My Adams Tight Lies Background
I firmly believe that the original Adams Tight Lies is one of the most important pieces of golf equipment in the modern era. It wasn’t full of bells and whistles like clubs are today, but it was a fascinating design that really worked well and had a great marketing campaign behind it. Over summer breaks in grade school, it was almost a ritual to make sure I got up in time to sit down and watch the same four golf infomercials every day on what was then “Sports Channel” (shout out Jim Blaney). Those four infomercials, not in this order, were the Orlimar TriMetal, the Carbite putter, the PureSpin Diamond wedge (or something similar), and of course…the Adams Tight Lies.
That Tight Lies infomercial was the best of all of them. It was the exact same every day, but I watched every minute anyway. Golfers of all skill levels just cranking missiles. Stuck in an old divot or on a cart path? No problem for the Tight Lies whatsoever. The thing was, you only saw them on TV and occasionally in someone’s bag at a golf course. Zero shops of any kind carried them. Then the infomercial must have really caught fire, because the Tight Lies started showing up at Golfsmith and selling like crazy. Finally after enough nagging and my parents knowing my love for the Adams infomercial, they bought me my own!
I actually hit that Tight Lies REALLY well. It was the best club in my bag by a mile and everything about the snake oil pitched in the infomercial seemed 100% true. The club was legitimately SO good. Well, technology continued to evolve, new clubs came out and my Tight Lies was relegated to the back of the garage after years of wonderful service and battle scars. Then literally two decades later, I allowed it to get sold in a garage sale. HUGE mistake…
The Idea & Hunt
As documented fairly well on this site, I’m always buying vintage golf clubs going as far back as the 1920s. Trying to find great deals on classics that capture key periods in golf’s history. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks one night. “How the hell do I not have an original Tight Lies in my archives?!” The truth is, I never should have let mine go. We’d been through so many adventures together. That’s me above teeing off with it on 18 at Harbor Town when I was like 12 or 13!
So one night while I was laying in bed, I was scanning through ebay and there were a TON of them in varying conditions at a wide range of price points. A lot of junk not even worth the mere $14 shipped, but it became clear finding a twenty year-old club in decent shape for less than $30 would be no problem. But I also realized I needed to put some real time in to find all of the right combinations. As good of condition as possible, the original graphite shaft, roughly the right era (that’s a veteran insight), correct loft, and the right price. So I put my phone down knowing I had to take the hunt more serious and slept on it.
Final Thoughts – Adams Tight Lies
Finally, after about a week of ebay scouring, saving different listings to ‘My ebay’, and making offers, I finally found the one. I put a reasonable offer in and it was accepted within an hour and a half. I was more excited than I’d been for any golf club in recent history. About three days later, my “new” Tight Lies was at my house. The condition was way better than my old one was, had the stock shaft in regular flex (like my original), and all it needs is a new grip to replace the crusty stock one. That I can live with replacing.
I doubt I’ll do much with it other than talk about having the club and showing it off from time to time so I can talk about how great of a golf club it was. But who knows, maybe it’ll come to the range or course a time or two for nostalgia’s sake. Regardless, it brought back a ton of memory’s from the past. It’s funny how a golf club can do that. It’s just a thing you hit a little ball around a field with, right? For me, they’ll always be much more than that.
Bill, you should try the new one… one word (even before a shaft change)- wow.
Would love to. I wonder if it’s as good off of cart paths as the original one was in the infomercial?
Have not tried it off the path (yet!), but I bought it on a whim thinking it end up in the kids bag and immediately put in my bag (5 wood- haven’t played a 5 in years). The stock synergy shaft is nice, just too light for me, replaced with PX blue rdx 70 S and now a great tool in the bag! Played a few rounds and have been nothing but impressed. Again, no paths, but out of some pretty ugly, well- tight lies! Should also note- I still game an Adams pro hybrid 23 in a PX rdx hy 80 as well.. I think Adams is the only infomercial I actually miss watching by the way. Cheers- Dave
What is the original club worth
Not much really. Depends on condition mostly, but if you pay more than $40, that would be crazy.
Thank you for sharing. I did the same thing a few days ago and found a used one that I can’t wait to receive. 16 degree air assault with a regular shaft.
In 1998 a guy talked me into buying a knock off Tight Lies he was making and selling. It’s played like a 5 wood for me and its been a work horse and remains in my bag getting regular play to this day. I bought a real Tight Lies Strong 3 (13 degree) a year or so after that and though I never used it as much as that work horse, I still have it and will probably take it to my next range session.
I’m curious (but not highly knowledgable about golf club technology) – If the Tight Lies was revolutionary and you had great success with it, why is it now obsolete and only worth having as a conversation piece and not a working club in your bag? Thanks
It was a great club, but the technology in heads and shafts has evolved a ton since then. So more modern clubs are more forgiving, easier to hit, longer, and feel better.
