You may have seen the Tour Edge advertisement for their new Exotics CB2 fairway wood that boasts of a guarantee that you will gain an additional 20 yards compared to your old fairway wood. It’s a pretty bold statement and one that is sure to grab golfers’ attention as we all strive to add additional yardage to our game.
I had the opportunity to test the CB2 to see if this small company from Batavia, IL might have the best fairway wood you’ve never heard of.
To be fair, my current fairway wood is a Titleist 904F with a True Temper Dynamic Gold steel shaft, so I was bound to gain some additional distance just by switching to a lighter head and a graphite shaft. Just how much distance was a bit surprising. Did it make me reconsider my steel-shafted ways? Read on to find out.
Technology, Design and Specs
The Exotics CB2 is an updated version of Tour Edge’s popular Exotics fairway wood line. The originals made the Golf Digest 2006 Hot List and were widely lauded as solid and long. The Exotics line is unique in that it uses a chemical bonding process called combo-brazing to join a titanium face with a hypersteel body to blend them together without weld seams.
If you look closely enough, you can see a faint line where the titanium face meets the hybersteel body.
The CB2 has a titanium-cupped face that is 30% lighter than the original Exotics fairway, providing for more discretionary weight. Tour Edge engineers moved the weight to the back of the head to increase the Moment of Inertia (MOI) by 30%.
The folks at Tour Edge describe the head as follows:
superior design chemically bonds a light-weight, high-tech, titanium-cupped face with a heavier hyper-steel body. It starts with a cold-rolled titanium cup face that is computer-milled around the edge of the cup with a high precision rim. The remaining body is precision cast to include an interlocking channel. The parts are chemically treated, pressed together, and vacuum heat-cured for permanent bonding without heavy welding.
In non-engineering speak, the head is light and the face is hot and forgiving.
Look and Feel
The first thing you notice is the lack of an alignment mark, which I found to be a bit odd. It took a little range time as well as a couple of rounds to get used to this, but as I quickly found, with the face this hot and forgiving, mis-hits just off the center went nearly as far as shots hit flush. I personally would still prefer some sort of an alignment aid if for no other reason than to add some confidence. The black finish looks sinister (in a good way!) and wasn’t too reflective on sunny days.
No alignment aid? No problem as the entire face is hot. Still, I’d prefer one.
Even with the titanium face, the CB2 feels solid and wasn’t so light that you didn’t know where the head was during your swing. I was pleasantly surprised with the sound, as the sound was a lot more “steel” than “titanium.” It delivered a solid thump rather than a high-pitched tink.
The shaft tested was the Graphite Design X-Quad which comes in at 68 grams with a mid kick-point and 3.5° torque. This shaft is a good 20 grams lighter than most fairway wood shafts, and much lighter than my steel fairway wood shaft. It took some time to get comfortable with the much lighter graphite shaft, but I’m coming from a little further away than most people.
The Graphite Designs shaft was a bit light for my taste but still produced good results.
In the end, I found the shaft to be a bit too light for my liking. It did force me to slow things down a notch to make a more controlled swing, which is a good thing, but not something my shaft should force upon me. I still probably would end up getting a heavier shaft and Tour Edge does offer several different shaft options such as the very popular UST V2 and Aldila Exotics NV-65.
Performance
For my game, I usually don’t use a fairway wood off the deck as I really have no business attempting to go for a green in two on par fives. After using the CB2 however, I may rethink that strategy depending on the course layout as at both the practice range and on the course I found I was able get the ball up in the air quickly and more often then not was able to control where I wanted the ball to go. The CB2 performed admirably not only on the fairway but also launched the ball quickly and high on shots I attempted from the rough.
The sole is slightly raised in the middle to make it easier to glide across the ground.
Where the CB2 really stands out over other fairway woods is off the tee. With a nice, smooth swing I found myself more often then not at least 30 yards past where I would normally expect my fairway wood to end up and on several occasions found myself nearly reaching the same distance I would normally carry my driver. Needless to say, the CB2 is a cannon. After seeing a few rocket down the fairway, I was sold and would find myself opting to hit the CB2 off the tee on some tighter par fours and not have to worry about the distance loss that occurred with other fairway woods I had used in the past.
