By Rick Adams
Senior Editor
Scratch Golfer Magazine
Disclaimer: Though sharing a surname, Rick Adams is not knowingly related to Barney Adams, patriarch of Adams Golf. However, if the Adams Golf stock price continues to rise, Rick would not object to being adopted.
Innovation is an elusive concept. Sometimes it can be a new idea. Or it might mean using someone else's idea and going them one better.
In the golf equipment business, innovation is ultimately in the eye of the buyer. Golfers want clubs that work for their game, and they've proven willing to pay for the technology advances that have just kept coming in recent decades – metalwoods, perimeter-weighted irons, oversized drivers, hybrids, and all kinds of exotic metals and composites for clubheads and shafts.
For the past several years, Plano, Texas-based Adams Golf has often been the industry's poster boy for originality. “We have to compete on product innovation. We have to give people a reason to change what's in their bag,” says Oliver G. “Chip” Brewer III, Chief Executive Officer. One of the few independent club manufacturers without a deep-pockets parent, Adams Golf must continually develop club designs that get noticed without the hype-powered marketing campaigns and high-profile PGA Tour endorsers of competitors such as Nike and Callaway.
The company burst onto the national scene in the spring of 1997 with Barney Adams' upside-down Tight Lies fairway wood design. It seemed a radical concept at the time – lower the center of gravity to help get the ball in the air. The club looked, well, ugly, but it worked! In response to infomercials featuring renowned McKinney , Texas , swing teacher Hank Haney, orders poured in and Adams Golf grew faster than Bermuda rhizomes on a hot, humid afternoon.
According to Brewer, Adams Golf continues to lead the market in easy-to-hit fairway woods with the Ovation, GT, Redline, and Tight Lies series. And “we're the world's best hybrid irons,” a category Adams created with their Idea “i-Wood” integrated set in 2002.
Adjustable and Big
Adams Golf's next target is the driver market, which TaylorMade has perceptually dominated the past year with its adjustable R7 Quad model. Adjustable weighting is not a new concept – I had a screw-adjustable graphite-head Daiwa driver 20 years ago – but TaylorMade's aggressive marketing made the R7 appear to be a breakthrough, and adoption by the likes of Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia and Mike Weir spurred sales.
In the spirit of one-upmanship, Adams has made its new adjustable Redline RPM 430Q larger by almost 10% more than the 393cc R7, and is hoping to develop a version with the maximum 460cc allowed by current USGA regulations.
“There's really no debate,” Brewer says. “Larger clubheads are easier to hit, more forgiving, straighter, and longer.” He points out that even Tiger Woods has opted for a maximum-size driver. “There's a reason the USGA put the limit at 460cc,” Brewer suggests. “Bigger makes the golf club better.”
Oversize drivers are more significant to the average golfer than to professionals. “The Tour pro hits it in the center of the face every time,” Brewer claims, “whether he's using a 460cc metal or a 150cc persimmon.”
Adams Golf designers were able to increase the club size by using a composite carbon crown. The “RPM” stands for RePositioned Mass, which creates flexibility for fine-tuning a driver to a player. “The right head with the right shaft can make a world of difference,” Brewer notes. A knowledgeable custom-fitter can help you identify the clubhead, shaft (type, length, flex, and kick point), and even the appropriate golf ball that will produce the clubhead speed, launch angle, and spin rate to yield your maximum-length drives.
The Adams Golf Redline RPM 430Q has four adjustable screws – two 10-gram alloy screws and two 2-gram screws – and comes with a custom torque wrench. Moving the weights ( before a round; it's illegal to change a club during play) changes the configuration six possible ways – straight/high, straight/low, draw/high, draw/low, fade/high, and fade/low. Adams engineers also have another 20 grams of “discretionary” weight which they use during manufacturing to alter the center of gravity; the average golfer needs it lower and closer to the heel, the Tour pros may prefer it higher and more toward the toe.
