Golf Swing Practice Club

Abstract

A golf swing practice, training and exercising club which is expressly designed for practicing and developing a well-timed rhythmically speed-controlled golf swing. It comprises a shaft having an upper end with a handgrip and which, generally stated, is comparable with a regulation or conventional handle-equipped shaft. The lower end is provided with a specially constructed head, that is, a ball-shaped head of predetermined diameter and weight. The ball has its upper axial portion bored and constructed to accommodate and fasten a shouldered reduced end portion of the shaft. The end portion of the shaft is screw-threaded to coact with a retaining nut located in an enlargement at the lower end of the bore. A counterbored portion constitutes a socket which opens through the bottom of the head and is lined and internally screw-threaded to accommodate insertable and removable weights held in place by a screw-threaded plug. The plug has a kerf to permit the same to be removed by a coin or a screwdriver.

Description

The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in a golf swing club which is primarily used for exercising and practicing and acquiring an acceptably timed rhythmically controlled golf swing, the purpose of the club being to enable the user to learn the correct swinging of a golf club by continual practice, the head of the club being unique in that it is provided with changeable readily insertable and removable weight media or means.

More specifically the concept pertains to a club which is primarily intended for practicing and swinging, for example, at home, and which while providing the customary shaft and handgrip, has a specially constructed ball-shaped head, more particularly, a head with socket means containing insertable and removable weights held in place by a simple and practical closure member.

Many and varied styles and forms of variably weighted golf club heads have been devised and offered for use by others working in this field of endeavor. For background purposes the state of the art can be ascertained, broadly stated, by referring to the golf swing practice club of Wallace E. Davis covered in U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,419. As having a closer bearing on the advance in the art herein under consideration but nevertheless structurally and functionally different is the so-called exercise club covered in U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,408 granted to Louis A. Benecke. Unlike the present invention Benecke utilizes a centrifugally controlled signalling device to advise the user of commonly recognized areas in his mode of handling and swinging a golf club.

Briefly the club herein disclosed lends itself to practical and reliable use in that it is such in construction that it is expressly designed and adapted for practicing an acceptably timed rhythmically controlled golf swing. To the ends desired it embodies a regulation shaft having an upper end provided with a customary or conventional handgrip. The lower end is constructed to provide a reduced shouldered shank with a threaded end having fastening means whereby said shouldered shank can be secured to a bore extending through an upper half portion of a ball-shaped practice head. The lower half portion is counterbored to provide a socket. The socket is lined with a screw-threaded sleeve and the sleeve houses and contains with requisite nicety a source of weight. While a single weight could be used it is preferred to use a plurality of snug-fitting insertable and removable selectively applicable appropriately weighted disks. These disks are held in place by an accessible screw-threaded plug which binds the disks tightly and prevents rattling and clicking noises.

An object of the invention is to structurally, functionally and in other ways improve upon prior art specially constructed practicing and training clubs and, in doing so, to provide an adaptation which as experience has shown well serves the purposes for which it has been devised, perfected and experimentally used.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a golf swing practice club constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view with parts in section and elevation showing the details of the lower end of the club shaft and the component parts assembled in the improved weighted head.

And FIG. 3 is an exploded view in perspective showing all of the essential parts, that is, the screw-threaded lower end of the shaft, the ball-shaped head and component parts which coact with the socketed portion thereof.

