Equipment
Tour Edge Hot Launch C521 & E521 drivers
Tour Edge and its Hot Launch line of clubs are one of the undisputed leaders when it comes to offering game improvement technology, custom fitting, and value to golfers of all skill levels. The company is at it again with the introduction of the new 2021 Hot Launch 521 Series, which includes the Hot Launch E521 and Hot Launch C521 drivers.
The Hot Launch E Series offers high-MOI, extreme game improvement designs with a singular focus on delivering easy-to-launch performance, which is built around correcting the most common miss in golf: the dreaded slice.
The Hot Launch C Series is designed for golfers who desire classicly shaped clubs that offer optimal launch and spin rates, while still getting all the benefits of easy to hit, forgiving clubs built around maximizing MOI.
“We see these two series as being the best value available in the custom fitting market and that’s exactly why we created our 48-hour custom fitting delivery guarantee. We want to open up the flood gates to custom fitting to golfers who are looking for the latest in innovation and extremely high performance at logical prices.” -David Glod, founder of Tour Edge
To quickly help you understand which driver is the better choice for you, let’s break it down like this.
- The Hot Launch E521 driver is designed for “Extreme Game Improvement”
- The Hot Launch C521 driver is built to what Tour Edge calls “Competition Spec” for golfers wanting game improvement performance in a more traditional looking package.
These spec variations can be found through the entire Hot Launch 521 Series in both the E521 and C521 products.
Tour Edge C521 Driver
The “C” in C521 driver stands for “Competition Spec,” but it could also is for “control.” Tour Edge offers that element by reshaping the head and placing more mass low and farther away from the face to achieve an extremely high MOI in what can be considered a traditionally shaped head. According to Tour Edge, compared to the previous HL4, the new C521 has a 12-percent lower and 7-percent farther back CG, which boosts the total MOI improvement by 8 percent. When it comes to engineering new products, any percentage increase greater than 3-4 percent is considered a breakthrough.
“With Hot Launch 521, we were able to achieve MOI that matches drivers in play on the professional tours that cost three to four times more. No one else is doing this with MOI at this price point. The result is fantastic performance with straighter, more accurate drives” – David Glod
Tour Edge E521 Driver
The E521 driver takes game improvement to the limit—and I mean that literally. The E521 is at the USGA limit for front-to-back and heel-to-toe dimensions to maximize forgiveness and boost MOI. To stretch the head to those proportions, the E521 is shallower than the C521, which creates an extremely low center of gravity and makes the driver easier to launch for players at the lower end of the speed spectrum.
It also has something Tour Edge and designer David Glod calls “Houdini Sole,” which reshapes the sole of the driver to save mass and allow it to be concentrated as far back as possible on the trailing edge. According to Tour Edge, this design offers 12-percent higher MOI and a 14-percent lower CG compared to the previous generation HL4 and makes it the most forgiving driver they have ever created.
This puts the E521 into the highest range of stability in the driver market alongside drivers that retail for more than twice the price. As we mentioned off the top, Tour Edge is about offering maximum forgiveness at the highest possible value.
An additional part of the forgiveness story is a familiar one, but when it works it works, and that is offset. It’s not something you find from many OEMs anymore because of adjustable hosels and moveable CGs, but offering an offset driver gives Tour Edge an advantage to help golfers that struggle with the dreaded slice.
“With these shallow faces and offset designs, on top of the higher lofts we offer, the Hot Launch E521 Driver is easily the leader in launch technology in today’s market.” – David Glod
Last but not least, the team at Tour Edge didn’t stop at the head to help produce a club that offers better control—they also looked at the shaft. The E521 driver comes stock with Control Length Shaft Technology, which is a fancy way of saying the stock length is shorter to help improve contact. At 44.5″ it’s only a hair under the PGA Tour’s average length driver to help improve the efficiency of contact and results in overall better driving. Better driving leads to more greens hit, more greens hit leads to fewer putts, and few putts mean lower scores.
Hot Launch 521 Series driver technology
As much as both the C512 and E521 drivers are targetted towards different golfers they do share technologies to offer more consistent ball speeds and increase forgiveness.
Diamond & Cup Face Technology – The diamond face was designed with the help of finite element analysis to simulate energy transfer and helps the drivers produce faster and more consistent ball speeds on off-center hits by placing mass where it’s needed. It features 39 varying thick and thin diamond “mini-trampolines” on the back of the clubface to increase performance.
This technology was previously only available in Tour Edges premium Exotics line, but by bringing it to the Hot Launch series they can offer greater performance at a better value.
“To be able to take an amazing innovation like Diamond Face that changed the level of what we produced with Exotics EXS and to be able to bring it over to Hot Launch is a huge deal for the performance characteristics of these clubs. This is going to help a lot of golfers gain speed and power.”
Power Channel – The Power Channel sits on the sole of the club behind the clubface to increase overall flex and help boost ball speeds on shots hit lower on the face while also keeping spin down. On the C521 it is 25% deeper than the previous HL4 to improve overall performance.
