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NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Some professional golfers are hoping to upgrade their equipment to the latest technology as soon as it is available, but others go to whatever lengths necessary not to change a thing.
At 45, Chad Campbell isn’t eager to switch things up. The former Adams Golf staff member helped design the Idea Black CC1 irons 10 years ago, and he has been playing them ever since. The club features an offset head with a thick top line and shorter heel-to-toe length, a style rarely seen among current iron designs.
“That’s what I like to look at, and they’re hard to find out here right now, especially with the offset,” Campbell told PGATour.com. “Offset has kind of gone to the wayside. It’s an old-school kind of thing.”
The four-time PGA Tour winner would love to play the irons for as long as he can, but he is in a race against time. Adams Golf released only 45 sets of the irons to the public, and because the company was purchased by TaylorMade in 2012, it no longer makes golf clubs.
Campbell received a handful of sets when the iron was first designed, but he is down to his last couple of sets and recently went on eBay to buy a set of the Idea Black CC1s just in case his others wear out.
“I’ll run out some time, but we’ll see,” Campbell said. “I’ll find something out there eventually. I’m not too worried about it for now.”
The scarcity of a particular type of irons isn’t necessarily a rare problem. Tommy Fleetwood stuck with Nike VR Pro Blade irons despite the company leaving the hard-goods industry in 2016, a decision that left him in a bind when he needed new irons. He offered to buy the clubs from Paul Casey before ultimately choosing a mix of Srixon Z785 and TaylorMade P7TW irons.
A unique part of Campbell’s dilemma, however, is that he played a critical role in making the Idea Black CC1 irons. Adams Golf reps spent several months on the range with Campbell to make the exact club he wanted.
“Some guys will take a new iron and just try to make it work, but Chad is very particular,” said Justin Honea, the director for product development for Adams Golf at the time. “He’s like Bernhard Langer. He knew exactly what he wanted.”
For now, Campbell will continue for as long as he can with the irons. He recently finished T9 in the Houston Open, his first top-10 in more than a year.
Sean Fairholm