Heavy Metal Gone With the Wood

Now hear this. You are a golfer if you know

that . . .

* Cavity-backed has nothing to do with either tooth decay or general dentistry.

* In the periodic table of elements, titanium is Ti.

* A liquid elastomer casting process has to do with making a golf ball, not with the selection of actors.

* The new seamless Hump concerns a steel shaft and is not a new breed of camel.

* The club head for the Biggest Big Bertha may appear as large as a toaster, but you cannot pop an English muffin in there simply because you happen to get hungry.

* A company named Foot-Joy makes gloves.

* An oversized iron isn’t something you use on extra-large shirts.

* Just because you have a self-squaring inset hosel, it isn’t something you need to see a chiropractor about.

Technology birdied golf equipment once again in 1997, a year in which further advancements in balls, shafts and club heads arrived at a dizzying pace.

In fact, the whole thing got so out of hand, mere words seemed to fail the product. Callaway proved it by introducing the Biggest Big Bertha, which was the natural successor to the Big Bertha and the Great Big Bertha. Of course.

As far as drivers go, the Biggest Big Bertha was so, well, big, it took up two parking spaces. And it proved popular, especially when John Daly started launching balls with it.

Creating lighter, more powerful clubs was the prime directive, and work progressed in many fronts.

Titanium, which already was in irons, found its way into drivers. Wilson included titanium in some of its balls. After that, the club makers turned to tungsten, a dense metal, and inserted it in the sole plate on the back of the club head.

While Jack Nicklaus rails against the infringement of technology on golf, especially as it relates to the ball, it’s pretty clear there’s no turning back. Consider the cases of Justin Leonard and Davis Love III, two of the last converts from persimmon drivers to titanium. Since Leonard won the British Open and Love won the PGA, you can be sure the only way they’re going back to wood is if the world’s supply of titanium dries up.

The idea of inserts became even more important in 1997, and in 1988, they’re going to be very big. You’re going to be seeing a lot of inserts on television, mainly because of what Ping did with a line of its popular putters--a clear insert over the company name on the face of the putter that TV viewers can see just great in those close-ups on the green.

At the PGA International Golf Show, Maruman showed off its new Majesty putter. Price: $1,000. But, hey, it’s got an insert called ‘Liquidmetal,” which is supposedly better than titanium. It’s based on a combination of zirconium and titanium, and you know what kind of combination that is . . . besides expensive, of course.

There is so much to choose from, you almost need a degree in metallurgy. Putters now have such components as graphite shafts, cavity backs, copper wrapped around titanium, milled titanium, milled aluminum and manganese heads, and inserts of liquid metal, copper, soft elastomer and a plastic-like material called Stronomic.

Callaway paid Armour Golf $130 million for Odyssey, which has produced more victories on the tours (PGA, LPGA, Senior PGA, Nike) than anyone else in 1997. Titleist, which Tiger Woods uses, is next. Must be Odyssey’s heel-toe weighted DF model or the Manganese Bronze Rossie 2 which, of course, is face-balanced.

Wedges feature such elements as beryllium, nickel, cast stainless steel, chrome and inserts of polymer, with shafts of steel and graphite.

The latest shaft technology features something that looks like three ball bearings in plastic and glued inside hollow, chrome-plated steel shafts. Called the Cushin Selective Filtering Insert, it’s made by Karsten Manufacturing for Ping. The idea is to cut down on vibration, because the only good vibration is no vibration. PowerBilt clubs have the same no-vibration goal with its Shock Relief Insert. SensiCore is another shaft insert and Love used the vibration-dampening shaft when he won the PGA at Winged Foot.

Getting the shaft, as in choosing the correct one, has presumably been made easier by Cobra’s new Hump shaft, in either steel or graphite, for irons. The shaft is designed to be softer at the butt for better feel, stiffer at the tip for better control and light for power.

It’s pretty clear that one thing these clubs are designed for is to lighten your wallet. Not that it matters much, though. According to Golf World, Cobra says that in 1998 the so-called U.S. premium club market will bring in about $1.2 billion on sales of 13 million irons, $1.3 billion on sales of 6.5 million woods and $150 million on about 2 million putters.

Cobra said that on the average, the hard-core golfer buys a new set of irons every four years, a new putter every 2 1/2 years and a new wood every 10 months.

And what kind of clubs are we going to be buying?

* Maybe PowerBilt’s 10-ounce driver with a titanium head containing a nitrogen-filled chamber.

* Or Graman’s “The Big” shaft that doesn’t have a regular grip, but instead a series of small, replaceable buttons.

* Or Grafalloy’s 45-gram shaft that weighs less than a golf ball.

Boundaries in equipment technology seem endless right now. There’s no telling where it’s all going to end. Maybe here: Just give them the yardage and let these clubs swing themselves.