In golf, hitting it longer does help. However, every year companies come out with new clubs claiming they are longer. Too good to be really longer?

Unfortunately, you can’t always test clubs under the same conditions as the advertising claims. Or maybe you can. Do the claims hold true for your game even if you aren’t a tour player who swings at 115 mph?

I decided to separate the spin rate from the roll, and I was going to test this out, as I don’t swing at that speed, at least any more. It’s one thing to get the robot launcher to get more distance, how about with a real human, like me?

The Tour Edge Exotics E8 is advertised to be anywhere from 15-25 yards longer in a 3-wood compared to the competition. I am in the market for a new 3 rocket, so this caught my attention. I went to the Tour Edge website to read about how they did the test. They had all clubs tested at 110 mph, and my swing is realistically 90-97, so faster than average, but no match for the robot. However, my short game is better than his.

Would I get the same distance advantage even if my current 3 wood, a Nike that I like is only two years old? Tour Edge touts the E8 Beta has an improved, slightly smaller head shape based on tour player feedback. It is slightly deeper in the face to theoretically produce a slightly lower, more penetrating trajectory and improved performance from the tee box. The smaller club head size moves the center of gravity to move closer to the face for trajectory control and low spin ideal for players with higher swing speeds. I am not super-fast in that department, but definitely above average. Couple their face geometry with a titanium cup face combined to the steel body, and theoretically my 3 Wood could launch Super Man. The regular E8 is steel, and a little more forgiving according to their press material and website, but still a distance experience.

The moment of truth occurred at a local golf retailer who stocks all the clubs, and was quite happy like most to let me launch and measure, hopefully creating a sale. I get warmed up with 10 swings. Let the distance comparison begin. All clubs are 3 woods, 15 degrees with regular shafts. I test my Nike with an equal new Cobra Fly Z and the Tour Edge, in both E8 and E8 Beta. The chips might fall where they may, but I am more concerned about the golf ball in this case.

I hit the Nike well, and after 10 swings, we establish my baseline distance. Let’s call it X. I then rotate through the new Cobra and the Tour Edge models. Just for fun, I also test the Tour Edge in the strong 4 wood just to see the numbers. No 110 mph swing, just my consistent 90-97. I test off the deck, no tee because I am concerned about fairway performance.

With the Nike, I was consistently at X distance. The Cobra was another 12 yards further than X, so good news there. So far, technology appears to match the hype. The big surprise is both the Tour Edge 3 woods are 17 and 19 yards past X, just about every time. The E8 was easy to hit, yet the E8 Beta was a little further and had the same dispersion, in this case basically straight. Interestingly enough, the strong 4 wood in the E8 Beta was the same distance as the 3 wood, just with more airtime.

In this case, what they did at 110 mph did give me similar results at 90-97. 19 yards is 19 yards, so the E8 Beta is my new choice. The moral of my experiment is that there is more distance out there, and in the case of the Tour Edge E8 Beta, you can measure this even if you are not a tour player