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Adams a12 OS Irons Review Thread - Forum Testing

SuperStroke
Played a fun round with friends today. MaryC and I played a scramble format against OG. Here's a recap of my shots with the Adams. I felt like I hit my irons well today with a few exceptions. I was a little off with the hybrids but I only used them 3 times since we were playing the forward tees.

Hole #1 (Par 5): didn't use
Hole #2 (Par 4): GW - hit thin over green
Hole #3 (Par 3): 6 hybrid about 10 yards short of green (flag was on front)
Hole #4 (Par 4): 4H out of trees - tried to hit a low draw back into the fairway. Hit it really good but caught the bottom branch of the tree which slowed it down and left it in the fairway.
Hole #5 (Par 3): 9 iron - way too much, flew over green into bushes (I have been playing gold tees and get messed up on club selection when I play red on this one at times)
Hole #6 (Par 4): 7 iron onto green, 2 putt for par
Hole #7 (Par 4): PW onto green, 2 putt for par
Hole #8 (Par 5): didn't use
Hole #9 (Par 4): GW onto green, 2 putt for par
Hole #10 (Par 4): 5 hybrid lay up in fairway, 6 hybrid (hit behind ball and left about 30 yards short of green)
Hole #11 (Par 3): PW onto green, 2 putt for par
Hole #12 (Par 4): didn't use
Hole #13 (Par 4): 6 hybrid into fairway, 9 iron on downhill lie - hit pin high but about 10 yards off the green to the right
Hole #14 (Par 4): didn't use
Hole #15 (Par 4): didn't use
Hole #16 (Par 3): 9 iron onto green, 2 putt for par
Hole #17 (Par 5): didn't use
Hole #18 (Par 5): didn't use
 
Here's a video from today of me hitting a 9 iron (stupid choice) on #5. Like I said earlier, I don't play the red tees that much anymore and I never know what to hit because it depends on weather, wind, etc.. I like to play the back bank because it's easy to miss short and go in the water. I figured I would hit a very easy 9 iron to the bank. Unfortunately a very easy 9 iron flew right over the green and into the bushes. These clubs are longer than what I played before. At least the shot was straight. Luckily my partner was on the green.

[video=youtube;Af1-IBrWrq8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1-IBrWrq8[/video]
 
Adams a12 OS Irons & Hybrids

Late November Afternoon
Windy Conditions & cool Temps
Greens Still Frozen


My last time out Friday was an especially pleasing day. Who would expect high 40's & low 50's in late Feb, but the wind is a constant this time of year in the 20 to 30 mph range. This may very well be the time of year to expect the most out of a game improvement set as you are effected by so many factors from the grass and wind to frozen tundra called a green. The high flight has to be helping even though I'm having a tough time even finding a divot these days.

Eleven holes today with a solid 42 for the first 9 if you consider the conditions, thank you Adams. The last two holes were bad enough to convince me I need to stick to another sport this time of year. (I will say that I feel much better about my gae after watching The Presidents Cup). I am over swinging every club. No idea where this came from or why, but I have developed a chicken wing and left pull that has destroyed my game at this point. The Adams do their best to correct this, but at best I have I'm left with a short chip to par and the short game is still on.

Here is possibly the shot of the day:

[YOUTUBE]Ac5ApPkl81M[/YOUTUBE]
 
Good updates Duey and KB! I'm really enjoying these clubs right now, I have been really working on tempo and I think that's the big reason I'm hitting these so well right now. I am definately going to add the 3H and drop the 5W from my bag, every shot I hit with the hybrids today was either dead straight or had a baby fade on it.
 
Update!

Sorry I haven't been updating as much frequently. I'll do my best to keep more updates coming. I had two range sessions to report from. Saturday and Friday... Ill give a little recap of both nights and also talk about some thoughts I had after each night.

