EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Remember the first time you swung a golf club?

I don't, but I imagine the misses and duffs were as bad as what I see whenever I visit a Topgolf.

Maybe some of those shanks and turf-burners from the masses who flock to Topgolf will become less frequent with Wednesday's splashy launch of "The Sure Thing" golf club, a new design by Callaway's engineers to help beginners hit better shots more frequently.

The non-conforming club looks like a driver on steroids. It's got an enormous club face with 20 degrees of loft and a shorter shaft. So many novice golfers book the upper levels at a Topgolf because they can't get the ball in the air. Guess what? That's exactly what this club was designed to do.

Now here's the interesting part: It's not for sale. It's only available at Topgolf. Think of it as a golf club with training wheels. Once Topgolf customers get comfortable enough with "The Sure Thing", they can graduate to swinging the "real" Callaway clubs that are available in every Topgolf hitting bay. And, maybe, some day, this new magic club could be the nudge that helps lead legions of newbies on the path to becoming life-long golfers.

Geoff Cottrill, the chief marketing officer at Topgolf, said the club was built specifically to give new and bad golfers a taste of "shot euphoria".

"This is about the first handshake that golf makes with a new participant," Cottrill said. "You want that to be in the form of a smile and the feeling of 'maybe I could accomplish much more'."

Here's the interesting part about The Sure Thing golf club from my perspective: It's not just a shoe box on the end of a stick. Hitting it might be as much fun for regular golfers as it is for inexperienced ones.

A buddy and I attended the club's launch party at Topgolf El Segundo. Beyond the glitz and glamour of an L.A. launch party - the skateboarders, deejay, drone show and Instagram influencers - we actually found a lot of substance when it came to the club's performance. It didn't feel bulky or awkward. It was just plain fun to swing away seeing what it could do.

We spent at least 30 minutes in a long-drive competition trying to blast it as far as possible. We saw good golfers hit it 200 yards, although we struggled to break 160 yards. Regardless, watching our shots soar against the night sky with a ball flight more akin to a pro golfer than a couple of mid- to high-handicaps felt so rewarding anyway.

It's so easy to get the ball airborne, even off the deck. Coming from a guy using a driver with a three-wood shaft and 14 degrees of loft, this club would feel right at home in my bag.

Cottrill said the club took about two years to develop from concept to launch. Topgolf has secretly shipped the club out to various venues to let staff members test it before the big reveal. "It could be the first step in making more equipment with the beginning golfer in mind," he added.

He also didn't close the door on the club someday being for sale, either. Many amateur golfers couldn't care less if a club is conforming or not. If it clears that pond or water hazard, it's worth buying.

With all the talk of distance rollbacks and apathy toward the pros leaving the game on shaky ground, maybe it will take a company like Topgolf to make the breakthrough that industry insiders and organizations have been trying to find for decades.

As any 'real' golfer knows, nothing is a sure thing in this game. This new golf club, though, seems like an interesting step in the right direction.

"In the long term, if you look out, not just a month, but the next 10 years, and we continue to do stuff like this, there will be a lot of new people who come into the game of golf through a way that maybe you and I didn't come into golf," Cottril said. "That's exciting."

Have you hit The Sure Thing golf club at Topgolf? Let us know about your experience in the comments below.

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