Tour Edge E522 Driver Review

Tour Edge E522 Driver Review

The Tour Edge C522 driver is one of the standout products I’ve tested this year, as it earned a rare 5-star rating for the impressive performance it delivered at what is simply an incredible price point. But there’s another driver in the 522 lineup as well, and that’s the E522, which will be the focus of this review.

For those keeping score at home, the "C" in Tour Edge’s branding stands for Competition Spec while the "E" stands for Extreme Spec. Probably the easiest way to explain the nomenclature would be to borrow terms most often associated with irons, as C models would best be categorized as “players” drivers while E models would best be described as “game-improvement” drivers. And make no mistake about it; these two drivers are very different animals.

Most notable about the E522 is that it was designed to help golfers combat a slice. As such, it has an offset hosel design and discretionary weight has been moved toward the heel to allow right-handed golfers who struggle to square the face at impact to release the toe more easily and eliminate that ugly miss to the right. It also has a more upright lie angle to further encourage a draw, and it comes at a shorter stock length of 44.5 inches to promote improved center-face contact. I’ll address performance shortly, but the C522 and E522 also look extremely different.

The E522 has a much shallower face to promote effortlessly high launch and the offset is noticeable at address. What I will say, however, is that the offset is more subtle than what you might see in other drivers in this category, and Tour Edge has done an excellent job from an aesthetics standpoint of hiding any appearance of a closed face at address by using a more curved topline. In terms of its overall profile, the E522 is about the same size as the C522 and also features a traditional rounded shape. I’d also add that from an overall aesthetics standpoint the E522 belies its value price point, as it looks like a high-quality driver.

As for the testing sessions I conducted with the E522, they all took place on the course at Atlanta National Golf Club using Titleist Pro V1x golf balls. I spent one morning hitting multiple driver shots off of several tees, and I also played a couple of rounds with the E522. What I did not do for this test, however, is hit the E522 comparatively against other drivers that I typically use. Given that the E522 is a slice-fighting driver, which normally wouldn’t be a fit for my game, comparing it to drivers that are more ideal fits would be like comparing apples to oranges. So for this review, the E522 is being judged solely on its own merits.

I’ll start with the sound and feel of the E522, and it was loud. The C522 was also on the louder side but offered an explosive titanium crack. The E522’s impact acoustics, meanwhile, were equally loud but much higher pitched. While it’s one of the louder drivers that I’ve hit in the last couple of years, which might not appeal to everyone, it should be noted that the feel off of the face isn’t at all harsh.

Of course, for players who are trying to fight a slice, sound might not be an issue if they can keep the ball out of rough, trees, or hazards on the right side of the golf course. And from that standpoint the E522 performed as intended. I normally don’t struggle with a pronounced left-to-right ball flight but any efforts I made to miss wildly right on the course with this driver were for the most part neutralized regardless of how hard I tried to hit violent cuts. Rather, those shots resulted in slight pulls that stayed in play and normal swings produced repeatable draws that started down the target line and typically finished in the left side of the fairway. 

Additionally, as was the case with the C522, the E522 performed extremely well on off-center strikes, most notably from a direction standpoint. My most common miss is off the toe and with this design I expected those misses to end up left of left. But it didn’t happen. Rather, my poor strikes all stayed in play and curved far less than I would have expected.

What I did notice from a performance standpoint is that I hit the ball extremely high with the E522, which is one of the performance attributes that it was designed to deliver. Based on my experience testing golf clubs I’m confident that the peak heights I was seeing were a result of higher launch conditions and higher spin numbers, which did equate to shots that for me were typically about 10 yards short of where I typically hit the ball on my home course. That said, I would attribute those distance results to fit and the driver’s design more than anything.

There’s a lot to like for the right player about the E522, especially at what is an amazing price point of $249. I do believe it’s more of a niche product and that the C522 would be a better fit for a wider range of players. The E522 isn’t adjustable and offers limited shaft options, but if you’re a golfer who struggles with an open face at impact or lacks the swing speed to generate the launch conditions you need to optimize carry distance, the E522 is definitely worth consideration as one of the best slice-fighting drivers and best budget drivers on the market.