Special Announcement

Adams Golf Congratulates Founder Barney Adams On 2010 PGA Ernie Sabayrac Award

PLANO, TEXAS, October 28, 2010 – Adams Golf (NasdaqCM:ADGF): The PGA of America has announced that Barney Adams, the founder of Adams Golf, has been named the recipient of the 2010 PGA Ernie Sabayrac Award for lifetime contributions to the golf industry.  Adams Golf extends warm congratulations to Adams for being recognized for his pioneering efforts in golf club design, including the invention of the Tight Lies fairway wood. 

In the late 1990s Adams invented a low profile, low center of gravity and upside-down head design, known as the Tight Lies fairway wood.  Credited with creating a phenomenon in the golf industry, through the years it has received rave reviews and unprecedented loyalty. Even today, years since it was first introduced, hundreds of thousands of golfers worldwide still have Tight Lies in their bags.  The success of the sales of the Tight Lies fairway wood served as the catalyst for unprecedented growth for Adams Golf, now the industry leader in a variety of golf club categories, including Idea hybrids (the No. 1 hybrid on Tour) and Idea hybrid-iron sets (the No. 1 hybrid iron sets in golf).

“We could not be more proud to have Barney recognized for his outstanding contribution to the golf industry,” said Chip Brewer, President and CEO of Adams Golf.  “Barney’s commitment to innovation and improving ball flight through both fitting and golf club design has been an inspiration for all of us at Adams Golf.  His efforts both set the stage for the technologically advanced company Adams Golf has become today and, in a meaningful way, changed the golf equipment industry for the better.  I know that everyone at Adams Golf joins me in congratulating Barney. We can not think of a more deserving winner.”

Adams will be honored at The PGA of America Awards, January 27, 2011 in conjunction with the 57th PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Biography

Adams Golf was founded in 1987 by Barney Adams. Then a golf equipment component supplier and contract manufacturer in West Texas, Barney moved the company to Dallas in the 1990s to concentrate on custom fitting and new product development.

In the early years of Adams Golf, Barney labored in obscurity. He collected six patents for his golf products, manufacturing fine equipment but enjoying no sales. All of this changed in 1996 though, when he invented the Tight Lies fairway wood. While working as a custom fitter, his customers repeatedly asked for a club they could play from "long iron" distance, 180-220 yards to the green. Barney 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 club’s center of gravity, but also increased the hitting surface. The result was a club that was easier to hit, and suddenly Barney 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 Barney’s wildest expectation, and earned Adams Golf two placements on the "Inc. 500" Fastest Growing Small Companies list, and 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.

More than 20 years since he founded the company, Adams Golf continues Barney's legacy of superior customer service and commitment to developing technologically innovative and high-performance products that appeal to all types of players, from tour pros to the recreational golfer.