Zinc on the links

Have you ever been out on your favourite golf course and driven the ball 300 yards, landed right on the green and three-putted your way to a bogey? If so, you’re not alone.

That’s what happened to C.H. McMahan, president of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Beacon Golf. After examining his putting stroke, he noticed that on each putt, he had rotated the putter face, away from the intended path.

Golf clubs have historically relied on the heel-and-toe-perimeter weight distribution theory. However, researchers at Beacon Golf believe some putters are deficient because heel and toe weighting alone lacks a third requirement: proper weight distribution. The additional weight at the rear of the putter head creates a triangular weighting effect that reduces any tendency to rotate the club head away from its intended path. To achieve this “Tri-balance” weight distribution, certain materials must be used.

Most putters are made of heavy, hard metals that are unusable in the Tri-balance process because their weight does not allow for the correct distribution. Beacon’s Tri-balance putters are produced with lightweight, zinc-aluminum alloys, in conjunction with brass disc inserts.

All Beacon Golf’s “Birdie” series putters were originally machine-milled solid blocks of soft, lightweight aluminum. However, because of the blade’s putter size and shape, aluminum was deemed too light to achieve the ideal weight. Beacon continued its research into alternative materials and discovered the missing link: zinc-aluminum alloys. After contacting Zincaloy, a Mississauga, Ont.-based company that produces continous-cast zinc alloy bar stock, Beacon discovered that ZA-12 was the ideal alloy for the Tri-balance design. And although weight was the primary criterion, Beacon also found that con-cast Zincaloy material was sound, porosity-free and stronger than aluminum.

So in some small way, zinc may lead to lower scores on the golf course.

— The preceeding is an excerpt from Cominco Metals World, published by Vancouver-based Cominco.