Adams Idea Pro a12 irons

[Nate Gardner]

Does anyone have these irons and what do they think of them?

How have they held up over the time you have owned them?

Any input would be awesome.

 

[Sooner21]

I don't have them but have hit them a couple of different times. I think Adams whole line of irons right now is spectacular and these are no exception. I had a great swing going the first time I hit them and they were one of the best feeling irons I've hit in a long time. That same day I was also grooving the MB2's, but know I don't have the game to play either one of those irons consistently. I hit them 2 weeks ago again and was still hitting them well even though I didn't feel like I was putting my best swing on them. They didn't lose a whole lot of distance on mishits and for what they are I felt they were very forgiving. If your handicap is really a 7.1 I don't think you would have any problem with these at all. I really liked them, but at my handicap would benefit from the CB's more.

 

[Nate Gardner]

Thanks Sooner and i totally agree! I went through a fitting process and the tech put the a12 in my hands and I fell in love with it. I was hitting the 6 iron with 92 mph on average 190 yards. And the feel was amazing!!! I am coming from Taylormade Burner 1.0 stock stiff shaft and I have issues ballooning the ball. Even though they are great irons and they served their purpose over the last 2 years bringing my handicap from a 15 to a 7, I just feel I have out grown them. I was also testing the Titelist AP'2, Mizuno JPX800, and a Taylormade MC, but I felt they didn't have the same feel as a12. I was just wondering how they would wear over time considering I play at least 2 times a week. They are a beautiful club and I really love how they setup behind the ball. Just have so much confidence with them. I also love the fact the stock shaft is the KBS Tour.

 

[Sooner21]

Thanks Sooner and i totally agree! I went through a fitting process and the tech put the a12 in my hands and I fell in love with it. I was hitting the 6 iron with 92 mph on average 190 yards. And the feel was amazing!!! I am coming from Taylormade Burner 1.0 stock stiff shaft and I have issues ballooning the ball. Even though they are great irons and they served their purpose over the last 2 years bringing my handicap from a 15 to a 7, I just feel I have out grown them. I was also testing the Titelist AP'2, Mizuno JPX800, and a Taylormade MC, but I felt they didn't have the same feel as a12. I was just wondering how they would wear over time considering I play at least 2 times a week. They are a beautiful club and I really love how they setup behind the ball. Just have so much confidence with them. I also love the fact the stock shaft is the KBS Tour.

I agree about the shafts and the setup. I've hit the others you mentioned and thought the Adams was easily better than them all. I don't know anything about the wear, but based on performance I wouldn't let that factor into your decision. Give Adams a call and ask them some questions. I did about some clubs and they're very helpful.

 

[Nate Gardner]

I agree about the shafts and the setup. I've hit the others you mentioned and thought the Adams was easily better than them all. I don't know anything about the wear, but based on performance I wouldn't let that factor into your decision. Give Adams a call and ask them some questions. I did about some clubs and they're very helpful.

That's a great idea and I will have to do that. I agree that they felt the best and performed as well, if not better than the other irons I tested I just hope the purchase of Adams by Taylormade goes through soon. I am able to get a nice discount for Taylormade irons so hopefully that will carry over to Adams too!

 

[Bear4ever]

I have had my eye on these now for a few months. I was able to hit them at a Demo Day locally this past weekend. I also hit the AP2's, I20's, forged RAZr's and the TM forged Irons (I think the MC's). After this weekend I have ruled out the AP2's, RAZR's and the TM forged irons. I was surprised at the feel of the I20's and that they were "workable". Overall though I was most impressed with the Pro A12's. The feel was better than most and the aesthetic's was great throughout the set.
I didn't take the time to hit the other Titleist forged irons that were there and now wish that I had. My bad.
If I had to choose today, I'd buy the Adams Pro A12's. Another thing I like about the A12's is the camber of the sole. It has a slight relief on both the leading and trailing edges which creates a little bounce for the irons.

 

[BIGBALL]

I have some interesting feedback on these... I went to the new Golfsmith that just opened here, and was demoing the R11, Ping I20 and the Adams CB3 - looking to eventually replace my old, but very good, Adams 's A4's. Well, after demoing the R11 ( didn't like them, too light? ) and the Ping I20 ( very nice, but a bit short, feel wasn't quite what I thought it would be ) the guy tells me he doesn't have the CB3's. (Not real happy about that, but what can ya do!) So the guy comes back with an A12 6 iron with KBS stiff flex. I'm thinking there is no way I can hit these. I m a high handicap, but honestly that is mostly due to struggling off the tee, and some bouts with the putter. I still thought the A12's would be too much for me to handle. I proceed to hit 15 balls, and not one of them was under 175 yards or more than 5-10 yards off target. Felt so soft, even better than my A4's. So I guess you can bet what I'm mulling over now!

