I followed golf closely during Liquidmetal’s golf hey day, and I do not recall Davis Love playing them. Liquidmetal did, however, endorse Paul Azinger and an LPGA pro one year. I recall Azinger crushing his drives at the Mercedes Tournament of Champions in Hawaii (which is the opening tournament of each new golf year) that year. I also vividly recall the announcer in disbelief, because, as he said of Azinger, that he was driving the ball “substantially as long as Tiger!” <quote/end quote> It was great press! However, the PGA and Royal and Ancient decided to investigate more closely and crack down on clubs that exceeded COR (coefficient of restitution). And Liquidmetal FAR exceeded COR...end of story!
I do not recall if Azinger had any issues with the club. However, my own brother, Jack, did. He bought two drivers (upon my hearty recommendation), and the face inserts on both of them came loose and popped off. He said the alloy inserts did not crack, but came loose from the titanium shell. A simple design flaw. I, on the other hand, have owned about six drivers and have never had the first issue with any of them. Why six? Well, I golfed with pretty decent golfers at the time (as I used to have a single-digit handicap). And after they watched me hitting the ball very long...scary long sometimes (I always replaced the stock shaft with a regular-flex Grafalloy shaft). Some of them asked if they could hit it, only to watch their drives propel well past the drives with their own clubs. They would then offer me a lot of money, and even whole sets of irons AND money for that very driver. Why not just buy one themselves? Because golfers are superstitious—when they find it, they buy it right then. So, I would just buy another one and put my own shaft on it again—I’m not nearly as superstitious. My irons hit about a club and a half longer than my Nike Pro Forged blades...I’ll take that any day. I currently own the Professor Johnson model 9-degree driver with firm-flex Liquidmetal shaft (haven’t replaced it yet), 15-degree 3-wood, 3 through PW, FA-1 and FA-2 putters...all housed within the leather Liquidmetal golf bag...yeah, I’m still a fanatic!
Watts and I attended a shareholders meeting back in ‘11 or ‘12 (don’t remember...Watts?), and I gave Steipp and Otis positive feedback on the clubs, based on my personal experience. They had just shared that the golf clubs might be put on hold for the foreseeable future; however, they seemed VERY interested in possibly pursuing another venture into clubs after my feedback.
The issue now is that if Liquidmetal has to retard the performance of the driver face to comply with COR, the advantage is pretty much gone too.
So that’s my Liquidmetal golf story! Still use them...no issues! However, my single-digit handicap days are probably long gone. I’m enjoying my Air Force retirement now, writing and recording music with my trumpet (right Watts?)...golf, on the other hand, is a bit out of my retirement budget. Writing music is free, now that I have purchased all the equipment I need.
Holding long and strong—it’s gonna be either feast or famine with me and my 111k+ shares.
