By Jeffrey A. Rendall, Images courtesy of Exotics/Tour Edge

BATAVIA, IL – You probably wouldn’t recognize it just from hitting a golf ball but spin is sometimes your best friend on the golf course.

Of course that doesn’t mean spin will sit in a cart with you and it certainly won’t buy you a beer or a turkey sandwich from the drink cart, but when it comes to stopping a golf ball on the greens you can’t live without spin.

That said, spin is also one of your worst enemies on a golf course. After I just got through talking about the virtues of spin, how could I now be throwing a damper on the whole concept?

It’s simple -- too much spin in your distance clubs causes all sorts of problems; first and foremost it kills distance, and then there’s the always disastrous side-spin. The more golf ball spin on your distance clubs the greater the dispersion on your misses (this includes short as well as left and right). All in all, spin makes it very difficult to determine where your ball’s going if you can’t control it.

That’s where the Exotics (by Tour Edge) CBX Fairway Woods and Hybrids come in. Simply put, through a combination of revolutionary materials and some extraordinary engineering know-how the company produced a new series of fairways and hybrids that will change the game, allowing you to hit it farther and straighter.

(Note: Exotics’ parent company is Tour Edge, which manufactures and sells clubs under both the Tour Edge and Exotics brands. Exotics are for those who “demand the finest performing golf clubs in the world,” and is generally known as the premium brand).

Tour Edge’s President and Founder David Glod explains the difference in the latest products versus previous models, “The CBX wood is a game-changer. The distance gains from the independent test are phenomenal. Then we saw the spin numbers and started calling it the ‘spin-killer’ around the office.

“Everything has lined-up for the CBX, the design, compilation of materials, and CG location to make it our next best fairway wood. It really has brought us back to full circle on where we were when we launched Exotics and provided a product that no one else in the industry could match numbers wise. We can’t wait for golfers to try it and to start spreading the word!”

I for one couldn’t wait to try it either. Having worked with the company’s Exotics E8 hybrid for the past few seasons I can attest that it’s one of the easiest-to-hit and best performing golf clubs I’ve ever tried. Consistent from all types of lies, the E8 is a real confidence inspirer.

Naturally I wondered if the CBX clubs could match the E8’s performance – or maybe even exceed it. More on that in a moment.

Technically speaking, Exotics says the engine of the CBX metalwoods again lies within Exotics core ethos of using superior multi-materials and construction methods. A Beta Ti cup face is brazed with a Hyper Steel body to produce the perfect launch and low spin combination.

A carbon sole unit moves mass forward to determine the precise CG location. The longer toe to heel and shorter front to back head shape provides precise weighting throughout the clubhead and optimizes performance with absolute CG location.

Did you get all that? I think it means Tour Edge’s scientists spent a lot of time figuring out where golfers tend to hit the ball on the club face and then accounted for misses to find the perfect blend.

One can only imagine a collection of folks seated behind computers with 3-D graphics and all sorts of statistics creating these golf clubs. It sure as heck is a long way from the old days when club makers used to fashion a block of wood and attach it to a hickory stick to advance a golf ball. Heck, Carl Spackler (of Caddyshack fame) envisioned hitting golf balls with garden tools, right?

What does CG do in a golf club? Exotics provided the answer: The higher CG location minimizes spin for optimal low-spin distance, making for a tour-caliber fairway wood that will provide amazing distance off the tee and from the rough. The result of the higher CG is the lowest spinning, exceptionally versatile fairway wood capable of delivering amazing distances and less dispersion on miss-hits due to the reduced side spin.

As I mentioned above, spin is your worst enemy in a distance club. That definitely makes the “spin killer” CBX your best ally.

In addition, some features from previous Exotics models was incorporated into the CBX clubs, including the new Speed Ramp sole, which is based on the design of the SlipStream™ sole waves in the very popular Exotics CB PRO fairway wood. The Speed Ramp sole is the next generation of design to minimize ground contact and maintain speed through impact.

Lastly, the super thin Beta Titanium face on the CBX is combo brazed to the heavy hypersteel body without welding for exact weighting tolerances. The Exotics variable face thickness technology provides forgiveness on off-center hits. Cosmetically the CBX is beautifully modern featuring a strong black finish without any alignment marks.

I hadn’t really noticed the absence of alignment marks. I guess we’ve all gotten so used to placing a club behind a ball they’re not really essential anymore, right? I love it when companies explain their clubs – it sounds like a combination of physics and art class. But whatever works on the green grass is what golfers care about the most.

Tour Edge/Exotics also recently announced the CBX hybrids are now available in six lofts, providing quite a wide range of options for better players looking to dial-in distance.

Glod explained the thinking behind their sizable selection. “Tour players need to be dialed in to the exact yard with their hybrids, which can be a very hard feat to accomplish. With six available lofts and four more with our CBX Iron-Woods, we are making a commitment to the hybrid category like no one else in the industry.

“We wanted to make sure that each loft serves its exact purpose and that is why we implemented the TrueLoft System in our R&D process. In the end, we end up rejecting more heads than what others would and that leaves us knowing that our investment is paying off in spades on the golf course.”

Your investment will pay off too should you give Exotics a try. The clubs may be a little harder to find than the more well-advertised brands but these specialty designs are really worth the effort to seek them out.

We chose a CBX 13.5-degree 3-wood and a 16-degree hybrid (essentially equivalent to a five-wood). True to Glod’s promises, the clubs are very long and because of the spin “killing” technology, very forgiving. Without putting the clubs on a launch monitor we can’t say for sure whether they’re markedly better than the competition, but on-course results speak for themselves.

A growing number of professionals are noticing the difference too, especially on the Champions Tour. Since my age now qualifies for the classification I paid particular attention!

As with all products we review, we’d highly recommend trying the Exotics CBX fairway woods and hybrids alongside those of other brands. Put them to the test on a launch monitor and I’m confident the Exotics products will be under close consideration for your final selection.

With the price of golf clubs these days you can’t afford to be wrong in your purchases. Exotics/Tour Edge may not have the advertising power of some of the other brands but the quality is certainly there. The “Champions” recognize it. The clubs are beautiful and they perform well too.

Did I mention they’re all made in the U.S.A. too? Buying American means you’re supporting the national economy – another thing to feel good about.

What more can you ask for?