 

[Nate Gardner]

I have some interesting feedback on these... I went to the new Golfsmith that just opened here, and was demoing the R11, Ping I20 and the Adams CB3 - looking to eventually replace my old, but very good, Adams 's A4's. Well, after demoing the R11 ( didn't like them, too light? ) and the Ping I20 ( very nice, but a bit short, feel wasn't quite what I thought it would be ) the guy tells me he doesn't have the CB3's. (Not real happy about that, but what can ya do!) So the guy comes back with an A12 6 iron with KBS stiff flex. I'm thinking there is no way I can hit these. I m a high handicap, but honestly that is mostly due to struggling off the tee, and some bouts with the putter. I still thought the A12's would be too much for me to handle. I proceed to hit 15 balls, and not one of them was under 175 yards or more than 5-10 yards off target. Felt so soft, even better than my A4's. So I guess you can bet what I'm mulling over now!

I totally loved the feel of them myself!! I was hitting the ball really well too. Funny I was hitting them as far as my Burner's which have a longer shaft and are stronger. Plus I was more accurate!! Now just need to find a deal on them.

 

[Scrap Iron]

Adams is really bringing it in the irons. These are beauties

 

[Minarets]

I have some interesting feedback on these... I went to the new Golfsmith that just opened here, and was demoing the R11, Ping I20 and the Adams CB3 - looking to eventually replace my old, but very good, Adams 's A4's. Well, after demoing the R11 ( didn't like them, too light? ) and the Ping I20 ( very nice, but a bit short, feel wasn't quite what I thought it would be ) the guy tells me he doesn't have the CB3's. (Not real happy about that, but what can ya do!) So the guy comes back with an A12 6 iron with KBS stiff flex. I'm thinking there is no way I can hit these. I m a high handicap, but honestly that is mostly due to struggling off the tee, and some bouts with the putter. I still thought the A12's would be too much for me to handle. I proceed to hit 15 balls, and not one of them was under 175 yards or more than 5-10 yards off target. Felt so soft, even better than my A4's. So I guess you can bet what I'm mulling over now!

Brentwood or Chattanooga Golfsmith, perhaps?

 

[Nate Gardner]

Adams is really bringing it in the irons. These are beauties

I totally agree they are beautiful clubs and the feel is amazing. I really love how they come stock with the KBS Tour shaft and Golf Pride New Decade grips. I just really hope that Taylormade doesn't ruin the company.

 

[Joshzilla]

Buddy of mine plays these clubs and they are great. The finish is holding up well, too.

 

[Nate Gardner]

Buddy of mine plays these clubs and they are great. The finish is holding up well, too.

Well I pulled the trigger and bought these today! Got a great deal to boot!! I should have them by Friday!! So cant wait!

 

[pjcedog]

I was within an eyelash last month of buying a new set of these myself. Adams makes great clubs and these irons are really nice.

 

[Scrap Iron]

Well I pulled the trigger and bought these today! Got a great deal to boot!! I should have them by Friday!! So cant wait!

Full review please. I'm excited for you great buy

 

[B.Easy]

Don't worry about the finish at all. I have the cb1 3,4 iron and the finish is holding up great. I won my entire set of current Titleist stuff, but would have purchased Adams CB3's if it was my dime. FWIW

 

[Nate Gardner]

Full review please. I'm excited for you great buy

Will do Scrap Iron. I just got the tracking info and they are to be delivered today!! I am on my way to Palm Desert this weekend to play in tournament. When I get back next Monday I will write up a review.

 

[BIGBALL]

Full review please. I'm excited for you great buy

Well, I'm not Nate, and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I did just buy these on Saturday night and put them into play without breaking them in on the range first Sunday morning. Here is my mini-review!

Looks - Just a beautiful club. Really cool dark finish, actually really easy to see where my misses were on the club face. Noticed mine were a bit out on the toe, may go get them checked for lie, etc. Didn't get a chance to do that before I bought them, but I know a fitter that will do it for me relatively inexpensive. Since they are forged, any changes are pretty easy. Thin top line, and the cavity isn't very noticeable, if at all. The fact that they had the multi-compound white/black grips I already play was a bonus as well!


