Titanium Forum
Titanium general => Titanium products => Topic started by: Tiarticle on 24 July 2017, 17:14:46
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The titanium golf club. Everyone has one, from the top pros at the US Open to the average guy at the local driving range. How shameful would it be to rock up to the company's annual golf outing without a titanium driver or hybrid?
What's so special about a titanium golf club anyway? Well, let's stop right there and clarify that term first. An actual golf club consists of three components, the head, the shaft and the grip. The grip, the part you hold, is usually made of rubber, the shaft is the long stick, can be carbon fiber composite often just called "carbon" or "graphite". The head, the meaty, bulbous part that actually addresses the ball, on a driver, tends these days to be overwhelmingly made from titanium alloys, typically Ti-6Al-4V, our trusted friend and workhorse alloy of the titanium world. The face is almost always Ti-6-4 but other titanium alloys can also be used on the head housing (which itself consists of a heel, toe, crown and hosel - that's the part that the shaft attaches to). SP700, an alloy which is capable of superplasticity at 700°C, has also been used* amongst other alloys. The face plate is usually forged or can be cast and heat treated and these days, manufacturers can make them very affordably by using non-aerospace grades and sourcing materials melted in China, although the more snobby players tend to like the caché of using "aerospace grade titanium".
Almost all of the golf OEMs now have a titanium driver which though not cheap, is easy for most average people to get into, from about $350-500. There's no excuse not to have one and as more people take up golf, especially in Asia, the demand for titanium golf clubs is not diminishing. How it transforms you from an absolutely average player to something quite good is again, due to its strength-to-weight ratio over traditional materials like steel (or wood!). The lower density means that the entire club is easier to swing and a bigger "sweet spot" combined with the strength of titanium on the face plate, can propel the ball much further than a non-titanium club. From the late 70's to early 80's when titanium golf club heads were first introduced, we have seen the driver head volume increase by 3 times (from 140 cc to 460cc) along with increased flight distances from about 200 yards to 260 yards. Very useful for reducing your par! We mustn't forget that concurrent developments in ball technology also plays a part in achieving greater tee-off distances. One thing to note though, golf balls are NOT, repeat NOT, made out of titanium. If you see the word "titanium" printed on a golf ball, it's referring to the TiO2 pigment (i.e. paint). Trust me, if it really was titanium, you'd be diving into that bunker to retrieve it, as it'd be way more expensive than regular ones!
*Footnote: Once again, there's probably an "overengineered" statement following that application! It is doubtful that anyone will ever play golf at 700°C and even if they did, nobody would would appreciate their golf club head deforming superplastically when they try to hit the ball!
Writing: Eliana Fu