Liquid refreshment

Liquidmetal Golf, a southern California company, is making an impact after being introduced last year.

By BOB HARIG

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2000

For the golfer of the new millennium, it is difficult to imagine playing the game with hickory shafts and wooden drivers.

Someday, maybe sooner rather than later, golfers could be reminiscing about their big-headed titanium clubs.

At least that is the hope of Liquidmetal Golf, a relatively new player in the golf industry that has taken the business of high-tech clubs to another level.

Introduced last year at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Liquidmetal is making a move in the industry because it has lowered the price of its drivers from $699 to $399.

That puts the product more in line with Callaway and its Big Bertha brand of drivers and woods. And Liquidmetal clearly hopes to be in that kind of company.

"The reason I use them is they are the market leader, they are such a dominant player in the market," said Shekhar Chitnis, president of Liquidmetal Golf, a southern California company. "We believe we'll replace titanium in the industry. They are the benchmark of where we want to be. I know they're concerned about us. And it kind of makes us feel good."

Chitnis also feels good about the strides the company has made this year. Its sales tripled from January to March and company officials believe it is because of word spreading about the technology.

Liquidmetal Golf has an impressive demonstration in which executives show three metal balls that are dropped from 1 foot onto striking plates. One is made of stainless steel, another of titanium and third one of Liquidmetal. The ball bounces on the steel for 19 seconds, on titanium for 22 seconds. It keeps going and going on the Liquidmetal -- for 1 minute, 20 seconds.

The simple explanation: a Liquidmetal golf club head absorbs less energy at impact, meaning more energy is transferred to the ball. This "pure energy" transfer allows the ball to maintain maximum flight on every shot. Impact shock is reduced, resulting in softer feel.

The technical explanation: the metal is an alloy of titanium, zirconium, copper, nickel and beryllium. Unlike other metals, following casting, Liquidmetal does not cool with atoms forming into crystals. Other metals have crystals that cool in different directions, creating imperfections. When Liquidmetal cools, it retains the same atomic structure as it possesses in a liquid state, preventing those imperfections.

According to Liquidmetal Golf, steel transfers about 60 percent of a swing's energy to the ball. Titanium transfers 70 percent of the force. Liquidmetal claims an energy transfer of 99 percent.

"They talk about pure energy transfer, but to me, the ball comes off the face and doesn't spin quite as dramatically," said Matt Auen, the head golf professional at the Bayou Club in Largo. Auen plays with the Liquidmetal driver.

"The ball flight is more of a boring flight. My tendency was I'd swing so hard, put so much spin on the ball and it would climb. I'd hit it a little bit too high. Because it comes off with a lower spin rate, it doesn't balloon up on me. And when I go to hit cuts and draws purposely, I control them a lot better. And what I really like about hitting a cut shot with that particular club ... I'm not losing any distance at all. Now I can control it better and not sacrifice distance."

Auen is not an average golfer, however. Most everyday players can't generate the club-head speed that a professional can muster. That's why the big-headed titanium drivers have become so popular. Not only are they lightweight, but their sweet spot is so big that a mis-hit -- which occurs frequently among average players -- still travels a healthy distance. And clubs such as the Callaway Big Bertha have been found to more accurate.

What Liquidmetal Golf is selling to the average player is the reduced spin rate. "As you spin less, the ball balloons less," Chitnis said. "When a ball is spinning, it gathers lift and starts going up into the air instead of cutting through the air. When it gets to the top of its flight, it drops straight down.

"The Holy Grail in golf is how do you cut the spin to make the ball drive through the air? As we went from persimmon to steel to titanium, people had to move from a 13-degree driver to 6 degrees, which is not the ideal launch angle. But ideally you want to have a higher loft. Because our club does not spin as much, you can have a higher loft. And that means the ball can stay up in the air longer, with more carry and longer roll."

Liquidmetal Golf bills itself as a science company that got into the golf business. The Liquidmetal alloy was discovered in the spring of 1992 at the California Institute of Technology and it was developed by William Johnson and Atakan Peker, who is the company's chief technical officer.

The concept earned recognition from Popular Science magazine under the listing of "best of what's new for 1998."

The company has also introduced irons, which retail for approximately $1,800, and a putter, which goes for $299. Although those prices are quite high (irons of other companies typically retail for less than $1,000, with putters going for $150 or less), the clubs have been selling. In the first full year of operation, Liquidmetal had more than $12-million in sales. "Even with those high prices, we had a good reception," Chitnis said.

Now the price has come down, and Liquidmetal has another thing going for it: The clubs have been deemed to be conforming to the rules of golf by the United States Golf Association.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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