Naughty or Nice GIVEAWAY 1 (PGAPappas 12 Days of Christmas Golf Giveaway): Tour Edge EXS 220 Driver Review

This Naughty or Nice giveaway might not be what it seems at first blush.  It's not exactly about whether you have been naughty or nice.  It's not about the gift itself being naughty or nice.  Naughty or Nice for this giveaway means no matter if you have a inconsistent (naughty swing) or a textbook smooth (nice swing), this club is going to work for all of you and give you exactly what you're looking for.

And that club is the Tour Edge EXS 220 Driver.  I first told you about EXS 220 in January at the PGA Show, and it was a Show headliner.  And taking it out on the course I can tell you it's a straighter hitting driver than the previous EXS (which was pretty forgiving in its own right), and also delivers impressive distance right up there with the big OEMs.

One of you will win your very own custom made EXS 220 Driver, RH or LH, in whatever loft, shaft (Fujikura Speeder, Ventus, Project X HZRDUS), and flex you want that Tour Edge offers.  You can check out the options here.

I said this is a great driver for those of you with naughty swings.  And can tell you this is one of the (if not THE MOST) forgiving driver I've hit all year.  It's incredibly stable on misses all around the face.  And you don't see much drop off in distance at all if you're anywhere near the four diamonds surrounding the bigger one on the face (I'll talk about forgiveness more below).  If you're interested in learning more about one of the big tech features in this regard, you can read about Tour Edge's Diamond Face Technology here.

Forgiving drivers are great for a lot of us, but often times these can produce too much spin for better or higher swing speed players.  Not the case with the EXS 220.  Tour Edge has designed EXS 220 to still give you fast ball speeds in a forgiving head but without jacking up distance robbing spin.  On center, low, and heel hits spin remains remarkably consistent.  And only on toe strikes did I see spin that dropped probably lower than I'd like.

EXS 220 face is shallower than the previous EXS driver, and there's more weight deep and back (you can get different adjustable weights to change this out).  At address it sits square to maybe slightly closed in the toe.  And the sound is a nice, muted, thwack that appeals to many players. 

Now here's the big Naughty or Nice part about the EXS 220 driver that stood out most to me.  I mentioned above how spin remains very consistent center, low, and heel (and even lower out towards toe).  And this did create some difference in peak heights (heel and toe shots had surprisingly similar heights, with low strikes being lowest).  But distance was still incredibly consistent, and dispersion pretty darn good not producing wild misses.

On center, heel, and toe strikes carry and total distances were all within about 10 yards of each other.  I kid you not.  Only 10 freaking yards.  Shots hit low on the face weren't quite as long in carry, but overall distance on these mishits lagged just a few yards shorter.  EXS 220 is a seriously forgiving club, and clearly has consistently fast ball speeds across the face.

In terms of dispersion, heel strikes were surprisingly closest to center strikes, and my worst misses towards the toe leaked out maybe some 20 yards right.  These aren't great shots if you're playing on major championship fairways, but on most courses this will probably still keep you in play.

EXS 220 is adjustable plus or minus 2 degrees, with plenty of settings that also allow you to change the lie angle and look at address.  I didn't play much with these settings, but have no doubt they'd help tweak your misses for even better performance.  Overall, EXS 220 is one of the stand-out drivers of the season.  And I can honestly see a Tour Pro playing well with it just as much a 30-handicap using it to also play his or her best.

Remember you have three different ways to win the daily gifts in my giveaway this year.  On twitter just retweet my giveaway announcement and follow all; on Instagram like the post, Mention in Your Story, or Repost, and follow all; and here on my blog leave a comment in the section below in the daily review/giveaway/Letters from Santa articles.

And for this one, I'll also ask you tell me if your swing is naughty or nice, and if you're really up to it, tell me why.  Leave comments, throw out gifs that describe your swing, heck even post swing videos if you have em.  Have fun with this for everyone!

These gifts are great prizes of course, but also some of the best equipment and gear in their class that I played and reviewed this season.  And I hope these mini reviews and recaps give you an idea of why I rate them so highly.

Merry Christmas all!