Quick. Name one new entry into the golf equipment market in the last decade that has made as big a difference for the games of tour professionals as it has for the beginning golfer.
While equipment technology has advanced quickly over the last 10 years, there's a new type of club -- the hybrid -- that's been adopted in equal measures by pros and duffers alike.
"We really saw most development on tour and in most game improvement segments of the retail market," said Adams Golf CEO and president Chip Brewer.
Adams rode the wave of hybrid popularity to strong 2006 sales. For the year, Adams' net sales were $76 million, compared to $56.4 million in 2005.
"Our growth for the year was driven primarily by our Idea hybrid iron sets which, according to Golf Datatech LLC, have been the top-selling brand of irons in off-course golf specialty retail sales since December of 2005," Brewer said. "We benefited in the fourth quarter of 2006 from our launches of the Idea Tech OS 8-piece hybrid iron sets and the Idea Pro 8-piece hybrid iron sets and individual hybrids."
Adams' Idea Tech OS hybrids, which launched in December, are eight-piece sets tailored to those needing easy-to-hit clubs.
The sets are made up of 3 and 4 hybrid iWoods, which have a composite crown and titanium crown with an adjustable weight port in the sole.
The 5 and 6 hybrids have a composite back and hollow design and also include the weight port near the heel. TriTech short irons round out the sets -- they include tungsten weights positioned in the sole of the club. With these materials and weighting, all three types of clubs in the set have a 20 percent lower center of gravity that helps amateurs get the ball in the air.
"(Hybrid sales) really blossomed in the 2003-4 time period," Brewer said. "Individual hybrids took off. Now we've moved to an era where hybrid iron sets are the wave of the future. Interest in the Idea hybrid iron sets has been very successful.
"Since December 2005, it's been the No. 1 selling brand. For a little fairway wood company out of Texas that's special stuff."
And while the hybrid sets are primarily aimed at higher handicappers, the pros are using some of the same technology in individual clubs. Adams hybrids, for example, were the No. 1 hybrid club played on the combined men's tours last year, according to the Darrell Survey.
"More and more pros carry them and they're starting to put them deeper in the bag -- two, three, sometimes even four hybrids. They're essentially making their own hybrid sets," Brewer said. "That's happening on the Champions Tour, but also on the PGA and Nationwide tours. The number of players using hybrids (on the Champions Tour) is now more than 75 percent of the field. On the PGA Tour it's more than half the field.
"We're seeing the world's elite players moving deeper into the set than in the past."
Where to go next? Brewer notes that hybrids have taken off for pros and beginners, but that mid-level handicappers have not adopted the clubs as quickly.
"Now it's time to fill in, in the middle (handicappers)," he said. "Those with a little bit of ego haven't chosen to replace their 4- and 5-irons with hybrids. The tour players are doing it a little faster."
For information on Adams Golf and the Idea hybrid sets, see www.adamsgolf.com.
