Industry Spotlight David Glod’s Tour Edge Golf

Glod’s passion for building golf clubs is the driving force behind every Tour Edge design

Robotic testing at Tour Edge headquarters

TOUR EDGE: AN AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY

David Glod has seen it all in the golf industry. Glod, a former golf pro at Village Links Golf Club in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, was working out of his parent’s garage building and repairing clubs for the high-end clubs of Chicago. It was a lucrative business for the aspiring high school golfer.

He moved to a townhouse when he was 22 after playing college golf at Florida Southern and was building and grinding more clubs than he could handle on his own. A few garage fires (nothing serious) and a wad of cash later, the young entrepreneur started to believe there was an opportunity in the golf industry to provide a highquality product at an affordable price.

This led Glod to found Tour Edge, to lead the company as their President and to design his first golf club in 1987 and never look back.

Today, Tour Edge is an American owned and operated company for more than 34 years. Tour Edge ranks in the Top 10 in every club category now in worldwide golf sales and is a 22-time winner on the professional tours.

Tour Edge has been a company that spends money on materials and not necessarily huge marketing dollars when compared to the behemoths of the industry. Glod likes to put everything he can in the design of the club for maximum performance without passing the buck of marketing and tour contracts to the consumer.

Tour validation for Tour Edge started with the launch of Glod’s Exotics line in 2005. It was instantly apparent that Glod had designed metalwoods that were up to 30 yards longer than the market leaders. Lightning in a bottle so to speak.

Many of the best players on the PGA TOUR started playing Exotics without being paid to do so, enough so that it led to 10 victories on the big tour

and Exotics being put in play in several Ryder Cups and every PGA TOUR major championship. Exotics clubs have been in play at The Masters every year for a decade straight.

But the brand recognition was only going to go so far when you can’t use a player’s name.That led Glod to re-think the tour strategy and to make the PGA Tour Champions the new home for Tour Edge and to sign a stable of staff players that he could market and create a marketing campaign around. (You may have seen the ad’s on Golf Channel featuring 2019 Schwab Cup champion and Scott McCarron, his fellow UCLA alum Duffy Waldorf, the legendary Tom Lehman and the loveable Tim Petrovic.)

Since implementing this strategy in 2018, Tour Edge clubs have earned 11 victories, 17 runner-up finishes, over 50 Top 5 finishes and over 100 Top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour Champions. There have now been over 700 Exotics clubs in play over the past year by over

100 different Champions players, the majority of which are still not paid by Tour Edge to use their clubs. And Tour Edge is still getting clubs in play on the PGA TOUR through word of mouth of how good their new clubs are.

Tour Edge also staffs the #1 women’s long driver in the world. Phillis Meti has won two world titles, multiple live for television events. Meti and Exotics drivers now hold the three world record setting longest drives in the history of the sport at 413, 408 and 407 yards.

“We have the most momentum we have ever had as a company,” said Glod. “It’s been about five years in the making, but all the plans we’ve made to take Tour Edge to the next level have come to fruition. It has led Tour Edge to three straight years of unprecedented growth and record sales numbers.”

Their growth has been spurred by increase marketing and by Tour Edge finding their niche as the best performance and tech for your money in the golf industry.

Their new Exotics EXS 220 Drivers, fairways and hybrid, for example, are in play by multiple players right out of the gates on the pro tours The entire series is loaded with technology like their breakthrough Diamond Face technology and extreme Moment of Inertia (M.O.I.) designs that Glod produced as Tour Edge’s Master Club Designer. Yet the clubs are half the price of the market leaders.

“We have shaken up the industry by offering all the performance and tech in the $600 and $700 drivers in one that costs half the price,” said Glod. “Our research shows that millions of core golfers are deferring product purchases because of higher prices and this latent demand is costing the industry sales. We are taking advantage of that with our model.”

Tour Edge has further set themselves apart by offering the only Lifetime Warranty in golf hard goods, by building all their premium clubs in the United States and by offering innovative custom fitting programs. You can get your custom fit order in 48 hours anywhere in the continental United States with Hot Launch and EXS 220 custom fit orders, a program that is unprecedented in golf.

Their complete line up offers three distinct lines of clubs designed for different types of golfers, to which Glod is proud of.

“We are one of the very few manufacturers doing what we are doing by providing clubs for the entire spectrum of golfers,” said Glod. “We have a major focus on beginners and for golfers getting back into the game in what we call our Get in the Game and Hot Launch product. With Hot Launch, currently on HL4, we’ve brought together custom fitting, advanced technology and affordable pricing under the same umbrella.” “No one else stands behind their products with golfing consumer as we do,” said Glod. “This is all done for the consumer and with consumer feedback. We are a United States brand who builds our clubs in the USA and we stand with the golfer and protect the golfer with a lifetime warranty and amazing prices for amazing performance based product to help grow the game of golf.”

You can be sure Glod isn’t resting on his laurels. If there’s one thing David Glod is always doing, it’s that he’s always thinking about what’s next. And that’s a good thing for the golfing public and the golf industry.