Adams Golf is king of Champions Tour

Although they weren’t marketed as “escape clubs” or “hybrids,” it could be argued that the Adams Tight Lies fairway wood was one of the first modern hybrids. Introduced in 1996-7, the shallow face and “upside down head” was billed at the perfect club for, well, tight lies, as well as from the rough, from fairway bunkers, from pine straw, and from the cedar planks of the clubhouse deck (I’ve played from there, I know).

At the time, company founder Barney Adams was one of the few club designers to put the bulk of his engineering focus on game-improvement clubs for mediocre golfers, the 80-90% of golfers who will never break 90. They may be duffers, but they’re duffers with expendable income, after all.

Adams golf has stayed true to its plebian roots, despite catering to more and more touring professionals. Adams’ largest-selling clubs are the Idea irons and hybrids, which are not only ideal for those average golfers, but they are also finding fans among elite players on the Champions Tour*.

And by making a legendary player like Tom Watson the face of Adams Golf, the company is targeting both older and better players in one fell swoop.

According to a press release from the company, Adams is now king on the Champions Tour:

“PLANO, TEXAS, April 24, 2006 – Adams Golf (OTCBB:ADGO) announces that for the first time this season, it ranked #1 in the wood count on the Champions Tour, according to the Darrell Survey. The wood count includes drivers, fairway woods and hybrids. For the eighth consecutive Champions Tour event in 2006, the Redline RPM Low Profile Fairway Wood and the Idea Hybrid ranked #1 in the equipment count of both categories, and the Redline RPM Dual Driver had a strong second-place showing in the driver count.”

After a bit of a free-fall in stock value right around the turn of the century, and the May 22, 2003 delisting from NASDAQ for not maintaining a $1 closing price, the recent popularity of Adams’ offerings is welcome news indeed. In 2003, the company’s stock price bounced around between 25 and 50 cents per share. Today, though, it ranges between $1.25 and $1.75 – a pretty hefty percentage increase.

I wonder how many of those Champions Tour players own Adams stock?

(*Author’s note: If a writer is caught referring to the Champions Tour as the Senior Tour, PGA covert operatives will spike your drinks with Metamucil and put you on the junk mail lists of all the ED medications.)