Equipment Review:
Adams Golf Idea a3OS Boxer Hybrid
by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, LondonOntarioGolf.com

Adams Golf has built a solid reputation for offering some of the very best hybrids in the game of golf. We’ve raved here about previous offerings, including the player’s club Idea Pro Hybrid, and the Idea a2OS Hybrid clubs.

This time around, Adams Golf delivers with a bang – rather, with a sharp uppercut left and a stinging right jab – with its new Idea a3OS Boxer Hybrid. In fact, when you hit the pill with this tiny but mighty club, there ought to be a stewardess on the ball. Without a doubt, this is Adams Golf’s best hybrid club, and one of the best hybrids to ever hit the market.

The new a3 Boxer Hybrid is part of the Idea a3OS Hybrid Iron set, and of course can be purchased on its own. The club’s name, naturally, arrives through Adams’s Boxer Technology, the latest breakthrough in hybrid shaping. Following the popular “Hip to be Square” thinking in today’s club manufacturing, the Boxer Hybrid offers a rectangular-shaped sole, with an extended top line. 

According to Adams Golf president and CEO, Chip Brewer, “We answered the challenge of making this new hybrid iron set outperform the previous version, Idea a2OS, as well as making it the easiest set of irons to hit on the market.”

It says here, Adams Golf has passed that test with flying colours – rather, golf balls which rocket off the face of this high-performance yet easy-to-hit hybrid. Here’s the skinny on the Boxer Hybrids. A category-leading MOI of 3350 offers easy-to-hit shots from any lie. How forgiving are these clubs? I tested both the 19-degree 3 Boxer and 22-degree 4 Boxer from every lie imaginable, and never once faced a shot I couldn’t pull off with ease. These clubs may be the ultimate in forgiveness, but as a near-scratch golfer, I would have no problem putting one of these trusty performers in my bag. What they lack in playability they more than make up for in overall performance. And after all, isn’t a hybrid club really a rescue club? Precisely.

The Boxer Hybrid actually delivers an MOI which is 30- to 70-per-cent higher than the leading hybrid clubs, according to Adams. This includes TaylorMade, Callaway and Cobra. A low and deep centre of gravity makes getting the ball airborne a piece of cake. A maraging steel pull-face is designed for a highest trajectory, and it delivers. The milled face grooves really do offer accuracy, too – they instill confidence on every shot. A cambered sole design cuts through the nastiest of rough, too.

Want more? The a3OS Boxer Hybrids we tested include the Grafalloy ProLaunch Platinum graphite shafts - explosive in their own right. Top it off with an Adams Traction Tour Velvet grip, and you have one of the very best hybrid clubs ever made.

Adams gets every part of these new hybrids right. Consider the shafts. While the 3-iron replacement has a 40-in. shaft, and 4-iron replacement a 39.25-in shaft, the 2 Boxer shaft is longer at 40.75 in. and 5 Boxer just 38.5 in. A proper shaft length in a hybrid club is imperative to solid shotmaking. There are also Idea a3OS Senior and Women’s sets, too.

Suggested retail price for the men’s a3OS set is $799 graphite, $699 steel. Read all about the new Adams Golf Boxer Technology and the company’s terrific new hybrid offerings at www.adamsgolf.com.