Adams Golf back in putter business with purchase of Yes! Golf

January 19 -- Adams Golf expanded its golf gear line with the purchase Tuesday of Yes! Golf in an online bankruptcy auction.

The $1.65 million acquisition (which includes adminstration costs) of Progear Holdings, which did business as Yes!, places Adams back in the short-stick business after earlier attempts to sell putters. 

“We have been looking for an attractive avenue into the putter market for some time and believe the Yes! Golf brand and technology platform provides us just such an opportunity,” Chip Brewer, Adams’ president and chief executive, said in a statement Wednesday night. “Yes! Golf provides Adams Golf compelling putter technology and a positive brand image, including ongoing tour usage based on the performance of the product alone. The Yes! Golf brand will likely benefit from the inclusion into our operational infrastructure and we intend for it to serve as a source of future growth for our company.”

The purchase, which includes Yes! Golf’s patented C-Groove putter technology, was a good move for Adams, according to Nick Green, a golf-industry analyst with MacDuff Consulting in Bethesda, Md.

“Adams would seem to have made a great deal,” Green told Waggle Room. “They don't have a putter in their current product line, they have terrific distribution, and have been on a roll with their equipment in the last few years.”

The timing of the acquisition should work in Adams’ favor as well. “With the PGA Merchandise Show next week and all of their customers in the same place at the same time, they really have an interesting story to tell and can capitalize quickly on the purchase,” Green noted. “The C-Groove is very cool and a proprietary technology. As long as they just stick with Yes! as putters to fill out there product portfolio, I think Adams stands a great chance of resurrecting the brand.”

Yes! Golf sales had fallen dramatically, from more than $10.2 million in 2007 to about $2.4 million last year, according to the Adams Golf statement. The purchase is subject to funding, which should occur within the next two business days.