Friday:
I went back to my thought of just hitting GW and 7i. Modified it a little to include the PW. Reason was is I wanted to get a little head to head battle with the ZStars. COmpletely different irons but both tout forgiveness. I just have to say, while the other irons are forgiving, the Adams were taking what could've been a potentially bad range session to one that ended on some good notes. I've gone over before how you can still see/feel bad shots with these irons. But when you hit head to head its pretty obvious how these help. Distance, trajectory and ballflight were extremely evident. Where I was pushing my ZStars and hitting them fat, the same errors were just much more forgiving with the Adams. Again you can still see and feel a bad shot but it's nice to not be another zipcode. Would it have knocked 10 strokes off my game? No, but no doubt it was very obvious.

Another good observation was being able to see the ballflight and compare the height to another iron. We've all talked high and soft but sometimes people dont want that. What I saw when I compared the two 7i's was a similar peak height with the ballflights. How they got there was different but it really opened my eyes. The shafts in the other irons were labled as mid/high and there wasn't much difference. It just got me thinking, do I need to stress over having a lower flight shot? Probably not. Not that I won't work on it but I'm not stressing.

Saturday:
I spent a good part of my iron ball allotment to hitting the two pitching wedges together. My first test was a flag/pole 125 out. I hit the green 2/4 times with the Adams and 4/4 with the Zstar. The miss with the Adams was left. One time it just hit the green but didnt hold. Not too major but it really makes me want to see if I can get these adjusted. It was consistant ballflight and really did give me a sense of confidence. Kinda strange because I wasn't hitting the green but it felt good anyway.

However, as I got tired hitting through the bucket, the Adams once again showed their forgiveness. I ended up hitting 3/4 for the both but the miss on the zstars was more pronounced and the consistancy (where the ball landed) went to the Adams. Just a note as fatigue set in, I felt like I didn't have to think as much with the Adams in hand.

Conclusion:
Once again just having the forgiveness of these irons is great. You can feel/see a bad shot and you still have to be able to correct it. I'll be getting some course time this week (time off hopefully!!!). I haven't been able to get out as frequently as normal and I think having the Adams to go back to is great. I sometimes forget how much it impacts me to not have the practice throughout the week.
 
Nice stuff TBT, KB and duey. I looking forward to getting out tomorrow and getting in a round, haven't been able to play since Wednesday and that is a long time for me. Keep up the good work guys & lady.
 
I'm not an official tester, just someone who bought the set after reading these posts. I'm finding that I have my best results when I'm not swinging too aggressively, especially in the back swing. I'm considering the SW and LW but I don't like the return policy (new unopened in 30 days) buying direct from Adams. I buy my gear from GolfMart because they have a 90 day return for 100% store credit policy. I love that, but they don't have the individual clubs.

NorCal is wonderful. I'm lucky to have three rounds of golf scheduled this week and really giving these a great run. Year round play!
 
gingerista said:
I'm not an official tester, just someone who bought the set after reading these posts. I'm finding that I have my best results when I'm not swinging too aggressively, especially in the back swing. I'm considering the SW and LW but I don't like the return policy (new unopened in 30 days) buying direct from Adams. I buy my gear from GolfMart because they have a 90 day return for 100% store credit policy. I love that, but they don't have the individual clubs.

NorCal is wonderful. I'm lucky to have three rounds of golf scheduled this week and really giving these a great run. Year round play!
Click to expand...

NorCal definitely is gorgeous and I regret not playing some of the courses out there! I personally love the feedback that everyone drops when they either demo or purchase these so please continue!

I think you hit the nail on the head with how to get th emost out of these clubs. Smooth swing is best with these. I really find it great how they seem to really help with those ball striking days that just aren't the best. Love seeing everyones progress and can't wait to hear more of your thoughts.
 
Nice updates KB, Duey and company! Duey, great shot there, and KB, you just don't know your own power... the swings looking really good.

Its nice to see these clubs standing up to the long term testing very well.
 
