50 Words or Less
The Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 fairway wood is a forgiving, higher launching option for mid and low handicaps. The Tour Edge Hot Launch X525 fairway wood takes draw bias and launch forgiveness to the extreme for the players who slice or can’t elevate their long clubs.
Introduction
As more and more drivers cruise past the $600 threshold and fairway woods creep over $300, the Tour Edge Hot Launch family gets more and more attractive. The new Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 and X525 fairways woods have throwback pricing – the same $169 as last year’s 524 FWs [review HERE] – but new upgrades to make them even friendlier whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player.
Looks
At address, the Ridgeback Technology on both of the new Tour Edge Hot Launch 525 fairway woods announces that they’re brothers. Both crowns are primarily carbon fiber, but the ridgeback rail is the focal point and a potential alignment aid. A small, white “525” marks the sweet spot. They also share full length, white score lines across the face.
In the bag, both the E525 and X525 fairway woods follow the modern model of having their branding on the heel and toe of the sole. The center of the sole is reserved for gold stripes that highlight the tech there. I like Tour Edge’s color choice, particularly on the E525’s large weight – it gives the club a lot of personality.
While there are many similarities, it doesn’t take a high degree of sophistication to see the stark differences. The Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 fairway wood (above, left) has a larger footprint, being longer from front to back and fuller in shape. It’s nearly symmetrical, but the ridgeback rail skews slightly heelward. The Tour Edge Hot Launch X525 fairway wood is more compact but the offset marks it as being targeted to the higher handicap player.
Sound & Feel
I started my testing with the Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 fairway wood and found an impact sound that’s close to prototypical. It has that higher pitch “tink,” though it’s a little more hollow and open sounding. The volume is just a hair below average.
Switching to the Tour Edge Hot Launch X525 fairway wood, the sound is also high pitched and metallic, but it has a springy resonance to it. This club is fairly quiet off center and slightly louder on perfect strikes. While the volume told a clear story on strike quality, I found that the character of the sound was a less reliable indicator.
Both clubs offer reasonable feedback through the hands. If you’re paying good attention, you should be able to locate impact. The feel of impact is in the middle of the bell curve – neither super solid nor thin and fast.
Performance
As I did with the 525 Hot Launch drivers [review HERE], I’ll start by laying out which golfers should consider each of these clubs. The Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 fairway wood is billed as mid launch and low spin, designed for “medium to fast swing speeds.” It has “high” forgiveness, according to Tour Edge. The Tour Edge Hot Launch X525 fairway wood has “extreme” forgiveness to go along with high launch and mid spin. Tour Edge states that this is better for “medium to slower swing speeds” who want “max launch and accuracy.” Said plainly (though perhaps painting with too broad of a brush): the E525 is for mid to lower handicaps, the X525 is for mid to higher handicaps.
These two fairway woods share two significant pieces of technology: Ridgeback and Diamond Face VFT. This tech works in concert to give these two clubs strong ball speed across much of the face. On ball speed alone, I didn’t find much difference between the two models. Though Tour Edge portrays the X525 as more forgiving, I think that sells the E525 short.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t meaningful differences between the two clubs. The Hot Launch E525 fairway wood is clearly geared toward a better player. Its stock ball flight is close to neutral, so you can shape your shots in both directions. The slightly taller face also makes it more inviting to hit off the tee.
The Hot Launch X525 is strongly geared toward producing a draw and elevating every strike. The offset and draw bias make it so that the stock shot wants to bend right-to-left. You can, of course, still leave the face wide open, but the X525 goes a long way toward taking the right side out of play. Additionally, the shallow face and Houdini Sole make this club really forgiving on thin strikes. The triangular sole pushes the CG extremely low, so even bottom groove shots will rise.
Finally, while the X525 fairway wood will do more to elevate thin strikes, I found both models to be fairly high launching and high spinning. Part of this can certainly be attributed to the stock shaft – it’s lighter and softer than what I would normally play – but I think both of these heads are well designed to get the ball in the air and keep it there.
Conclusion
With no disrespect to the performance of the Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 and X525 fairway woods, I have to finish where I started: the price. At just $169, these are clubs you can afford to buy without taking out a second mortgage. They also allow you to experiment with different ideas like a 7W instead of a long iron. Continued applause for Tour Edge’s efforts to keep golf affordable.
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Tour Edge Hot Launch E525 Fairway Wood Price & Specs
Tour Edge Hot Launch X525 Fairway Wood Price & Specs
Editor In Chief at Plugged In Golf
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.