, one
10:51with each ball.
10:52Actually, the Tour Edge went a little bit further than Titleist, but they weren't very good hit,
10:55either of those. So just in the rough there, sort of similar distance to where these were.
11:00And then obviously hit two good shots with the Titleist Pro v1. This is the first one, so it's only
11:05one or two yards further than where the good shots with the Tour Edge ball finished. But if we go
11:11a
11:11little bit further up, you'll see here, now this is where that last shot I hit with the Titleist
11:17ball finished. It's a good, well, should we pace it out? Let's pace it out. So that's the best shot
11:24with
11:24the Tour Edge. So we're talking one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13,
11:3414 paces longer than a decent hit with the Tour Edge. So I think in summary, I'm speculating here,
11:44but maybe the dimple pattern, the aerodynamics just cut through the wind a little bit better with the
11:49Titleist. And as a result, as you can see, gave me a lot more distance than I got with the
11:53Tour Edge.
11:54The Tour Edge ball was comparable on decent hits, but on really well-struck drives, I think you might
12:00get a little bit more out of the Titleist Pro v1 than the launch one suggested earlier.
12:04Right, so hopefully this video has given you a really clear idea as to the performance of the
12:09Tour Edge Exotics balls and how it compares to arguably one of the very best in its category,
12:14the Titleist Pro v1. As you can see from the data that we got, performance was very comparable. I do
12:19think on the course, you might experience a little bit more performance out of the ball like the Titleist
12:25Pro v1. As I said, it just gave me a little bit more penetration through the wind in this particular
12:30test. But the real kicker here with the Tour Edge Exotics ball, it's £39.99 a dozen. That is
12:36considerably less expensive than the Pro v1. So in terms of value for money, I do actually think
12:42you're probably getting a little bit more from the Tour Edge Exotics and this is a real game-changer
12:48for me. At this price point, the performance you're getting around the green, 7-iron it was very similar
12:53and off the tee, you're not sacrificing a great deal. So I think Titleist maybe need to be a little
12:59bit worried. We've seen a lot of other brands, Mizuno making really good balls, Snell making really
13:03good balls, Legato and now Tour Edge. There's a lot of competition at that slightly lower price point.
13:09I think it might get Titleist a little bit worried. Obviously Titleist potentially edging it here in
13:13this test, but there's not a lot in it at all. Hopefully you enjoyed this video. If you did like
13:18it, click the like button, subscribe to the Golf Monthly YouTube channel and let me know down in
13:23the comments below, I really want to hear from you. Are you considering Tour Edge as a golf ball brand?
13:28Is this a ball you would play based on the experience I've had in this video? I'd love to hear
13:32from you
13:32in the comments. But that's all from me here at Peter McMillton Golf Club. I'll see you next time.
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