Feel / Forgiveness- flush shots feel awesome, just like my A4's. Most of my misses were thin, which I am fine with as most of the time misses for me are fat! it's going to take a couple rounds to nail these down, as I am going from graphite shafts to stiff steel KBS shafts. A tad bit heavier than my A4's ( at least it felt like it ) probably due to the steel shaft vs the graphite shafts. When I had these in my hands, just felt very confident like I could really go after the ball...The KBS shafts just seemed very smooth, even with my short, quick tempo and tendency to go after the ball.

Distance - we played in some pretty strong winds, so it is tough to make a totally fair comparison, but in general flush hits were about the same as my A4's. Think they fly a bit lower because of the shaft, ( but not a lot ) but they seem to still have no problems staying on the greens. Mis-hits were punished a bit more, and had a definite different feel. I like that as I like to know when I mis-hit a club...

Summary - I love them, and I expect them to get even better with some range time. The course we played was long, and played even longer because of the wind, so I honestly didn't have a ton of mid-iron shots. I'll post in better detail on a day when I can give a more definitive review. I bought them at Golsmith and got a 15% discount! I originally went to Dicks, and they wouldn't even match a competitor in the area ( Balto-Wash golf offered 10% off, but had to order them ), and the woman had such an attitude. I asked her about room to match pricing, and she kind of surly says "No, they are new." So I won't buy anything there anymore. I run a store, and if I treated a customer like that, or didn't try to match a price, I would probably be looking for another job. No excuse.

 

[Ratman2356]

Nice review Bigball. I have been looking for comparisons between the A4 irons and theses. There arer some out there but I gather there 3 or 4 different versions on the A4 and very few distinguish which set they are comparing too. I went to a mini demo day the other day looking for something point and shoot. I hit the JPX800, JPX800 Pro, MP53, Razr X, Razr X Black, CB3, Ai2 Pro, and the 712 AP1's. The Razr X Black and A12's were head and shoulders above the rest for me. Both had a nice trajectory, landed soft and good distance but most importantly, every shot with both were straight to a 5 yard fade. Funny thing is I didn't even ask to hit the A12's. I wanted to try the CB3 irons but they did not have one with a KBS Tour stiff in a 1/2" over and I was ballooning the Tour 90 shaft badly. The rep said hit this just to check out the shaft and man it was nice.

Now I was shopping for some very straight and long GI/SGI irons to see if they could help my consistency on approach shots over my PC's and blades. A12's hardly seem to fall into the GI line. They appear solidly PC to me but if I hit them that well on the course then I would have absolutely nothing to complain about. I heard they played a lot like the A4 and thought I might try a set of those if they are basically the same irons as they would be a lot cheaper. I don't know which A4 model to look at though.

 

[Nate Gardner]

Ok just got back from playing 3 rounds in 3 days in Palm Desert. The weather was incredible and so was the course. High 70's, low 80's with a slight breeze no more than 5 mph and dry conditions.

The looks of these clubs is just down right beautiful. The black color of these really make it easy to align the club behind the ball and give a lot of confidence to go after the ball. Also with them being black, it really cuts down on the glare. I love the thinner top line and the lack of cavity in most of the irons. You can really only notice the cavity on the 4 iron at set up. I love that after I hit a ball you can see exactly where you hit the ball. For me it was really easy to hit the ball in the sweet spot. Which leads me into distance. I can't really attest just yet on the durability of these clubs but they really cleaned up well after each round with just a bit of wear on the sole and the face. I love that since it adds character to the club.

These clubs really performed well. I came from the playing Taylormade Burner 1.0 irons with stock stiff shafts for the last 2 1/2 years. I had lots of issues with the ball ballooning on me and hence could not get exact distances down with each iron. For me it was always +/- 5 yards. These irons create a nice penetrating ball flight and create just the right amount of spin for me to be able to fire right at the pin. Every iron I hit into the green would hit and jump forward a foot (4, 5 iron) or would spin back 5 ft (9, PW, GW). It was nice to be able to throw darts at pins! As far as distance goes I lost about 5 yards with each iron but that is not bad since the Burners play a club stronger. IE a TM Burner 6 iron has the same loft as a 5 iron in the A12's. But losing 5 yards I feel is actually pretty good since the shafts are also a 1/2" or more shorter than the TM Burner iron. One thing that I really loved is that I knew the exact distance that each club would perform to on a well struck shot. Another great attribute to the club was my shot dispersion was pretty tight. I hit a nice 5 yard draw with A12's that I could count on time and time again. And on that note I was actually able to work the ball as needed when I hit an errant tee shot. No I wasn't able to hit a PW 165 yards and draw it 40 yards like Bubba (which was absolutely amazing!), but I was able to hit a nice high fade that landed really soft on the front of a green and another time I hit a nice stinger that drew 20 yards underneath a tree branch and left me with a nice 90 yard 3/4 GW into a green. Also these clubs cut through the rough and turf like a hot knife through butter. I had no problems with these clubs digging at all. Each has a nice bounce to them but too much bounce to make them uncontrollable. Just the perfect amount of each!