I had several drives that I hit near the toe and was expecting a rather ugly shot but was pleasantly surprised by the forgiveness offered by the CB2 as those shots went just as far as well struck shots went with my current fairway wood.
Meet the business end of the CB2. The simple grooves and clean face contrast nicely from the all-black crown.
One issue with the fact that the CB2 behaves more like a driver off the tee rather than a typical fairway wood is the higher ball flight, I would occasionally find myself hitting a ball that would balloon up after getting caught up in the wind as opposed to the more boring ball flight that I was accustomed to.
The only other issue (and a minor one at that) was with the headcover. There is a large “X” on the sock portion that was somewhat annoying and the club seems to not want to slide in quite all the way. There were several times I thought I had the cover on completely only to find the club stuck below the molded top. I have more that happy to see the sock go and would have prefered either a zipper or magnetic headcover.
Conclusion
You can pick up the Exotics CB2 for $349.99 at Edwin Watts . That makes it one (if not the most) expensive fairway wood on the market today but if you are looking for long and forgiving fairway wood as well as great alternative or even a replacement to your driver, the CB2 is one you should consider. Think of it as replacing two clubs in your bag with one and with drivers costing upwards of $400 (and more), the price suddenly doesn’t look bad at all.
As a final item and one that shows how much Tour Edge believes in what they offer to the golfing public, they offer something that is rare in the golf club industry, a lifetime warranty on all of their products.
The Tour Edge Exotics CB2 fairway woods have a very sophisticated construction technique, being a two-piece brazed titanium-steel design. I am a fan of the original Exotics fairway woods along with the Exotics CB2 and original hybrids also. Some other examples of very nicely built golf clubheads are these:
1. Pearl Golf Drivers and Fairway Woods
(www.pearlgolf.com) $100 Std/$120 Deluxe
Practically unbreakable “ceramic composite” material
2. Nike Ignite T60 Fairway Woods/Pro Combo Utility Irons
(www.nike.com/nikegolf) $239 Graph/$219 Steel/$189 Utility
Those 60 and 70 gram tungsten sole plugs still get me
3. Snake Eyes Compressor II Fairway Wood Clubheads
(www.golfsmith.com) $20 Head Only
12,500psi of compressed air inside
4. Adams Golf Insight Fairway Woods
(www.adamsgolf.com) $200 BUL & BELLE/$230 BTY
Two-piece brazed titanium-steel construction
5. Mizuno F-50 Fairway Woods/CLK FLI-HI Utilities
(www.mizunousa.com) $200 F-50/$160 CLK
Two-piece steel-carbon construction on F-50
Two-piece brazed steel-titanium construction on CLK FLI-HI
6. Orlimar FURY TOUR Fairway Woods
(www.orlimar.com) $200
Two-piece plasma-welded titanium-steel construction
7. Yingnong Hi-Tech YN-#120 Driver
(www.yingnonggolf.com) UNKNOWN PRICE
Driver with face that can play seven music tones when hit
8. Raven TM-Pro/TM-Pro Offset Driver Clubheads
(www.ravengolfclubs.com) $50 Head Only
100% 10-2-3 beta titanium construction
(10-2-3 is the current strongest clubhead metal)
9. Bang Golf Bangster Driver Clubheads
(www.banggolf.com) $160 Head Only
100% beta titanium clubhead
The only problem with most of these are the prices. $350 for one fairway wood?! ❗ I say they make fairway wood clubheads out of two cast pieces of easy 6061 aluminum, weld them together, and drill out the hosel.
Sell the clubheads for around $15. Add a decent $15 graphite shaft and a $1 slip-on rubber grip with a $10 assembly fee to standard length, swingweight, & grip diameter with a choice of A, R, or S flexes for about $40 a club, plus shipping. Add $20 to the price for custom length, swingweight, and/or grip diameters.
The fairways wouldn’t have springy faces, but there still would be free weight to put in various areas of the clubheads and special geometries. Most of the actual cost of clubheads after R&D would be in the bonding techniques and the materials used, I would presume. Many mold shapes can be made with the same production costs. I think that would be a nice economy model. I would at least like to see the option to go really cheap in assembled clubs without getting off-spec ones with way off swingweights and such.
