Adams Speedline Fast 11 Review

The Velocity Slot is a narrow channel cut through the sole just behind the leading edge, and it is the single reason this head works. Fairway woods get struck low on the face far more often than drivers do, and a rigid sole clamps the bottom of that face so those strikes die on contact. Open the sole and the lower face can flex, so the thin one you catch off a tight lie leaves with speed instead of a rattle. Around it Adams built a shallow, wide soled steel head with a low profile that sits down in almost any lie and a centre of gravity far enough back to get the ball up without help from the swing.

The shaping at address is small and unfussy, closer to a strong three wood than a cut down driver, and the turf interaction off bare ground is the best of the year. Sound is a clean metallic ring rather than the muted thump a composite crown gives. Tour vans carried these in numbers no company that size had any right to expect, and the shelf price never troubled two hundred dollars.