With reference now to the views of the drawing, the overall improved golf swing practice club is denoted by the numeral 4. It comprises the customary tapered shaft 6 whose upper end portion 8 is provided with an appropriate wrapped or equivalent handgrip 10. The shaft is comparable with a standard or conventional type but is different in that the lower or forward end is reduced in cross section as shown at 12 to provide a shank and also a shoulder 14. This shouldered attaching end portion is denoted, generally stated, by the numeral 16. More specifically it comprises (FIG. 3) a further reduced portion which is screw-threaded as at 18 to accommodate an assembling and retaining nut 20. The ball-shaped head is denoted, generally stated, by the numeral 22 and is of appropriate diameter. In certain trial and error instances the head has been made of wood and in other instances of moldable plastic material. As a general rule experimental models have been such that the head weighs approximately 1 pound. The body portion (4 inches in diameter) is denoted at 24. The upper peripheral surface portion is denoted at 26 and for convenience of description the lower peripheral surface is denoted at 28. The upper portion has an axial uniform bore 30 extending therethrough and opening through the upper peripheral surface. This serves to accommodate the shouldered portion 14 as shown in FIG. 2. The lower end portion of the bore 30 which is near the center of the ball is slightly enlarged as at 32 to accommodate the nut, that is when the nut has been applied to clamp the shank to the ball. The main counterbored portion defines a socket 34 which opens through the surface 28 and has a closed bottom 36. The socket is lined with a metal or equivalent sleeve which is securely fixed in place and which is denoted at 38 and which is preferably internally screw-threaded as at 40. The socket is of a diameter to accommodate one or more disk-like weights. The weights are referred to generally stated as weight media. Several such weights are shown in FIG. 3 and are denoted by the numeral 42. The weights can be identical in construction or varied as to thickness and heaviness. The several weights shown will suffice for purposes of explaining the nature of the instant invention. These weights are pocketed snugly and with requisite nicety within the confines of the socket and are therefore said to be held captive. To attain this result an appropriate plug-like closure 44 is provided and comprises a circular plug which is appropriately screw-threaded at 46 to screw into place. The convex surface 48 is provided with a screwdriver kerf 50 which can accommodate a pocket coin if a screwdriver is not available at the time.

It is reiterated that the weight medium may comprise a single weight which wholly fits the socket or a plurality of weights. Also two weights could be used if desired and the plug could be screwed into place to securely anchor the weights and to avoid clicking noises, which are undesirable. The manner in which the ball is constructed and the manner in which the shouldered shank portion is fastened by screw means to the ball is evident particularly in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 also shows the manner in which the weights are inserted and held in place by the closing or retaining and assembling plug. FIG. 1 shows the finished ready-to-use practice swing club. On the other hand the individual details are shown to advantage in FIG. 3. Under the circumstances it is believed that by considering the views singly and collectively a clear and comprehensive understanding of the construction of the component parts, the manner in which they serve singly and collectively will be clear. The advantages derived from the use of this exercising and practice and training club are also thought to be substantially self-evident. Under the circumstances, a more extended description is deemed to be unnecessary.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.

Claims

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A training club which is expressly designed and adapted for practicing an acceptably timed rhythmically controlled golf swing comprising: a regulation shaft having an upper end provided with a handgrip and a lower end reduced in cross section and providing a shouldered screw-threaded head mounting shank, a ball-shaped head of predetermined diameter and weight, said ball having a bore including an upper end opening through an upper peripheral surface of said ball and a lower end communicating axially with an enlarged counterbore within said ball, said counterbore providing a socket and opening through a bottom peripheral surface of said ball diametrically opposite to said upper peripheral surface and fully and fittingly lined with an internally screw-threaded sleeve, said shank passing through said bore and having an assembling and retaining nut screwed on a coacting screw-threaded portion of said shank and abutting a bottoming surface of said socket and detachably mounting said head on said shank, variable weight media fitted removably and at will into said socket, and an accessible readily removable closure also mounted on said head, closing an outward open end of said socket and positioning said weight media retentively in a given place within the confines of said socket.

2. The training club defined in and according to claim 1 and wherein said socket is circular in cross section, is of a predetermined depth and transverse cross section, the weight media being characterized by at least one readily insertable and removable weighted disc of requisite material and of a diameter and thickness capable of fitting snugly but nevertheless insertably and removably in said socket, the closure comprising a marginally screw-threaded plug-like disc and said disc being manually screwed into the open end of the socket in such a way as to position and retain the weighted disc in a given functioning position within the confines of the socket.

3. The training club defined in and according to claim 1, and wherein said socket is circular in cross section and is of a predetermined depth and transverse cross section, said weight media comprising a plurality of readily insertable and removable weighted discs of prescribed outside diameter which are snugly but insertably, selectively and removably fitted in said socket, and said closure comprising a marginally screw-threaded plug-like disc which is screwed into the open end of the socket in a manner to position and captively maintain said weighted discs in a given functioning position in said socket.