A Space Age Technology Breakthrough

Filed in archive Golf Equipment on February 11, 2007

Courtesy: Element 21/NASA

There appears to be another revolution occurring in golf equipment.

First, steel shafts gave way to graphite and we began to appreciate the lightness, strength and improved kick points of graphite shafts.

Then titanium became the metal of choice for woods, especially the big drivers.

Even golf balls provide the amateur golfer with greater distance than ever these days.

But a Canadian company, Element 21 Golf, is taking everything just a little further uptown.

This company was in the news last November when a Russian cosmonaut hit a golf ball from a platform aboard the International Space Station using a gold plated club made by the firm.

That ball, which is actually a satellite, is still going and you can track it at this site. Talk about a long drive.

The company won an award for the best PR campaign of 2006. How do you top a drive from the International Space Station? It's pure genius from a public relations point of view and garnered worldwide TV coverage as a result.

Anyway, if you can recall your high school science (I can't), you will remember that element 21 on the Periodic Table is a metal called Scandium. It's just above Titanium and it's a metal being used on the Space Station itself.

Element 21 Golf is now making shafts and irons out of scandium for which they have the exclusive worldwide manufacturing rights.

The company says its scandium clubheads and shafts are 55 percent lighter than titanium and have a greater strength-to-weight advantage over titanium.

This, says the company, allows them to move more weight to the perimeter of the clubface on woods and hybrids, resulting in a bigger sweet spot on the face of the club and absolutely flawless feel when striking the golf ball.

Apparently, a number of PGA pros are quietly using E21's scandium shafts and clubs on tour WITHOUT endorsement. In other words, they're not being paid to use them.

These clubs won't be cheap when they go on sale next month. However, the company's website is offering a half price deal to encourage amateurs to try them out.

The company says it wants to use the feedback from its amateur customers to plan future golf products. It's a kind of Web 2.0 of golf equipment.

This could be a fascinating development in golf technology. And let me just add that their website is one of the most extraordinary I've ever seen from a golf equipment manufacturer.

You have to see it to believe it.