Equipment

Exotics CB5 Fairway Woods: Editor Review

Published

11 years ago

May 10, 2013

Pros: These might be the cleanest, classiest-looking fairway woods on the market. The titanium faces provide plenty of ball speed and forgiveness, and the stock shaft options are solid.

Cons: Four different lofts, but no adjustability. Did we mention that they’re $299?

Bottom Line: The CB5 fairway woods get top marks for ball speed, and they’re as forgiving and good looking as anything else you can buy. But they’re a little spinnier than other top fairway woods in their class. That makes them a good option for players who need more spin, or want more carry or workability than other high-COR fairway woods can provide.

Overview

With its Exotics fairway woods, Tour Edge has developed a reputation for making some of the best performing fairway woods in golf. Just ask Brandt Snedeker, who used a 13-degree version of the company’s CB4 fairway wood to win the PGA Tour’s 2012 FedExCup and earn of payday of more than $10 million.

The company’s new line of CB5 fairway woods are an improvement over the CB4, using a new SP-700 titanium face to give golfers slightly less spin and more ball speed across the face.

“SP-700 is about twice as light as steel,” said David Glod, president and founder of Tour Edge. “That allows us to put the center of gravity where we want.”

All things being equal, a lower center of gravity (CG) creates a higher launch, which is exactly what most players want from their fairway woods.

Tour Edge lowered the CG of the CB5 even more with its combo brazing process, which joins the club’s titanium cup face and heavier steel body without creating any welds. That, combined with its thicker sole plate, gives the CB5 a center of gravity that Glod said is lower than any of its competitors.

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The Tour Edge Exotics CB5 fairway woods are available in lofts of 13, 15, 16.5 and 18 degrees, and come stock with “real deal” versions of Aldila’s RIP 70 Sigma or Mitsubishi Rayon’s Fubuki Tour shafts for $299.

Performance

The latest trend in fairway wood design is creating clubs with low, forward CG’s that increase ball speed and decrease spin. Those designs, like Callaway X Hot Pro and TaylorMade’s RBZ Stage 2 Tour, are great for golfers with a lot of swing speed who need to decrease spin to keep their shots out of the clouds. They’re also great for players who like to use their 3 wood off the tee as a second driver, because they create driver-like ball speeds from shorter, more lofted clubs.

But those clubs can also be too low spin for some players, which can:

Limit carry distance and workability.
Go too far for high-speed golfers who depend on their fairway woods for control, not distance.

That’s where the CB5 comes in. It’s a playable, workable fairway wood with a low center of gravity and a hot face.

In our testing, we found the 15-degree CB5 to be almost 1 mph faster off the face than a 15-degree X Hot Pro and 14.5-degree RBZ Stage 2 Tour (adjusted to 15 degrees) with the same shaft, shaft length and swing weight, which we attributed to the titanium face construction. But because of the club’s increased spin, which was as much as 1000 rpms higher on certain swings, the CB5 tended to have a shorter total distance than the other clubs.

The added spin will help golfers hit the ball high and soft enough to hold a green, but it could produce a problem for some players. That’s why it’s a nice feature that 13-degree and 15-degree models of the CB5 are essentially the same club except for their loft. For players who need less spin, the 13-degree model will make more sense.

Looks and Feel

Like the CB4 fairway woods, the CB5’s have a medium face depth that many better players prefer. This gives the club a strong look off the tee, but might intimidate some golfers who use the club from the short grass and light rough. Those players will discover that despite its medium face depth, the CB5 is actually much better than many smaller fairway woods off the ground because of its extremely low center of gravity.

Left to Right: Callaway’s X Hot Pro, TaylorMade’s RBZ Stage 2 Tour, Exotics CB5 (All 15 degrees).

The SP-700 titanium used to make the CB5’s cup face is a little harder than the CB4’s 15-3-3-3 titanium, which gives the club a stronger, more solid feel than many golfers might expect from a titanium-faced fairway wood. The sound is closer to a muted “ping” than a loud “crack,” and there’s a jumpy feel off the face that lets golfers know that the ball took off with some serious speed.

The CB5 fairway woods are smaller than the company’s more driver-like XCG6 fairway woods (our review of those is coming soon), a size that better players will appreciate. They also have a 1-degree open face angle in the 13- and 15-degree models, which will match the face angle of many better players’ drivers.

The Takeaway

The biggest drawback of the CB5 fairway woods are their $299 price tag, which doesn’t seem so bad when you consider that the clubs come with stock shafts that sell separately for hundreds of dollars. The CB5’s titanium faces and combo-brazed construction are two premium attributes that are uncommon in the industry as well, which also makes the sticker shock more manageable.

The CB5 fairway woods use a thick, steel sole plate to move the CG even lower.

If you’re a golfer who is looking to hit your fairway woods as far as humanly possible, and will rush to the store in 2014 to buy the new model that promises five more yards, Exotics fairway woods probably aren’t for you. But if you’re looking for a premium-constructed, versatile fairway wood with a traditional look and pleasing sound, the CB5’s should be on your list of clubs to try.

Check the photos in the gallery below, which show more photos of the CB5 as well as comparison photos to the X Hot Pro and RBZ Stage 2.

