Anniversary Of A Revolution

All ears, I listened intently to the founder of TaylorMade Golf, Gary Adams, as he recited the insistent words: “Go back.”

He was discussing his own near-death experience. I felt I was in the presence of an evangelist. I sensed he was getting ready to deliver a sermon. In this life-and-death drama, he aimed the words in my direction. Nobody else was in the room. I interpreted this as a message. It was my responsibility to tell his story.

Adams was living in Carlsbad, Calif., at the time. He had been dreadfully sick and was trying to map his future when he received his “go back” mandate. It was the early 1990s.

Writers are supposed to be keen observers, although nothing like this had ever happened to me. I felt shaken.

Gary Adams Photo courtesy of TaylorMade

Regardless, this was Gary Adams, the father of the golf metalwood, a man of uncommon occurrences. “It was like a shoe box with a bright light in the far end,” he recounted. “There was a deep voice. It told me to go back. Somehow I was able to leave the box.”

There...