SMT Golf shafts now long-drive champs, along with clubheads

SMT Golf’s drivers have been in the hands of 67 long drive champions in eight different countries, across four different continents. Now one of the company’s shafts has, too.

Not long after Michelle Wie missed the cut at the Omega European Masters, Stefan Weigle won the Men’s Open Division in Switzerland’s National Long Drive Championship with a 338-yard bomb in sopping wet conditions that allowed for absolutely no roll.

With 67 world-wide long-drive titles under SMT’s belt, though, the real story was that Weigle’s winning driver combined SMT’s 455 Deep Bore clubhead with the company’s new EON Series Phantom shaft. Like all SMT products, from drivers to golf gloves, the EON has a lifetime warranty, which even covers, in the words of SMT founder and president Mike Tait, “stupidity.”

Not too shabby for a little Oswego, Illinois company that started out in Tait’s garage just five years ago, the initials of which are borrowed from Tait’s young son.

It’s always fun to find one of those “hidden gem” courses. And it’s equally fun to witness a small company spank the big names in long-drive events. Ever since Francis Ouimet, golf has been all about underdogs, including 16-year-old girls.