Golfsmith kind of does this. They sell preassembled fairway woods as cheap as $70. I think those come with decent considerations to swingweights and such. The $40 I’d like to see for that is a good bit less, though.
Anyway, to stop my ranting, the Exotics CB2 is on the front lines of clubhead constuction. Hopefully, with higher capabilities in the future spurred by such models, the cost of “bare essentials” fairway woods will go down.
Are you going to be keeping this club in your bag?
Full-face score lines and a striped sock on the headcover? Very Titleist looking, no?
Probably not with the current shaft. I would prefer something a bit heavier. Coming from steel shafts, I need to do some more testing to find out which graphite shaft I would be most comfortable with.
I,ve played 3 rounds using my new Exotics 3 w CB2 with a vs proto 60s shaft. It’s the first time I’ve had a 3 wood in my bag for 15 years. This is an awesome club & the claims of distance and accuracy are true. Its long, straight and solid. Love it
I have a CB2 #3 wood, UST proforce X-flex. I shortened it from 43″ to 42,5″, to increase playability. ½” shorter it still is only 10-15 yards shorter than my driver (905R), and 20 yards longer than my old Titleist 904 #3 wood (43″).
Very expensive, but well worth it.
I switched to the Tour Edge Exotics CB #4 and #7 woods (much cheaper than the CB2) after having played Nike Ignite T-60 woods for almost two years. I gained approximately 10-15 yards. The CBs are also more forgiving as the entire face is pretty hot and misses tend to curve back to the middle. Very pleasing woods. It’s hard to imagine the CB2s being significantly better.
The Nikes although were a bit better in the rough with their slightly deeper face and sharper leading edge. I guess, you can’t have it all.
Just ordered one with the Aldila Proto “by you” 80. Can’t wait to hit it if all you say is true.
get the 4wood!!! just the missing link for my game at least. long as most three’s and just easy to hit high bombs..
no hype – go demo the club. 😎
My roommate sold me this club for a steal, Ive had it in my bag for a month, and can shape shots like its nobodys buisness. The ball shoots off the face and feels solid no matter what. Sick club.
I have been hitting the CB2 13 degree (Strong) 3 Wood and this thing is an absolute cannon! The majority of the time I can out drive people I play with. I also have the 10.5 XCG driver and just purchased the CB2 in a 18 degree 5 Wood. I have fitted my strong 3 wood and driver (and will also do my new 5 wood) with the Grafalloy Prototype Bimatrix (graphite and stainless steel) Black shaft in Stiff. absolutley a sick combination, able to work left or right at will, or right up the gut! Rumor has it this is what Tiger is playing, in his driver? Not sure, dont care just know it works 78 grams (for Stiff Driver shaft). Purchased all of them off of Ebay, saved enough to purchase shafts and refit, came out well under MSRP.
Good review – I have the original CB with the Fujikura HL stiff shaft and it is long and straight – I love this 3 wood and would not part with it. Like you said, it is specially good off the tee.
Ok – I just put together my dream set on eBay…
ALL TOUR EDGE EXOTICs
Exotics 10* Tour Proto Driver
*Aldila RIP Tour Proto X Stiff Hot Bones shaft on the Driver
Exoitics CB2 – 13* 3Wood
Exotics CB2 – 16.5* 4Wood
*Aldila VooDoo Skull & Bones XVS7 Tour Proto Shafts on 3&4W
CB2 – 19* Hybrid
CB2 – 22* Hybrid
*With New Aldila VooDoo SVS8 Hybrid Shaft’s
Exotics EX3 Iron’s Steel Shaft Stiff 1″ over
Exotics Xtreme Spin Wedges 50; 56; 60*
Had to have these extended (1″ over $4 ea.)
One Club at a time on eBay with the exception of the used EX3 Iron Set. (like new and even 1″ over like I use ($175))
It takes time and patience but I would NEVER be able to afford this set RETAIL… Shafts were eBay too.
For those of you that are single – now’s the time – you will NEVER convince a Wife this is an Essential part of your basic male subsistence.
No, I’m not rich – but for once, I have no need to Drool when Biffy rolls up next to me with his new off the shelf Callaways…
(If he can keep up)