Tour Edge

In 1986 a former club professional called David Glod started building custom iron sets and refinishing persimmon woods out of a Chicago basement, and the company that grew out of it still belongs to his family. Batavia, Illinois is the address now, on Pierson Drive, with a staff of about sixty. Nobody bigger has ever bought Tour Edge, which in this industry is unusual by itself.

Two tiers carry the range. Exotics is the tour-facing half, built around Combo Brazing, a thermal process that fuses a titanium cup face to a stainless body without a weld seam, and the newer metalwoods add Pyramid Face and the Ryzer sole. Hot Launch is the mid-priced game improvement half, and fitting comes with it as standard. The Zero-T series took the company into zero-torque putters. The strongest foothold either has is on the PGA Tour Champions, where Bernhard Langer plays under contract and a fair number of his peers put the metalwoods and irons in the bag with nobody paying them to. Assembly is done by hand in Batavia, custom orders leave inside forty-eight hours, and there's a lifetime warranty on the club plus thirty days to change your mind. Trade-ins and pre-owned clubs run through the same site.