Hey everyone – thanks for stopping by. I was able to test out the Adams 9088 UL driver this weekend, and took some time to pull together a review to share. I’ve been anxious to hit this new driver by Adams, and it didn’t let me down. Enjoy!
The Club:
I was hitting a 10.5 Adams UL 9088 driver with a Matrix Radix HD 4.1 stiff shaft. This new driver by Adams hides the 460 CC well, and features an ultra-light (UL) design which weighs in at a mere 290 grams. This club also features a D0 swing weight, which is quite unique among lightweight drivers.
Looks:
Alright, I can’t start this review without mentioning that this club looks hot. The blue Matrix shaft coupled with the dark clubhead look fantastic. The clubhead frames up well against the ball, but appears slightly closed at address (for me as a natural drawer of the ball, I’d prefer a squarer face). The bulge and roll on this face was quite predominant – moreso on this club than others I’ve tested. When I get into the nitty gritty details – the notches on the crown are a nice touch, but to be honest – I barely noticed them. The muted grey sole looks great, the crown on the other hand seemed to have one too many layers of gloss (or perhaps it was just unusually sunny day).
Performance:
Alight – now we get to the fun stuff. The Adams 9088 UL performed admirably, but I was not shocked or amazed by any means on the range. The club felt great when struck solidly, a little “tinny” sounding (which is not my particular taste), but nevertheless pretty good. I noticed a distinct difference in the feeling of solid hits to off-center ones – this may scare away higher-handicaps. My average swing speed was around 106 MPH, which is a little higher than normal, ball speed around 160 MPH. In the distance department, I was pretty normal, hitting the ball around 290-300 yards. The club is incredibly consistent however, especially with trajectory and distance – which was a nice change from my usual, a Callaway FT-3 which I’m having a hard time replacing. My trajectory hovered around 12 degrees with spin numbers in the range of 3300RPM. This driver was quite workable, and responded well when jumped on. I noticed with this driver that hitting the ball higher on the face produced a significantly higher, boring ball flight, which really was a nice change from my usual lower ball flight. Compared to other lightweight drivers the Adams UL felt a little “head-heavy” – too much for my taste.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to driver technology – Adams is leading edge. Their clubs consistently perform at the highest levels and the 9088 UL is no slouch. With that said, there was something about this driver that just felt off. Whether it was the unique swingweight at D0 or the Matrix 4.1 shaft – I’m not sure. I would have loved for this driver to allow for interchangeable shafts (let alone more shaft options), so a player could test multiple shafts quickly and easily. At a pricetag of only $299 MSRP, this club packs an impressive combo punch of technology and value that should not go overlooked for anyone in the driver market.