E21's "space shot" publicity stunt ambitious but risky

Two years ago, I was one of the first nationally published golf writer to note the emergence of E21. The Canada-based golf company specializes in golf equipment made from Scandium, the 21st element of the periodic table.

According to the company’s website (one of the most irritating you’ll find), the alloy made from Scandium is 50% lighter and 25% stronger than any known alloy. For this reason, it was used in Soviet military equipment.

Today, it will be used in an utterly goofy publicity stunt by Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who will exit the International Space Station, tee up a specially designed golf ball on a specially designed tee, and hit it with a gold-plated E21 6-iron. (The gold plating is to ensure that no static charge destroys all of the electrical equipment on board the space station – talk about a shank!).

You have to give it to E21 – this is easily the most far-out golf marketing stunt ever performed (pun intended). I’ve already seen it mentioned on CNN and right here on Ron Mon’s blog (the creep beat me to the punch again!). So it is indeed getting the small company some press.

You know what would create even more buzz? If the club slips from his hand and smashes into a communications satellite (pun also intended). Or if the ball itself, which is only 1/15 the weight of a real golf ball, ends up bashing into another spacecraft or satellite and causing damage. Or if Tyurin happens to die during the space-walk.

The stunt purportedly commemorates Alan Sheppard’s moon-shot 35 years ago, but not really, as that took place in February, and, well, who celebrates the 35th anniversary of anything?

Does anyone recall what sort of a ball Sheppard used? Or did sales of collapsible irons skyrocket after Sheppard’s impromptu stunt?

Not so much.

It’ll be interesting to see if E21’s orbital tee ball ends up as one for the history books, or as just another piece of space junk.