Why would you want to adjust the clubhead? Perhaps you're playing a course that favors a hook more than a fade. If the course is lush and soft, you can create a lower center of gravity. Or maybe, after you've taken lessons and the teaching pro has altered your setup, you need a driver that matches your new swing. “Suppose you're fighting a slice,” Brewer explains, “so you configure the driver initially for a draw bias. After the pro has straightened out your shot, you adjust the club back to neutral.” With an adjustable driver, you can experiment with changes until you find the right combination … without having to buy three or four drivers at $300-500 a pop until you find the right one.
Moving the weight around can have as much as a 15-yard left/right impact, according to some research, though 7-8 yards variance is more common for the typical golfer.
The Redline RPM 430Q also features “XFace” engineering, which spreads the Coefficient of Restitution (COR), another USGA specification limit, across the clubface for a larger “hot zone” and better ball speed on off-center hits.
Though some may regard Adams ' adjustable driver as a copycat, Brewer claims they had already been tinkering with the concept when TaylorMade's R7 stormed the stores. “We accelerated development at that stage,” he winks, and debuted the $399 430Q in February.
Revving Up R&D
Though the Tight Lies models didn't win any beauty contests, future Adams Golf products might. The newest addition to the research and development team is Michigan import John Ruggerio, whose background is in automotive and aerospace design. Invoking Ely Callaway's motto, Brewer says successful products must not only be “demonstrably superior,” they must also be “pleasingly different.”
R&D has been the soul of Adams Golf since Barney Adams stamped the patent right on the Tight Lies sole plate. The company has 18 US patents, another six pending, plus one foreign patent and four in process. Adams Golf has invested nearly $5 million in R&D the past three years, and has tripled its staff of engineers.
Tim Reed is Vice President of R&D, an 18-year golf industry veteran. Starting at the Tommy Armour company in the “845” irons days of the mid-80s, he shifted to putter design when Armour's parent company acquired Odyssey. Odyssey led the putter market during that period with the “White Hot,” as well as the Tear Drop roll-face and the Zebra brand.
The i-Wood hybrid set stretched the R&D team's creativity. “As golf clubs have gotten longer and lofts stronger, the usefulness of the 3, 4, and 5 irons has become basically redundant for the average golfer,” Reed explains. “The ball is traveling virtually the same distance” for the longer irons. To create an integrated hybrid set, Adams Golf had to throw out traditional thinking, including the half-inch shaft length difference between irons. For the mid-irons, they also needed to offer a transition between the metalwood-like “iron-woods” and the cavity-back short irons. The solution became a “hollow” mid-iron design with a wider sole.
Like almost every competitor, the majority of Adams Golf products are manufactured and assembled overseas. The Plano Parkway facility has 65,000 square feet of space, including offices for administrative, marketing and engineering, test labs and launch monitors, and an assembly area for custom and Tour player clubs.
Champions Connections
Rather than put all of their limited marketing budget into one or two high-priced PGA Tour players, Adams Golf's strategy has been to dominate the over-50 Champions Tour. Their stable of endorsers includes Tom Watson (whose name is on the Adams wedge series), Dallas' D.A. Weibring, 2001 leading money winner Allen Doyle, US Open champions Larry Nelson and Jerry Pate, Jose Maria Canizares, Rodger Davis, Tom Jenkins, Sammy Rachels, and Des Smyth.
Six of those were in the top 20 money winners last year. Players using Adams Golf equipment have more wins, more 2 nd places, and more Top 10s than any other brand.
“The Champions Tour is a more level playing field. The costs are more manageable,” Brewer explains. Compared to a regular Tour player, a senior endorser is 10 to 20% the price.
Watson, Weibring, and others provide input during the club design process, sometimes at the Plano facility, more often at Champions Tour events. Adams Golf has an equipment trailer at every tournament, and takes launch monitors to the practice range for prototype testing. “The pros are very helpful,” Brewer explains. “They see and feel and tell us some things that even very good amateurs can't detect. You can't get their type of feedback anywhere else. They may not know the cause and effect, but that's for our engineers to work out.”
