The ModGolf Podcast: If You Don't Love It Don't Do It
(August 15, 2024) - In this episode of The ModGolf Podcast, show creator and host, Colin Weston, speaks with golf industry icon and entrepreneurial legend Barney Adams.
Adams shares the trials, tribulations and successes he has encountered over his career that spans more than five decades. This episodes provides you with lessons learned, key takeaways and nuggets of wisdom from one of golf's most successful entrepreneurs.
"In my mind, you don't design golf clubs, you design clubs for hitting a particular shot..."
- Barney Adams, Founder of Adams Golf Tight Lies Fairway Woods and CEO, Breakthrough Golf Technology
"I had made the decision: 'I'm all in!' We inherited desks with the company purchase and we owned this metal building in a field. So I grabbed a desk, opened the lower left-hand drawer and it was full of paper. The top page was a Demand Notice and it turned out that the employees had not paid any bills and had squandered all the income. Not only did I not have the money I thought I had to get started, I was six figures in the hole at 5:30 in the morning. That was my opening day.
And I tell people that story because if you're not a nut case, passionate, over the top, you've got no chance. Then I thought "okay, how do we get a handle on this?" I'm going to write a letter to the people I owe money to tell them what happened and that I'm going to pay them but just not now. That was the first week of starting my own business."
- Barney Adams, Founder of Adams Golf and CEO, Breakthrough Golf Technology
A Bit About Barney
Barney started Adams Golf in 1988. He specialized in custom fitted golf clubs. The company rapidly expanded after the explosive success of the Tight Lies Fairway Woods. Adams Golf was selected as Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. Barney also received the Ernie Sabayrac Award for lifetime contribution to the golf industry by the PGA of America. Barney served as Chairman of the Board of Adams Golf until June 2012 when TaylorMade purchased the company.
He is an avid golfer and fisherman and active with two charities, The Ryan Foundation and Folds of Honor. Adams' book, The WOW Factor, is an insiders look at the golf industry and offers business advice to entrepreneurs.
Barney has always had the unique ability to see what is missing in golf equipment. He started Breakthrough Golf Technology after seeing that no significant innovation has been made with putter shafts for decades.