In the modern era of golf equipment there are very few clubs you can point to and definitely say “That one…that one changed the game forever”.
The clubs that immediately spring to mind include Gene Sarazan’s sand wedge, Gary Adams’s first Titanium Driver, Karsten PING’s Anser Putter, and without question, the Adams Tight Lies Fairway wood.
Not only did the Tight Lies put Adams Golf on the map – in 3 short years the company went from less than 1 million in sales to 36.7 million; its influence changed the way fairway woods were designed, it spawned the modern day hybrid, and just for the sake of a good footnote, it was indirectly part of the impetus for transforming Nickent Golf from a clone company into an original equipment manufacturer.
It’s not a cult classic. Cult Classics are for fruitcakes and hippies.
The Adams Tight Lies is a true classic.
I Don’t Know How to Put This, But…
The original Adams Tight Lies was kind of a big deal. Actually, that barely scratches the surface. The story of Tight Lie’s success is all the more remarkable when you consider that the original design was done without the use of any fancy technology.
In 1995 Barney Adams didn’t own a computer, and by his own admission, even if he had, he wouldn’t have had a clue how to use one. Instead he sketched his idea for what would become the Tight Lies – essentially an upside down fairway wood with a trapezoidal shape, shallow face, and low center of gravity – completely freehand.
Given what we know about golf club design today, it’s probably fair to say that Adams got more than a little lucky. The odds are against striking golf gold with little more than a pencil and a yellow pad, but with his Tight Lies design, Adams did just that.
Particularly noteworthy given the space Adams occupies in the market today; when most people consider the Tight Lies, they think about a fairway wood. That’s how it was classified, and that’s how it was marketed, but Adams’s original intent was to create a club to replace difficult to hit long irons.
One can make a pretty solid argument that the Tight Lies was the original hybrid.
Anybody who was around golf in the mid to late 90s likely remembers the impact Tight Lies had on the game. As the distance wars were heating up, Tight Lies succeeded with a reputation not as the longest club, but as a club that was easier to hit from anywhere.
The Birth of the Modern Fairway Wood (and the Death of Versatility)
In 1996 when Adams launched the Tight Lies fairway woods were small, compact, and versatile. For most of the fairway wood’s history, the average club on the shelf was well less than 1.25” tall and plus or minus 140ccs.
Progress being what it is; like everything else in your bag, the fairway wood has evolved. It’s gotten larger, and as a direct consequence, it has all but lost its versatility. With manufactures (Adams included) fighting for every additional yard, and borrowing design specifications from their drivers, the usefulness of the fairway wood for the average golfer has effectively been limited to the tee box and the occasional perfect fairway lie.
Rough, hardpan, sand…fuhgettaboutit. That ain’t your daddy’s fairway wood you’re holding.
Fairway woods have become the driver-lite of the golf bag and not much else. They sure as hell aren’t easier to hit…not from anywhere.
Reviving a Classic
When any company revives the name of a classic club, my first reaction is that they’re making a nostalgia play. You don’t need to do anything revolutionary if you can play to sentimentality.
Cobra Trusty rusty anyone? Big Bertha? New Steelhead in 3, 2…
The truth of the matter is that the 2013 Tight Lies does have plenty in common with the original. Adams has retained the upright trapezoidal shape (the Tri-sole), the compact size (1.18” tall face, 133cc head), and as what Mike Fox, Global Director of Product Marketing at Adams Golf, describes as “a nod to the original”, 5 alignment lines on the stock Mitsubishi shaft.
It’s that upside down design that makes the True Lies what it is. According to Mike Fox, “the upside down design means the leading edge of the club will be longer/larger than the top line, creating a larger more forgiving surface where most golfers make contact”.
Of course, there’s more to reviving a classic then a new coat of paint. Even when you can trade on a name with the reputation that Tight Lies has, golfers still demand you include some modern technology.
With that in mind it’s not surprising that like every recent Adams fairway wood model, Tight Lies features a cut-through Velocity Slot designed for increased ball speed.