Of course, if someone else plays the old Tight Lies better, more power to them having them in the bag!
I have an original 26 degree 7 and a 16 degree (3) and I love them. The 7 hits lands perfect at 200 yards, and the 16 degree lands at 235. Love these clubs.
I have a new problem where if I see one at a Goodwill, 1996-1998 me just can’t leave it behind. OG Tight Lies and Orlimar Trimetals. Amassing an unreasonably and unnecessarily large collection of them.
Dude, great story! I still have my 3+ and 5+ tight lies from when I played on the high school team in the late ‘90s. I had forgotten about the infomercials, but I bet they were a big reason I wanted to use them too. They really were/are great clubs as long as you’re not in a lie where you may swing under the ball. Thanks for the story!
I was choosing between an Orlimar Trimetal 11° and an Adam’s Strong 3 for a sim outing tonight. Ended up with a Tight Lies Strong 3 AND 5!
bill..any idea what the grip size would be for thse orginal 1998 tight lies with the factory graphite shaft..58..60? cheers…just bought three clubs since reading your article..blog..
Don’t know for sure, but I’d feel comfortable throwing a .58 on it. I think.
Your post is gratifying to read. I’m a lefty in my mid 60’s who has never been able to get on the green in regulation, so bogey golf is my game. A buddy gave me an original tight lies 7 wood, and the height and distance are really incredible, much more so than my hybrids. I’ve been on in two on several par 4’s of late, and am encouraged by the results. Landing high and soft from 150 to 160 yards has been sorely lacking in my game. Currently, I’m cleaning up several 13, 16 and 19 degree original tight lies to take to the driving range and determine if they can replace my generic 3 & 5 woods, since I can’t get those off the ground either. I’m glad a new generation is re discovering technology that still works.
Mine were a Christmas present in 1999, from the fellow I worked for at the time. Not the real deal, but knockoffs he built from scratch, which was his hobby. When I started getting serious about the game last year, I tried to replace them with Ping G425 2 and 3 hybrids, but just didn’t hit them as well. Had the original grips replaced with Golf Pride Tour Velvets and the old pair are back in the bag and going strong. Built a bag for my son and, of course, found a good pair of authentic originals for his fairway woods.
I was just talking to someone the other day about how the era of late 90s knock-off brands was fantastic and wildly underrated. I remember standalone stores thriving for years selling nothing but random no-name versions of the hottest clubs and custom builds with them. So good.
Does Adam Tight Lies Air Assault have other lofts other than 16* 3 Wood? I don’t want the Strong versions.
Are the “strong” versions just relative? They have a massive range of loft options, they just might be labeled “strong”. For instance, they have a Strong 9 that’s 28º. Or do you mean 3 wood specifically and somewhere in the 15º range? If so, no, I don’t believe they do.
Historically, I had never really been able to hit fairway woods. Truth is, as a younger golfer, I could usually muscle a 3 iron a good distance. Well, I am older now and have found hybrids to be a blessing. But before hybrids was the Adams Tight Lies. No “lies” here….but about 10 years ago, I found a Strong 5 Wood in a trash pile and threw it in my bag. I absolutely love that thing and can rip it 200-225 consistently. It is definitely my go to for my second shot on long 4’s and 5’s…and it was FREE!
I also sold my Adams Tight Lies at a garage sale and have lived to regret it. However, I just purchased one on eBay that is unhit and mint. Can’t wait to be reunited with that golf club.
Bill,
Great article. I thought I was the only one scouring eBay for nostalgic clubs from my youth. My collection is getting a bit too big and my wife and friends don’t understand it but looking at and holding the clubs takes me on a journey in the way back machine. Oh what a feeling. I’ve always felt that Adams clubs were way ahead of their time. Thanks for the great article.
It’s gotten so out of control for me that I had to build a club rack in my garage.
Bill, when I was a beginner back in 1996, I bagged all of the clubs you mentioned – the Orlimar (with the original bi-matrix shaft), the perfect spin wedge, the original “Alien” (which you didn’t mention, but I’d bet you remember that infomercial as well), and my favorite, the Tight Lies 16 degree (I also have the “7 wood”.
The only ones I still have are the Tight Lies clubs, the “Orly”, and the Alien. Something about those clubs makes it impossible for me to get rid of them, although I don’t play any of them (my Orlimar driver head is 6 degrees!). If I put any of them back in my bag it would be the 16 degree Tight Lies because it was always so easy to hit.
Great article!
Don’t worry, I have a whole stash of different Alien clubs awaiting posts! But my dad had a knockoff Alien wedge, the Acclaim so I’m most nostalgically partial to that one…of which I have a few. Stay tuned!