Nice update T-Mod, I agree with what you are saying about the foregiveness in these clubs......I can still feel the bad hits, I'm just not punished as much for them. As you said, probably not going to save you 10 shots a round, but I would be willing to bet 2-3 easily, and that's nothing to sneeze at.


Gingerista, nice to here these are working well for you, be sure to keep us updated.
 
Yoccos said:
I think you hit the nail on the head with how to get th emost out of these clubs. Smooth swing is best with these. I really find it great how they seem to really help with those ball striking days that just aren't the best. Love seeing everyones progress and can't wait to hear more of your thoughts.
Click to expand...

A "one beer buzz" helps me a lot with that.
 
TripleBogieTim said:
Man you're a cheap date :drinks:
Click to expand...

Yes, one beer. Then two bottles of sparkling wine with dinner and a few 18 y.o. single malts afterward :)

... and then you break out the good stuff. :clapp:
 
I played today and felt like it was a really so/so day, but then I added up the score and had carded a 79. I ended up hitting the driver very well 13 or 14, one hit a tree and came back into the fairway and another rolled down a bank back into the fairway, but the ball did stop in the fw so they counted. GIRs were poor, I hit 4 of 9 on each side and maybe that is why I was thinking just a so/so round. but I only used 32 putts with a 3 jack on the 1st hole, so I was fairly successful at getting the ball very close to the green so as to get up and down.

The hybrids were fun as usual to hit and my only birdie of the day was a 5H on a 165 yard par 3 to 5 feet, I did not seem to be getting my usual carry today and just began to use an extra club and that was the ticket today. Never did figure out why the carry was off today, but it did not matter as just clubbing down and letting the club do the job worked like a charm. I did have a 4H downhill that was playing 2 clubs short so I missed the green about 4 yards right, but did carry the entire 200 yards.

My most memorable shots with the transitional clubs were a 7I from 100 yards that I had to punch under a low hanging limb about 20 yards in front of me and only about 12 feet high. I was able to knock down the shot and was only 5 feet left of the hole, but I lipped the birdie putt out, saved the par though.

I seem to be pulling the scoring clubs again, the 9, PW & GP are all still easy to hit and judge the distance you will carry but I must be overswinging these a bit and seem to be coming OTT and getting a slight pull with each of them. Chips and pitches are still spot on as my score attests, hitting so few GIRs and staying under 80 certainly means that the scoring clubs were doing their jobs.

The theme for these clubs is still forgiveness, they keep the misses in play and close to target allowing me to still score better than I feel I am playing more often than not. They really need to be considered by anyone who is focused on giving themselves a great opportunity to score.
 
Nice round DD, you are really scoring consistently with the Adams. Great punch with the 7i, wow.
 
Date: 11/21/11
Course: My Living Room
Weather: Cold as heck outside, but warm and toasty in here
Plan: Show comparison of Adam's Iron to past

Along for the ride last week I brought a couple iron's from previous sets that were easy to get to in my storage building. I especially wanted to hit the Nickent 6i next to the Adam's 7i as these seem pretty comparable distance wise. Along with that I thought it might be fun to hit my old Linx Parallax and older yet MacGregor Golden Bear irons. I spent quite a while on the driving range having a blast hitting all these and noticed a ton of different things between each one.

006-1.jpg


To start, the MacGregors were my second ever set and the first real "Set". I started playing these well used when I was around 14 years old, some 38 years ago, and stayed with them until I purchased the Linx around 1991 or so. I played those Linx until the spring of last year when the Nickents came along and of course this summer came my Adams a12 OS. These pictures certainly show major shape changes from club to club even though pitting the 4i's with a 6i & 7i is not apple to apple you can still see a lot in the offset, thinner profile, rounding of the shape. It's kind of funny to pint out the words "Rounded Sole" on the MacGregors, they were a bit ahead of their time, lol.