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Whats in the Bag

Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (July)

Published

24 mins ago

Jul 22, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)

3-wood: TaylorMade SIM TI (14 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX

Check out more in-hand photos Collin Morikawa’s clubs here.

5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P-Series Proto (4), P7CB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (5-PW)

Check out more in-hand photos Collin Morikawa’s clubs here.

Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-SB09, 56-LB08), TaylorMade MG4 TW (60-SBC)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0

Check out more in-hand photos Collin Morikawa’s clubs here.

Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

Check out more in-hand photos Collin Morikawa’s clubs here.

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Whats in the Bag

Wyndham Clark WITB 2024 (July)

Published

51 mins ago

Jul 22, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Wyndham Clark what’s in the bag accurate as of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (10 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green 60 6.5 TX

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 80 TX

More photos of Wyndham Clark’s WITB in the forums.

Irons: Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi, Titleist 620 CB (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw White 100HY X (3), True Temper Dynamic Gold X7 (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (P, G, S), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-A)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

More photos of Wyndham Clark’s WITB in the forums.

Putter: Odyssey AI-One Jailbird
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

More photos of Wyndham Clark’s WITB in the forums.

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Product Reviews

Fujikura 2024 Ventus Black, Ventus Red review – Club Junkie Reviews

Published

2 hours ago

Jul 22, 2024

Brian Knudson

About the 2024 Ventus: Fujikura has big shoes to fill with the 2024 Ventus shaft lineup as the previous shafts were deemed iconic by most. VeloCore Plus is the technology that will set the new Ventus lineup apart and we saw its debut earlier this year in the 2024 Ventus Blue shaft.

Now it is Ventus Black and Ventus Red’s turn with VeloCore Plus to round out the lineup. VeloCore Plus is the shafts bias core that is made up of different layers, and types, of carbon fiber sheets. This core is built around stability of the club head to ensure it can help deliver center contact more often while adding ball speed. The 2024 Ventus line is now complete with Red for mid/high launch, Blue for players seeking mid-launch, and Black for low launch.

Look & Feel

Out of the box, the Ventus Black and Red match their Blue sibling with a new matte finish to their paint. Black has a simple matte black finish that almost looks charcoal grey in the sunlight. Red is a little more of a drastic change with a deeper hue. I would consider the new Ventus Red’s paint a maroon color that has some nice depth with the matte finish. Out in the sunlight, both shafts look great and don’t transmit any glare from the sun. The classic Ventus graphics are present up near the grip and the Ventus text is now a silver outline near the center. While everything seems new with the 2024 Ventus line, they are easily identified as Ventus shafts.

Feel is such a subjective thing to describe, but both of the new Ventus shafts have good feel to them. For me, the new Black and Red shafts have a slightly stouter feel to them through the swing. The Ventus Black is definitely a stiff profile that is designed for players with speed that takes a little more power to load. The great thing about Ventus Black is that you can get the low spin and launch you need without having a harsh feel and lots of vibration. At impact, you get a little less “kick” as your hands get to impact than the previous Ventus Black. Black will also feel a touch harder to turn over, taking away that feeling of losing it left.

Ventus Red has a softer and more active feel to it than Ventus Black. The handle section feels very stiff and stable while the mid and tip sections allow you to feel the flex of that shaft throughout the swing. As you start your downswing, you can feel Red flex lower down the shaft compared to Black. The softer tip section makes the shaft feel like it really is releasing energy at the point of impact and Red is a little easier to square up and hit a draw with.

Performance

I think we can all agree that the Ventus shafts released in 2018 performed exceptionally well. This new 2024 lineup leans on VelCore Plus to do even better. Ventus Black sticks to its roots as a low launch and low spin shaft. It keeps spin down no matter where you hit it on the face of the club. Typically a low heel shot ramps up the spin number but Ventus Black kept that, and other shots, spin down. Looking at launch monitor numbers, I never had a shot hit 3,000 rpm of spin, while there were a few under 2,000. Launch was also lower than Red both on the monitor as well as just looking at the window of the shot. A flat penetrating flight is what Ventus Black produced shot after shot. The starting line of my shots with Ventus Black were also a little more right of Red. Stability is key with the Black and swinging hard won’t cause the shaft to get loose and create an offline shot.

Ventus Red will offer a higher flight but without adding too much spin. I noticed almost 1.5 degrees more launch but with only around 350rpm more spin. I know people get scared of higher launching shafts, but the new Ventus Red can add some height without adding spin and losing control. While the flight isn’t as penetrating as Ventus Black, Red has not ballooned on me or shown any rise into the wind. The shaft is easier to square up and hit a draw with, but even as a drawer of the ball, I haven’t feared going left with it. For me, Red wasn’t high spinning either with shots averaging just under 2,400rpm for good and poorly struck shots. Shots that didn’t hit the center of the face stayed online well and had less curvature on them than I would have expected.

Final Thought

Fujikura had a tough job to replace the original Ventus, and I think they have done well to make an updated shaft that still shares the core Ventus DNA. You have the same three flight and spin options with a slightly tighter and stiffer feel to them. Performance is top-notch, and I don’t think anyone will be disappointed with the new shafts.

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