Adams Golf Speedline Fast 12 Fairway Wood Review

Fairway woods are becoming very popular for golfers of all skill levels. Why? Well they’re getting easier to hit from a variety of lies not associated with the tee box in addition to being more forgiving. Enter the Adams Golf Speedline Fast 12 fairway wood. It definitely doesn’t look like your average fairway wood let alone look like your traditional Adams Golf club. However not all new technologies work as advertised so did this offering from Adams Golf deliver the goods during some THP testing? Check it out.

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From the Company

  • Our longest and most forgiving fairway wood ever
  • Second generation Velocity Slot (slot within a slot) for more ball speed, forgiveness, and better launch conditions
  • Higher launch without impacting spin rate
  • Speedcoat technology on Grafalloy ProLaunch shaft to lower drag and increase club speed

Look
As I’ve already stated this club doesn’t look like your traditional fairway wood and personally I really like the look. You’ll notice the velocity slot technology right away whether you’re at address or just holding the club which is a polarizing look in itself to say the least. One of the reasons I like it is that it sets up nicely as an alignment aid when you’re addressing the ball which I found very handy. Another reason is that it gives the club a very distinctive look from anything else out on the market.

Once you get past the look of the velocity slot you’ll notice that that the club head itself is a nice matte silver finish to it which is extremely good at reducing glare. When you pair that with the black clubface you have a perfect storm of alignment and glare reduction which is hard to beat. The overall look of the club head is pretty modern actually without going completely over the top.

The shaft that comes with the Speedline Fast 12 is truly unique. I’ll touch on it more in the Technology section of the review but when you first see the shaft you’ll notice a somewhat ‘unfinished’ look to it. It looks a little rough around the edges but there’s a method to the madness with this so stay tuned for more on that. Overall the silver and black shaft really meshes well with the club head to give it a clean yet aggressive appearance. Definitely not your traditional Adams kind of club is it?

Technology
Ok so let’s dive into the tech that’s in this club. First comes the velocity slot. It’s Adams’ second generation of this technology and they’ve designed it to give you more ball speed and more forgiveness across more of the clubface. It’s also designed to launch the ball higher into the air without affecting spin rate. This is accomplished by providing more flex across the clubface which also increases the sweet spot of the club. What good is a higher launch with too much spin on it right?

Now about that shaft. The Grafalloy ProLaunch Blue shaft has a rough texture to it which is unlike anything I’ve seen before. The reasoning behind it is that a rougher surface cuts through the air with less drag than a smooth surface does. Believe it? Look at your golf ball then. That’s not a smooth surface is it? Well the same aerodynamic principles are at work here too. What this means for the golfer is that you’re moving the shaft of the club through the air with less resistance which helps give you more clubhead speed. Does the paint on your club do that for you? Very cool.

Testing
The Speedline Fast 12 fairway wood that Adams sent for testing was a 15* 3W with a 65g S flex shaft. Whenever I took the Speedline Fast 12 out for testing I was anxious to see if I noticed any consistency (good or bad) with each testing opportunity and the two things I noticed the most were a certain level of consistency and a certain amount of distance. Before I get to those I’m going to touch on the feel and sound of this club.

The feel of the Speedline Fast 12 is a great blend of ‘crispness with forgiveness.’ The feeling you get on a well struck shot isn’t the traditional ‘nothing’ you typically feel but more of a sharp, crisp feeling. The feeling isn’t as prevalent out on the toe or heel, especially with severe misses, but it’s pretty constant. I didn’t notice a ‘trampoline effect’ from the velocity slot which I was surprised at given the purpose behind it but it was nice to not notice that. The shaft pairs well with the clubhead and it always felt that it loaded for me nicely on every shot I put on it. There was always the right amount of flex to it and the weighting of the shaft added to the ease of hitting this fairway wood.

The sound of this club is exactly like the feeling of it: crisp. The sound that the velocity slot makes when you connect with a shot is like a ‘snap’ or a ‘crack.’ Sorry, no pop sound. You really get to hear it when you hit a shot flush in the middle which sounds great and lets you know that you got it. So much so that you want to keep hitting it and hitting it trying to hear that sound again.

Performance-wise this club is solid. I wasn’t getting bragging distance by any stretch but the distance I was getting was about 5-7 yards less than my current fairway wood both off the tee and off the turf. Speaking of which, the smaller profile and shallow face of this fairway wood cuts through the turf just fine, thank you. The kicker was that my shot dispersion was as tight as it’s ever been with a fairway wood. It also seemed that I could not hit it anywhere but the center of the clubface. I always seemed to deliver the club to the ball squarely and center face so my results were almost automatic every time. There’s something to be said for consistency and comfort like that and the Adams Speedline Fast 12 fairway wood has just that.

Overall
Adams has always done things a little differently and tinkering with new technologies and the Speedline Fast 12 is no exception. All of the technology is more than just a gimmick and is useful and practical. The Adams Golf Speedline Fast 12 fairway wood retails for $199 and is also available in a draw version.. Click on over to www.adamsgolf.com for more information on this club as well as the technology involved with this club. While the Speedline Fast 12 wasn’t the longest or hottest club for me, it was one of the most consistent ones for me that I’ve tested recently. How can you ignore results like that? Check out the Adams Golf Speedline Fast 12 fairway wood and see if Velocity Slot technology can work for you. You can find this fairway wood at local and online retails such as THP approved Blind9Golf.

T. Hanks

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