As far as feel goes, the A12's feel like absolute butter when struck well. I am a decent ball striker and my natural miss is towards the heel of the club. There was no harsh feeling at all. With my 6 iron, I average 92-93 mph with a somewhat quick tempo. I really love the stock KBS Tour stiff shafts and they just feel really smooth with my swing. I did on purpose, on the range after a round, hit one off the toe to see how that would feel. I definitively knew I did not hit the ball on the sweet spot, but in no way I felt a sting in my hands like I have with other forged irons. Plus the distance loss was only about 5 or so yards. The nice thing was the ball still flew pretty straight towards the target. I know many people are fans of the Golf Pride New Decade and that is awesome that they include those as their standard grip. I don't wear a glove and prefer a midsize grip, so I removed these in favor of my grips that I have fallen in love with over the last 2 years. Tacki-Mac Itomic it2 midsize is my preference. That is an awesome attribute of Adams to combine a great shaft with a great grip to a great head creating a fabulous club. Most other companies would offer and up-charge to add either of those components to their clubs.

Overall I could not be happier with these clubs and I would recommend them to anyone looking to step up to a forged club. I was between these, Titleist 712 AP's, Mizuno JPX800 Pro, Callaway Razer X, Ping i20's, Taylormade MC and the Adams CB3. I spent 2 hours with the help of a buddy that is starting up a mobile fitting van company on the range and I thought I really had my mind set on the JPX800 Pro and the AP's. That is until my buddy put this a12 Pro's in my hands. First shot with a 6 iron, caught is right in the sweet spot, ball flew with a nice penetrating ball flight 185 yard with a 5 yard draw. I was sold!! We kept trying different clubs and I kept coming back to the a12's!! I know people think of Adams as Super Game Improvement golf type of company for senior and female golfers and I must admit I thought the same. I knew they made incredible hybrids and very nice drivers, but I thought that their irons were for people that needed that super game improvement. I must say after hitting the a12's they have changed my mind entirely!!! And price of these clubs makes them VERY competitive!! Glad I saved $300 over my next favorite club the AP's. I just hope with the upcoming purchase of Adams Golf by Taylormade, that Taylormade doesn't ruin Adams Golf.

I hope this helps people in their decision if they are in the market for a new set of irons. I would not pass up giving Adams Golf a solid look!

Hit em straight and long all!

 

[milo]

Well I pulled the trigger and bought these today! Got a great deal to boot!! I should have them by Friday!! So cant wait!

Great buy I almost pulled the trigger on a set.
Nice review.

 

[TC]

Nice write up!! Nothing better than breaking in new sticks at a weekend like that. The only thing that would make your post better would be some eye candy!! Give us some pics! :clap:

 

[Scrap Iron]

Great review guys. Love that they are working so well and the Taci-mac's man I am drooling thinking of your bag. Simply awsome and I agree with how many great irons Adams has been coming out with over the past couple of years I hope TM doesn't damage the progress they have made. Keep Firing darts

 

[Nate Gardner]

Nice write up!! Nothing better than breaking in new sticks at a weekend like that. The only thing that would make your post better would be some eye candy!! Give us some pics! :clap:

I will try to get some pictures of these great looking clubs.

 

[BIGBALL]

4/13 update

Played after work on a local muni course that wasn't in very good shape. Still struggling with hitting these clubs "thin." When I do catch one flush, no better feeling in the world, but that just is happening far too infrequently. Starting to think maybe I bit off more than I can chew with these. Could be the shafts are just too stiff ( but I hit the 6 iron on the monitor when I bought these at Golfsmith and I was flushing them? ) I have the Golfsmith 30 day playability thing, so I'm probably going to give them another shot Sunday on a much better course with much better turf and see what happens. If i was stuggling with my previous set of irons, I would be more inclined to think my swing was out of whack, but I wasn't. I have noticed that I tend to catch these irons more out towards the toe for some reason. If it doesn't improve, probably get fitted and go with the CB3's. I really want these to work, as they are just a beautiful set of irons, but function obviously has to go before looks!