Legendary Golf Inventor Barney Adams Isn't Slowing Down Yet
SAN ANTONIO — Adams Golf founder Barney Adams, the father of the revolutionary Tight Lies utility club, was honored Monday after nearly 45 years in his Lone Star State with induction into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame at historic Brackenridge Park in San Antonio.
While they may not know it, almost every mid-to-upper-level handicap golfer has been touched by Adams, his products and his programs. His Tight Lies club was one of the best-selling clubs of all time and is still being sold, a quarter century after it first hit the market, from an inventor and a company few had ever heard of.
“I always said I didn’t make clubs for professional players; I made them for amateurs who needed the help," Adams said. "I feel good about what we were able to do in helping people.”
He worked with current Callaway CEO Chip Brewer at Adams Golf and served as chairman of the board of Adams Golf until June 2012, when the company was acquired by then TaylorMade-Adidas.
Since then, he spearheaded the national campaign to "Tee It Forward," urging amateurs to move up at least one set of tee boxes when they play. He currently serves as the founder and chairman of Breakthrough Golf Technologies, which has produced the successful Stability Shaft putter shafts and more recently driver shafts.
Even at age 83 and one of the longest tenured members at top-ranked Pine Valley Golf Club, he still has plenty of opinions about golf and golf equipment, which he was willing to share after his TGHOF induction.
SI Golf: How would your assess your impact in the golf equipment industry?
Barney Adams: I don’t look back on my career as much as I look forward, which is why I have a company at age 83 and always focusing on what’s next. I think I have helped some people enjoy golf more with my clubs.
We were one of the first to help out with Folds of Honor and we were able to help some kids with pediatric cancer in Dallas and now they are living in the Dallas area in their 30s. That’s more important than any clubs I have sold.
SI Golf: What do you think about the state of golf equipment these days?
BA: To be honest, I don’t think there has been a lot of innovation or change in the last 10 years. It’s a marketing business more than anything else. TaylorMade is still selling my Tight Lies club 25 years later, so what does that tell you? Clubs are not bought by individuals, they are sold mainly by watching players use them on TV and then a multi-million-dollar ad campaign to remind you what you just saw.
SI Golf: You didn’t have that for Tight Lies when you first started, does that make its lasting success even more amazing?
BA: At the end of the day, the club or the product works like they say it will or it doesn’t. It either makes your game better or easier or it doesn’t. That’s what happened with Tight Lies and my Stability Shaft putter and driver shafts, which sold out in record time.
SI Golf: You’re now 83 but still involved in operating a new company. Does retirement have any allure for you?
BA: I just can’t help it. It’s in my blood. I had a friend lecture me for 20 minutes in Palm Springs at my club, shaking his finger at me, that I shouldn’t be doing this. I should be retired. He said I have a great lifestyle in the desert. I should take it easy and retire. But I just can’t.
SI Golf: Does that mean there is another great idea from Barney Adams still be uncovered?
BA: I invented what I wanted to, but there wasn’t anything else I wanted to do until the putter shaft came along. I'm still helping out in Dallas at a putter shaft plant on an as-needed basis. I want to help out and I do think it’s a better way of putting, now driving.
SI Golf: Having moved to Texas in the 1980s, what does it mean to be inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame with so many great Lone Star players and golf figures?
BA: Well, it’s nice to get in while I’m still alive to enjoy it. But I don’t really think about it much. I’m just glad I could help people in golf.