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The WOW Factor

The WOW Factor is the story of the successes and failures of Barney Adams in the golf industry.

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Barney Adams may not be one of the more well known names in the golf industry. My first impression was: Who is this guy? Quickly I realized that he is "that Adams guy". As in Adams Golf. Barney Adams has one of the most impressive stories of succeeding through passion and determination. The WOW Factor reads as a combination of both the story behind one of the most successful brands in the game and also a guide for all entrepreneurs to read before jumping into business.

Adams Golf wasn’t founded overnight, nor were they an overnight success. Barney Adams spent an entire career working as an engineer and management before he got his start in golf. In the late 1970’s, he became friends with Dave Pelz. Together, they tried to make Pelz Golf a success. Barney and Dave struggled through about five years of up and down sales before they were eventually forced to close for good.

Barney saw this as an opportunity to buy all of the assets left behind and to start his own company. Adam Golf was born. The best idea he ever had was to focus on one club rather than trying to make an entire line. Barney set to work trying to design the best club he could. He took a look at his own swing and the swings around him, and decided he needed to create an easy to hit fairway wood. The club that Barney designed was the Adams Tight Lies fairway wood. 

 

 This all sounds very good, but the biggest struggle Barney found was getting the capital to run a company. All of Adams Golf was being financed by one of the best games of credit card roulette I have ever heard. It was the Tight Lies and the WOW Factor that saved the day. We have all experienced the WOW Factor. Imagine hitting your favorite golf club for the first time. What is your reaction to that first shot you kill down the middle? WOW! This is the principle that Adams Golf was founded on.

The WOW Factor is a great book for more than equipment junkies. It is filled with insight for entrepreneurs and golfers alike. Barney doesn’t pull any punches in telling the story of Adams Golf. He tells of the failures and successes throughout his career. Adams Golf has over 30 years in the making, and they are always striving to create better and better products.  

Anyone that wants a behind the scenes look at the industry and what it takes to succeed should read The WOW Factor. The WOW Factor is available at www.skyhorsepublishing.com/details.php . It is definitely recommended reading.

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  1. QWKDTSN

    Sep 22, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    This is very interesting, as I was always skeptical of Adams clubs – until I demo’d a #2 hybrid – I hit it off the deck and WOW! I stuck it on a tee and WOW! I hit again and again and every time my jaw dropped. I almost hit someone because I was hitting over the trees at the back of the range. I went out and bought an Adams #4 hybrid and 3 Hybrid-FW the next day. I have hit plenty of clubs that were fine but those Adams clubs still have WOW factor for me.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

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