Acoustic Engineering – The 521 series drivers use the same sound diffusion bars as the Exotics EXS 220 and EXS Pro drivers to improve impact sound, and offer better feedback on shots. It’s a fine balancing act for club designers since they never want to build a driver that offends golfers and has them handing out courtesy earplugs to their playing partners, but go too far the other way and a driver sounds “dead”. The soundbars in the Tour Edge 521 drivers produce an acoustic that is both hot off the face but also solid – think thwack! over Thud!
Price, specs, and availability
Both the C521 and E521 drivers will retail for $229.99. All Tour Edge Hot Launch clubs including the drivers are hand-built in the United States and are part of Tour Edge’s 48-hour custom fitting delivery and lifetime warranty programs.
C521 Driver Specs
Stock Shaft: Aldila Rogue 50-gram L-Flex, 50-gram A-Flex, 60-gram Regular-Flex, 60- gram Stiff Flex, and 60-gram X-Flex
Stock Grip: Lamkin Z5, available in undersize, standard, and Midsize.
E521 (Offset) Driver Specs
Stock Shaft: Mitsubishi Fubuki 45-gram L-Flex, 50-gram A-Flex, 50-gram Regular Flex, and 55-gram Stiff Flex
Stock Grip: Lamkin Z5, available in undersize, standard, and Midsize.
Both of the new Hot Launch 521 Drivers will be available on November 1, 2020.
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Equipment
Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage
Although we spotted Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper last week during practice rounds at the Masters, he ultimately didn’t decide to use the club in competition.
It seems that will change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage, played at the short-and-tight Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.
When asked on Wednesday following his morning Pro-Am if he’d be using the new, nostalgic BRNR Copper this week, McIlroy said, “I think so.”
“I like it,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday regarding the BRNR. “This would be a good week for it.”
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According to Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, the BRNR Mini Driver can help McIlroy position himself properly off the tee at the tight layout.
Here’s what Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday:
“For someone like Rory, who’s that long at the top end of the bag, and then you put him on a course like Harbour Town, it’s tough off the tee. It’s tight into the greens, and you have to put yourself in position off the tee to have a shot into the green. It kind of reminds me of Valderrama in Spain, where you can be in the fairway and have no shot into the green.
“I’m caddying for Tommy [Fleetwood] this week, so I was walking the course last night and looking at a few things. There’s just such a small margin for error. You can be standing in the fairway at 300 yards and have a shot, but at 320 you don’t. So if you don’t hit a perfect shot, you could be stuck behind a tree. And then if you’re back at 280, it might be a really tough shot into the small greens.
“So for Rory [with the BRNR], it’s a nice course-specific golf club for him. He’s got both shots with it; he can move it right-to-left or left-to-right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it. I mean, it’s been amazing for Tommy.
“This was the first event Tommy used a BRNR last year, and I remember talking to him about it, and he said he couldn’t wait to play it at Augusta next year. And he just never took it out of the bag because he’s so comfortable with it, and hitting it off the deck.
“So you look at Rory, and you want to have the tools working to your advantage out here, and the driver could hand-cuff him a bit with all of the shots you’d have to manufacture.”
So, although McIlroy might not be making a permanent switch into the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, he’s likely to switch into it this week.
His version is lofted at 13.5 degrees, and equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft.
See more photos of Rory testing the BRNR Mini here
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Equipment
Spotted: TaylorMade P-UDI driving iron
It seems like the RBC Heritage is full of new gear to be spotted, and you can add TaylorMade’s P-UDI utility irons to that list.
We spotted a 17-degree P-UDI 2-iron in Nick Dunlap’s bag yesterday, and now have some photos of both the 3- and 4-irons. Nick has his P-UDI 2-iron setup with a Project X HZRDUS Black 4th Gen 105g TX shaft.
From what we can tell, this new P-UDI utility iron looks to have some of the usual TaylorMade technology as we can see the Speed Slot on the sole of the club for additional face flexibility. A toe screw is usually used to close off the hollow body design that will probably be filled with a version of TaylorMade’s Speed Foam that is present in the current iron lineup. This hollow body, foam-filled design should offer additional ball speed, soft feel, and sound, as well as an optimized CG for ball flight.
“Forged” is etched into the hosel, so we can assume that either the face, body, or both are forged for a soft and responsive feel. The club looks good from behind and at address, where we can see just a little offset and a topline that I would consider medium thickness. We don’t have the full details on what is under the hood or how many loft options will be available yet.
TaylorMade P-UDI 3-iron – 20°
TaylorMade P-UDI 4-iron – 22°
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
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Whats in the Bag
Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)
- Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-6), P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (7-PW)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-SB09, 56-LB08), TaylorMade MG4 TW (60-TW11)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0
Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
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Greg V
Oct 6, 2020 at 10:02 am
Pictures at address would be really helpful.