008-1.jpg


It was a bit on the chilly side out at the range, so mishits with the smaller older irons were more than noticeable, haha. Distance wise really surprised me in that I was smoothing the Nickent 6i very close to the same distance as the two older irons and the same distance as the Adams 7i. Feel was not even close between any of the clubs with the Nickents doing ok, just not to the level of the Adams. I almost lose some feel with the Adams, but you feel everything and each blade of grass with those older clubs. Miss one toward the toe a tiny bit and that stinger stays with you a while.

Beyond that I have to say I hit all of these fairly well and look forward to playing one round with each set soon. (not completely sure I have the full set of MacGregors anymore). I know from my results on the range that I cannot score any better with the older clubs than the Adams, but it will be a blast to get them out again. The a12 OS irons simply are the complete package and they really showed it at the range. I miss hit a few times and the ball still would have stayed in the fw, not so with the other three. Hope you enjoyed this stroll down memory lane with me, hehe.

003-1.jpg
 
Shot an 85 (47, 38). I hit the Adams clubs really well today but my driver and putter were bad on the front nine but decided to cooperate on the back giving me a nice finish. Here's a summary of the all the shots I hit with the Adams.

  • 9 iron pitch out from the trees into the fairway
  • 6 hybrid off tee on par 3 - pulled and went into bunker (typical of me on this hole to pull my shots)
  • 8 iron approach - hit really high and straight at pin but was short of green. I wavered between a 7 and 8 iron because I didn't have my GPS and was unsure of distance. I don't think I could have hit a better shot!
  • PW to center of green on par 3
  • 8 iron over huge trees went really high and cleared them landing on front edge of green. Love that 8 iron!
  • 5 hybrid straight at pin landing just short of green
  • 5 hybrid out of trees into center of fairway on a par 5
  • GW to front of green (should have used PW since flag was in back)
  • GW to center of green
  • 5 hybrid off tee to center of fairway
  • 6 hybrid approach pin high just right of green (went straight and really high but I was aimed wrong)
  • PW to front of green
  • 6 hybrid tee shot to center of fairway
  • GW approach- chunked this one and left it 30 yards short of green
  • PW tee shot on par 3 - we all thought it was going in. It was high and right where I aimed it. Skimmed right past the hole and stopped for an easy 2' birdie.
  • 8 iron to back of green (missed right a bit - flag was on far left side and I hit the right side and then 3 putted)
Now, if I can just get all of it working at the same time, I will shoot a really good score! My irons just felt so easy to hit today. I will NOT forget my GPS next time out!
 
That was cool duey, enjoy the pics and thoughts. Look forward to reading your future post on the compairsons.
 
Testing Update:

I had a different approach to testing today. Rather than record each shot I did a head to head battle with the ZStars and Adams. Usually I'd be testing on their own but I wanted to do one more head to head battle before it went back to just Adams alone. I haven't been to the range nearly as much as I want to so the Adams have been a blessing in some ways. The forgiveness and how easy these are to get into a rhythm with is a welcome thing especially if you can't get out as much. Onto the results!

Par 3 145 yards:
I've been fluctuating on distance lately, I pulled an 8i for each shot. I was struggling with getting into a rhythm and good place with my swing from the start. I came over the top on both swings but pretty different results. I wasnt able to get my hands around with the Adams and sliced the ball pretty good. Good feedback from the Adams 8i and lost only about 10 yards. The other iron I came over the top but closed the clubface producing a different result. I hit the Adams second which made me realize the difference in weight much more than I have previously.

Hole #9, 125 yard shot:
PW for both, although the ZStar is tad bit longer. It was getting pretty late so I couldn't really see the ball. I had to pick the target, aim and just go by feel. I just love the feedback I get from these irons. It was pretty easy to tell what I hit and where I was gonna be. I ended up on the green with one shot (I thought I hit a little thin) and sliced the other one. The Zstars were both in the same area. I made sure to hit the Adams first which actually put me in a good rhtyhm. I really think these irons are great set ups for me as I start to warm up. Also after walking the course and being sick, I didn't feel at all fatigued when swinging the lighter iron.

