Adams Golf's F11 fairway metal
Although hybrid clubs have replaced fairway metals in the bags (and hearts) of many golfers, there’s at least one fairway metal that demands attention. It’s the Adams Golf F11 fairway metal and it might be the best fairway club I’ve ever hit – off the tee or off the deck.
The secret of the F11’s success is the slots in the crown and sole of the club that delivers more spring-like effect at impact for greater ball speed. Adams Golf has been successful the past few years with technology in drivers and fairway metals that deliver extra swing speed for greater distance. The F11 fairway metal, no doubt, is its best effort to date.
The Adams F11 driver also features what the company calls “Velocity Slot” technology, but unlike many fairway metals that are just smaller versions of drivers, Tim Reed, Adams Golf’s vice president of research and development, says the F11 fairway metal is a different animal than the F11 driver.
“Drivers have bigger heads and lighter shafts and are titanium,” Reed says. “All of that gives us the ability to increase the COR (coefficient of restitution). Trying to apply that to a fairway wood is more challenging. We don’t want to make the club head bigger; we want to make equally playable for off the ground and off the tee.
“You don’t want to make the face taller. Any time you’re trying to chase COR you have to do it through trampoline-like effect. We’re already at the thinnest you can make a face – steel of titanium – so you have to find another way to make the face flexible.”
Adams Golf certainly has found it with Velocity Slot technology.
