The WOW Factor

How I Turned One Idea and My Unbridled Enthusiasm into a Golf Revolution

The founder of Adams Golf and the inventor of Tight Lies, the most popular fairway wood of all time, tells his rags-to-riches story. In the early years of Adams Golf, entrepreneur Barney Adams labored in obscurity. He collected six patents for his golf products, manufacturing fine equipment but enjoying no sales. Everything changed for him and his company in 1996, though, when he invented the Tight Lies fairway wood. Working as a custom fitter, his customers repeatedly asked for a club they could play from "long iron" distance, from 180 to 220 yards to the green. Adams knew the technical secret was to lower the club's center of gravity. He did this by designing the traditional head shape upside down, which not only lowered the center of gravity, but also increased the hitting surface. The result was a club that was easier to hit, and suddenly Adams and his club, after years of diligent work, became overnight sensations. As lean as those early years of Adams Golf were, the amazing success of Tight Lies more than made up for them. Sales skyrocketed beyond Adams's wildest expectations, and earned Adams Golf two placements on the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Small Companies list, an Industry Week Top 25 Award for Growing Manufacturing Companies, several golf industry awards, and led to the largest IPO in the history of the golf industry in 1998. This is Barney's unvarnished story of how he made this happen, and how you, too, can make your entrepreneurial dreams come true.