A little different approach for me but I like hitting irons side by side. Its cool for me to see the how much differnce there is in misses. While a good shot can be great if you're properly fitted, not all misses are created equal.
 
DawgDaddy said:
I played today and felt like it was a really so/so day, but then I added up the score and had carded a 79. I ended up hitting the driver very well 13 or 14, one hit a tree and came back into the fairway and another rolled down a bank back into the fairway, but the ball did stop in the fw so they counted. GIRs were poor, I hit 4 of 9 on each side and maybe that is why I was thinking just a so/so round. but I only used 32 putts with a 3 jack on the 1st hole, so I was fairly successful at getting the ball very close to the green so as to get up and down.

The hybrids were fun as usual to hit and my only birdie of the day was a 5H on a 165 yard par 3 to 5 feet, I did not seem to be getting my usual carry today and just began to use an extra club and that was the ticket today. Never did figure out why the carry was off today, but it did not matter as just clubbing down and letting the club do the job worked like a charm. I did have a 4H downhill that was playing 2 clubs short so I missed the green about 4 yards right, but did carry the entire 200 yards.

My most memorable shots with the transitional clubs were a 7I from 100 yards that I had to punch under a low hanging limb about 20 yards in front of me and only about 12 feet high. I was able to knock down the shot and was only 5 feet left of the hole, but I lipped the birdie putt out, saved the par though.

I seem to be pulling the scoring clubs again, the 9, PW & GP are all still easy to hit and judge the distance you will carry but I must be overswinging these a bit and seem to be coming OTT and getting a slight pull with each of them. Chips and pitches are still spot on as my score attests, hitting so few GIRs and staying under 80 certainly means that the scoring clubs were doing their jobs.

The theme for these clubs is still forgiveness, they keep the misses in play and close to target allowing me to still score better than I feel I am playing more often than not. They really need to be considered by anyone who is focused on giving themselves a great opportunity to score.
Click to expand...

Great round, DawgDaddy. I would be happy to shoot an 85 with my a7Os irons. I notice that the wedges seem to even have a more hybrid-iron look to them. Good to hear about the wedges and high end irons playing well. I'm sure that next season I will be shooting in the low 80s after a few games with my set. Good to see that forgiveness is still important to Adams Golf...looking forward to more good results as you get them! Good luck and keep it going!
 
Yoccos said:
Testing Update:

I had a different approach to testing today. Rather than record each shot I did a head to head battle with the ZStars and Adams. Usually I'd be testing on their own but I wanted to do one more head to head battle before it went back to just Adams alone. I haven't been to the range nearly as much as I want to so the Adams have been a blessing in some ways. The forgiveness and how easy these are to get into a rhythm with is a welcome thing especially if you can't get out as much. Onto the results!

Par 3 145 yards:
I've been fluctuating on distance lately, I pulled an 8i for each shot. I was struggling with getting into a rhythm and good place with my swing from the start. I came over the top on both swings but pretty different results. I wasnt able to get my hands around with the Adams and sliced the ball pretty good. Good feedback from the Adams 8i and lost only about 10 yards. The other iron I came over the top but closed the clubface producing a different result. I hit the Adams second which made me realize the difference in weight much more than I have previously.

Hole #9, 125 yard shot:
PW for both, although the ZStar is tad bit longer. It was getting pretty late so I couldn't really see the ball. I had to pick the target, aim and just go by feel. I just love the feedback I get from these irons. It was pretty easy to tell what I hit and where I was gonna be. I ended up on the green with one shot (I thought I hit a little thin) and sliced the other one. The Zstars were both in the same area. I made sure to hit the Adams first which actually put me in a good rhtyhm. I really think these irons are great set ups for me as I start to warm up. Also after walking the course and being sick, I didn't feel at all fatigued when swinging the lighter iron.

