REVIEW: Adams Golf Red hybrid
Equipment

REVIEW: Adams Golf Red hybrid

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When you stand over your hybrid, it probably reminds you more of a fairway wood than a long iron. That's by design.

If you're hitting it from the fairway, a hybrid is supposed to help you get the ball airborn faster and fly it further with the added air and extra muscle behind the ball.

If you're pulling hybrid from the rough, distance matters, but the idea is to get the club through the longer grass and toward the target without twisting it off-line.

However, it's hard to work the modern, oversized hybrid. For a better player, that diminshes the usefulness of the club. So, Adams Golf created a new vision of the hybrid -- one that more resembles an iron than a wood both in terms of aesthetics and workability. That's Adams' Red.

RELATED: Order Adams Golf Red hybrids from Golfsmith

I first put Red in the bag at Delaire C.C. in Boca Raton, Fla. as part of a private event with staffer Bernhard Langer. As soon as I took off the headcover, I was drawn to the smaller profile. At just 95 cc, it was way more compact than the previous Adams hybrids I've carried (coincidentally, the only make I've ever carried). All of a sudden, the idea of working my hybrid in both directions was a realistic possibility.

After a couple dozen balls with Red on the range, it seemed clear the club would launch a smidge lower than my prior hybrids, but I could play with any of the three movable weights (1 25g, 2 2g) that come with the club to adjust bias and launch angle.

Out on the course, Red performs beautifully. It gets through the wind -- and it was blowing hard in Boca Raton and a subsequent round at my home club in Maryland -- very well and doesn't balloon. I could turn it down or up and move the ball as I needed. I could tee off with it and get solid roll because of the lower launch. It's basically a safer 3-iron instead of a weaker 5-wood.

Perhaps the moment Red clinched a spot in my bag this season, however, was standing over a 230-yard, uphill shot into the wind at the par-5 third at my local club. With confidence, I pulled out Red, turned it down just slightly and smashed it up onto the green. I'm looking forward to more par-5-blasting shots like that one all year long.

Red is available on April 17 in 5 different lofts (16-, 18-, 20-, 23- and 26-degree options) for a MSRP of $229.

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is the founder, owner and operator of Golf News Net.

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