Adams Golf also supports developmental programs such as the Tight Lies Tour, which stages $150,000 events in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma ( they'll be at Firewheel in Garland May 19-22), and the Tight Lies “Classic” tour for ages 45 and up in Missouri, Georgia, and Mississippi. They also sponsored this year's North Texas PGA Pro-Scratch tournament at the Stonebridge Ranch Dye course and Golfweek 's National Senior Amateur championship.
Financial Bounce-Back
The financial history of Adams Golf is like one of those rounds of golf that starts great – birdie, eagle, birdie – then turns sour with bogeys, doubles and “others,” finally steadying with a couple of solid pars. Soaring on the success of the original Tight Lies and going public on the NASDAQ exchange in July 1998 with an Initial Public Offering that hit $18.19 per share, Adams Golf was the 5 th fastest-growing public company that year on Fortune magazine's list. But imitators and general industry malaise led to a plummeting stock, as low as 18 cents (in mid-2002). In 2000, Adams Golf lost $37 million, and many expected them to slip into bankruptcy a la Orlimar or Top-Flite.
There was nowhere to go but up when Adams promoted Brewer to President and Chief Operating Officer in August 2000. (He was elevated to CEO in 2002). Despite his “Chip” nickname, Brewer did not hail from a golf industry background. But he is a pretty fair player, 1.5 handicap, and met Barney Adams at Pine Valley in New Jersey , where both are members.
The 82-person company reduced the size of the losses in 2001 and 2002, finally turning profitable again in 2003. Last year sales increased to $56.7 million, and positive earnings rose to $3 million. The over-the-counter stock price (OTC: ADGO) is currently around $1.20-1.30, ranging from 96 cents to $1.77 the past year. “We have good people, and we've been fortunate to retain them,” comments Brewer, whose contract was recently extended. “We keep pedaling hard to make sure we stay there.”
Fairway woods and irons each account for nearly 40% of Adams Golf's sales with drivers slightly less than 20% and wedges a little over 2%. (Adams doesn't sell putters yet, but they do have a putter testing lab with a couple of robots, and Reed's team is doing extensive analysis of golfer stroke paths, weight, balance, clubhead speeds, and other factors.) Almost 90% of Adams Golf business is through US retailers.
More than one-quarter of the company is owned by Directors Stephen Patchin and Paul Brown, early investors in Adams Golf through their Royal Holdings (a Corpus Christi oil and gas firm). Adams Golf is currently worth about $30 million. As non-executive Chairman of the Board, Barney Adams still owns 14% of the company, but is no longer involved in daily operations. Always “an idea guy,” however, he does continue to offer a creative perspective on club design. And when it comes to the enigmatic golf equipment market, Adams Golf welcomes innovation from anyone – even the founder.
Innovation is an elusive concept. Sometimes it can be a new idea. Or it might mean using someone else's idea and going them one better. 
Adams Golf's next target is the driver market, which TaylorMade has perceptually dominated the past year with its adjustable R7 Quad model. Adjustable weighting is not a new concept – I had a screw-adjustable graphite-head Daiwa driver 20 years ago – but TaylorMade's aggressive marketing made the R7 appear to be a breakthrough, and adoption by the likes of Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia and Mike Weir spurred sales. 
Rather than put all of their limited marketing budget into one or two high-priced PGA Tour players, Adams Golf's strategy has been to dominate the over-50 Champions Tour. Their stable of endorsers includes Tom Watson (whose name is on the Adams wedge series), Dallas' D.A. Weibring, 2001 leading money winner Allen Doyle, US Open champions Larry Nelson and Jerry Pate, Jose Maria Canizares, Rodger Davis, Tom Jenkins, Sammy Rachels, and Des Smyth.