golden boy vs adult male

golden boy and adult male both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
golden boy	Yes	No	No	No
adult male	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, adult male is a hypernym of golden boy; that is, adult male is a word with a broader meaning than golden boy:

Other hypernyms of golden boy include man.

golden boy (noun)	adult male (noun)
a man who is unusually successful at an early age	an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)