3balls Golf
The Adams Golf F11 Fairway wood isn’t one of the new offerings for 2013 — it’s been around for a few years. But so what? That doesn’t mean it’s not a good club worth a look.
Adams Golf built their reputation on innovation — remember TightLies? — and followed suit by incorporating something into the F11 called Velocity Slot Technology.
The Speedline F11 fairway wood has a deep, visible channel on both the crown and sole of the clubhead that acts as a leaf spring to increase deflection and reduce stress on the face, thereby expanding the coefficient of restitution (COR), or spring-like effect for on-center and off-center shots.
Spring-like effect is something all golfers want. That’s the compression and decompression (or springing back) of the face of a metal wood when it impacts the ball. It’s also called trampoline effect. A measurement of how much energy between the collision of two objects, like a ball and a clubhead, is called COR.
Obviously golfers want as much energy transfer, or spring-like effect, as they can get, because the more you get, the further your shot wlll fly.
And although only a fairway wood, the F11 was touted to have the spring-like effect of driver.
Adams claimed that the Dual Velocity Slots made the F11 a “dramatically easy-to-hit fairway wood with a 21 percent improvement in forgiveness across the entire face, better ball speeds, and up to 12 yards of increased distance.”
The Velocity Slot Technology is also designed to increase the launch angle of your shots and enhance forgiveness.
While deemed innovative, there were some knocks against the slots. Some Golf.com testers thought the top slot was “visually distracting and hard to get used to.” They also thought that the high launch and flight could lead to potential problems on windy days.
But that didn’t stop some notable pros like Tom Watson and Ryan Moore from using it.
Moore gushed that “The ball just seemed to launch off the face because of the increased spring‑like effect from the Velocity Slots.”
And here’s what Watson had to say: “I don’t change clubs just for the sake of change. It really has to be better for me to really consider it. They added the slots on the crown and sole that increase that ‘spring like’ effect we all are wanting. The ball just flies off the face — the center, on the heel, the toe, it doesn’t matter — it’s total forgiveness across the entire face of the club and more distance. This is a true breakthrough.”
Moore and Watson were on staff for Adams Golf, so naturally they would have good things to say about the F11. But you would think they wouldn’t carry it in their bag unless they thought it was a good club and could help their game, right? (Watson has won eight Majors, by the way.)
The wood comes in two choices. The deeper-face F11 Titanium is designed to produce more ball speed and a higher flight than F11 (stainless steel).
But the only way you’ll know if the F11 is right for you is if you go out and hit it yourself. And since it’s been around for a few years, you can probably get one at a good price, too.