It sounds long (and fast) right? It might very well be, but Tight Lies is about more than grip it and rip it. It’s a thinker’s club.
Distance Isn’t the Story
Perhaps the most remarkable piece of the 2013 Tight Lies story is that while Adams clearly feels their new club is long-enough, they’re not making distance the story.
I’ve frequently joked that a golf company would go broke trying to market a driver or fairway wood as the most accurate in golf, but to an extent, that’s exactly what Adams is doing with the new Tight Lies.
When Adams talks about the new Tight Lies they talk in terms of what they call overall distance. Similar to the PGA’s Total Driving stat, Overall Distance is what you get after you subtract how far offline you are from your target.
The argument is that 220 down the middle is better than 240 into the trees. I know…it’s now how I think either. I’m not a thinking man.
Targets vs. Distance
With the modern fairway wood, gapping and even hitting specific distances is almost an after-thought. The 3 wood is designed to be hit as far as it possibly can. The 5 wood is supposed to go almost as long (some actually hit their 5 woods longer, other hit them dramatically shorter). The 4 wood has become the compromise for the guy who doesn’t want to carry two fairway woods anymore.
Never mind versatility, even the notion of the fairway wood as a target club has been all but forgotten. Golf is a target game. Shouldn’t the same principles apply to the longer clubs as well? Adams thinks so.
According to Scott Blevins, Sr. VP of Sales, Adams Golf, unlike many fairway woods, Tight Lies is designed with a specific purpose in mind.
According to Blevins, the worse your lie, the better the Tight Lies performs relative to the competition.
The 2013 Tight Lies isn’t intended to be the longest club in your bag, but Adams believes it will prove to be the most versatile, and the most reliable.
A True (and very depressing) Story
Just last week I was out on the course with one of our testers. Hitting his 2nd into a Par 5, he pulled what I thought was an unusual club choice. He explained that the club (in this case a hybrid) was his safety club. It’s the club he relies on when he’s got more than 200 to the target and absolutely needs to narrow his dispersion. As long as he’s straight he can afford to be a little short, or a little long.
When he asked me what my safety club was, I thought about it, and replied, “I don’t have one”.
It’s that void in my bag (and I’m sure I’m not alone) that the 2013 incarnation of the Adams Tight seeks to fill. Tight Lies isn’t about chasing every last yard of distance. You’re not going to hear about a forwardly placed center of gravity, or a tall face, or anything else that inherently makes a fairway wood harder to hit.
Tight Lies is in a class of its own. It’s not a fairway wood or even a hybrid, it’s a Faithful Wood; the club you can count on from anywhere.
Putting Tight Lies to the Test
I’m just short of positive that some of you are already looking forward to the new Tight Lies simply because you loved the original so much. In fact, I’m willing to bet some of you are thinking Adams couldn’t possibly make anything better than the original.
I’m also absolutely positive that there are some of you who absolutely love your fairway woods. You’re thinking there’s no way the Adams Tight Lies could be any better than your XHot, or your RocketBallz, or your whatever the hell you have in your bag.
Some of you will think this Tight Lies is nothing more than the latest example of marketing ‘crap’ run amok.
Well, we’re going to find out.
We’ve got some samples on the way that we’re going to be putting through their paces. We’ve come up with some clever real-world scenarios we’re going to use to determine whether or not the Adams Tight Lies really is easier to hit from everywhere.
Stay tuned. We’ll post the results as soon as we’re done.
Cedric B.
9 years ago
I still play with THE ORIGINAL Tight Lies & I still love them. I use the 3W – 11W. I’ve been considering the New Tight Lies mainly because I just would like to have some new clubs, maybe graphite shaftts this time, and these are the only ones I trust, plus the grooves have a little wear after 26 years of use. They do everything as advertised and now they have been improved upon…No brainer for me….I’ll be getting the lofts for 3W – 9W and continue to use my clone 13W & 15W along with my wedges & lofted chippers.