The Element 21 Golf Company has unveiled its new Scandium Driver, which is made of scandium, an advanced metal alloy originally developed for applications in aeronautics.
Scandium is 55 percent lighter and 25 percent stronger than the titanium alloys used in many current drivers, company officials said, and the weight advantage increases to 75 percent when compared to stainless steel.
That improved strength-to-weight ratio allowed the Element 21 engineers to move more weight from the face to the perimeter and back of the club, resulting in what company officials call the largest sweet spot of any driver on the market.
The Scandium Driver contains a unique design featuring a louvered effect on the crown plate of the club. This creates a corrugated effect, officials said, providing additional strength to the club head. As with any object moving at high speed, they explained, louvers help stabilize the club during the swing.
Because the club head is so big and both the head and shaft are made of the same scandium alloy, officials said, energy passes from the head to the shaft at the same frequency.
This helps create greater control and repeatability, officials said, making for more consistent shots, both those hit correctly and those hit offline. The club head also creates less ball spin at the point of impact for greater distance.
The scandium metal alloy shafts are superior in every respect to graphite and stainless steel shafts, officials said. Scandium's inherent metallurgical properties, combined with a proprietary 25-step seamless production process, results in a shaft that is nearly perfectly symmetrical.
In addition, E21's proprietary new ShockBlok technology redirects the vibration created at contact back into the golf ball and away from the player's hands.
The new drivers are available at golf shops nationwide, with a suggested retail price of $599.
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