A little different approach for me but I like hitting irons side by side. Its cool for me to see the how much differnce there is in misses. While a good shot can be great if you're properly fitted, not all misses are created equal.
Click to expand...

Yocos that sounds like something I should do with my a7's and a7Oses just to see a comparison of where my game is at. I noticed in the few games I played my a7Os my clubs were at least one club longer than with the a7's. Sounds neat and I know that many of as golfers are always tinkering to compare and see what plays best and works best for our current level of game. Keep us posted on any further results from your testing...and good luck with that as well!
 
Comparison - a12Os to earlier irons

Comparison - a12Os to earlier irons

Nice Post theDue. Brings back lots of memories. My first oversize set for a while included the Lynx Black Cat 1 iron but after the second time the head flew off my shaft I just left it at the range. I then added the King Cobra offset 1 iron and gap wedge to my all graphite set. After a little over a year playing with steel irons and graphite hybrids it is nice to be back to steel. Golf club manufacturers have come a long way with fitting graphite and steel shafts and steel are lite True Temper in many irons so it has a similar feel to graphite. Thanks again TheDue and good luck!
 
Adamsmeister said:
Yocos that sounds like something I should do with my a7's and a7Oses just to see a comparison of where my game is at. I noticed in the few games I played my a7Os my clubs were at least one club longer than with the a7's. Sounds neat and I know that many of as golfers are always tinkering to compare and see what plays best and works best for our current level of game. Keep us posted on any further results from your testing...and good luck with that as well!
Click to expand...

Thank you :) It sure is hard to not tinker haha.
 
Nice round DD...don't you just love that when you think you had an "OK" day and then add up the scorecard and WOW...course the first thing I do is go..."hell if I hadn't 3 jacked on that one hole I could have shot this...LOL"

Nice trip down memory lane Duey!

Good job as always KB and Yoccos!

I went to the range this evening and did nothing but work on 150 yards and in, so that meant nothing more than a 7 iron. I picked out targets at 150, 125, 100, 75, 50, and 25 yards and hit different kinds of shots at each, some high, some low, some pitch and runs, and some flops at the 25 yarder. I hit 3 buckets of balls and worked on everything I could think of, tried to hit some low cuts and low draws (I wasn't very successful with the draws as my natural shot is a cut)

I was able to drop my handicap about 7-8 shots this year by dedicating myself to the short game, but as I got closer to the my goal of breaking 80 I started playing more instead of practicing and the worst part was the last couple of times I got close to breaking 80 it was my short game that failed me.

I found that with these clubs I can pull off most any shot that I need and even when I miss hit one it still leaves me in a spot that I can recover from. To wrap up the night I went over to the putting green and since there was nobody around I picked out a cup and then took every ball out of my bag (probably about 35) and scattered them around the area anywhere from 30 yards and in from all kinds of lies, off hills, hardpan, rough, fairway and bunkers.....I took several tees and made myself a 5 foot circle around the cup and told myself I wasn't going home until I got every ball in that circle or they threw me out.

I took the Adams GW and started playing "around the world", in the first round I made about 60% of the balls into the circle and one actually went in the cup! I had several that were inches from being in the circle and several that weren't even close. The balls that were in the circle went back in the bag and the others got scattered again. Next round I got all but 4 in the circle including another in the hole! (why doesn't this happen more on the course) Next round only 1 ball was outside the circle and it was REALLY CLOSE...so I tossed it into the rough about 20 yards off the green walked over and opened the blade on the GW and hit a nice high shot that stopped about 5 inches from the cup!

It was an enjoyable and fun session and something that I need to do at least a couple of times a month. I hope to get another practice session in before Thanksgiving because there is family coming in and there will be golf played Friday, Saturday and Sunday and my family plays for bragging rights! The good thing is, most of them don't know that my handicap has dropped that far this year....have I got a Thanksgiving suprise for them!

Thanks as Always to THP and to ADAMS GOLF for allowing me the opportunity to test these clubs.
 
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