Golf Clubs Of The Type Known As Irons

Abstract

Golf clubs of the type known as "irons," wherein the torque resulting from striking golf balls with the clubs is reduced, wherein the length of the club head is reduced, wherein the club head is weighted at its center, wherein the shaft is close to the heaviest weight concentration of the club, wherein the hitting face of the club occupies the entire front side of the club to eliminate erratic shots off the heel or toe of the club, wherein reduced torque results in proper hitting face position to reduce side spin on the ball.

Parent Case Text

REFERENCE TO EARLIER FILED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 95,242, filed Dec. 4, 1970 by the same applicant and entitled "Golf Irons and Woods", and now abandoned.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As the iron golf club of the form presently used evolved from the old form of iron club, the evolution being caused because of improvements to golf balls and increased weight of golf balls, club makers maintained the same length of the club head and widened the club head more toward the toe, while maintaining the heel configuration and the shaft position substantially the same. This forced the balance point, or heaviest weight concentration, of the club head toward the toe of the club head, and it has remained there up to the present time. This evolution to a longer club head and the placement of weight toward the toe of the club head causes increased leverage of the shaft when a ball is struck, and causes torque which reduces a player's control of the head of the iron club.

A golf club is a driving tool, i.e., like a hammer, and if a hammer were made with the heaviest weight concentration as far from the axis of the handle as has been done with golf clubs, it would be very difficult to drive a nail with the hammer.

The more balanced position of the shaft with respect to the weight concentration of the club head results in keeping the face of the club square at the time of impact with the ball. Therefore, according to this invention, not only is torque caused by ball impact reduced, but torque caused by inbalance of the club head is also reduced.

According to the invention, torque on the shaft resulting from impact of the ball with the club head is reduced by reducing leverage tending to twist the shaft as much as possible by moving the shaft closer to the center of weight concentration of the club head. The balance of the club head is altered by placing as much of the club head weight as possible at the center of the club head. The movement of the shaft position to a position closer to the heaviest weight concentration not only makes the club head shorter, but also reduces torque on the shaft caused by the weight of the club head itself. According to the invention, the production of side spin on the ball is reduced because of the improvements to the torque problem.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of apparatus according to the invention, reference during the description being made to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side perspective view of an iron golf club, taken perpendicular to the front or hitting face of the club head.

FIG. 2 is a partial top view of the club shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an elevational view taken toward the heel of the club shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the back of the club shown in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the club head 10 has a flat inclined hitting face 11 which extends over the entire front side of the club head. The top edge 12 of the club head is preferably either flat or slightly uniformly convexly rounded, but may be of other more or less symmetrical form. The back side of the club head is thickened and weighted by a rounded horizontal projecting ridge 13 along its bottom edge and by a rounded vertical projecting ridge 14 at its center, respectively, as is best seen in FIG. 4, in order that the weight distribution of the club head is balanced with the center of gravity or weight concentration being disposed along a plane at its center perpendicular to the center of the hitting face. The vertical height of the head is substantially uniform from the heel to the toe of the club head.

The shaft 15 is attached to the club head at a hosel disposed in back of the hitting face which extends in front of the shaft, and at the heel end of the club head. The hosel 16 is formed upwardly integrally with the club head and extends downwardly and curves to merge with formation 13 as shown in FIG. 4. The hosel may terminate closer to the top edge of the club head than shown, or may be flush with the top edge of the hitting face, if desired.

Because of rules imposed by professional golfing associations, the heel end of the club head must be straight and without any protruding formation. The club shown in the drawings fully complies with this requirement. The angle of the shaft with the bottom flat surface 18 of the club head is according to the association rules required to be an angle of about 54 degrees. The club complies with this requirement.

The angle of the hitting face with the ground, with bottom edge 18 of the club head placed flat upon the ground, will vary depending upon the loft of the club, iron clubs being numbered from the 1-iron, with least loft, to the 9-iron, with greatest loft.

The length of the club head from heel to toe of conventional iron golf clubs currently in use is from about four inches to about four and one-half inches. Although the length of the hitting face of the clubs herein disclosed is no shorter than in conventional clubs, the overall length of the club head is reduced to from about three inches to about three and one-half inches, or from one-half inch to one and one-half inches shorter. Since the length of the hitting face of the herein disclosed club is relatively longer, it is easier to hit the ball with this club than with conventional clubs.

Because of the shaft position and the shortening of the club head, the torque produced upon hitting a ball at any point of the hitting face is greatly reduced. The reduction of the distance from the ball impact position to the shaft axis may be as much as three-fourths inch, and the torque produced by the ball impact is correspondingly reduced. With a conventional club, the farthest distance from the shaft axis to a ball impact point at the extreme toe end of the hitting face will be approximately four and one-half inches. The distance from the shaft axis to the center of the hitting face will be about two and one-half inches. With the herein disclosed clubs, the maximum distance from the shaft axis to the toe end of the hitting face will be about three and one-half inches while the distance from the shaft axis to the center of the hitting face will be about one and three-fourths inches. Therefore, the leverage radius is reduced by about three-fourths inch regardless of what portion of the hitting face has impact with the ball. This change in club design greatly reduces the torque produced on the shaft by ball impact and reduces twisting resulting therefrom.

The above described reduction in twisting torque results because of the shortening of the club head and the movement of the shaft to behind the heel end of the hitting face. In conventional clubs, the hitting face is entirely toward the toe end of the club head from the shaft, and the shaft protrudes forwardly of the hitting face. The balanced design of the club head further reduces torque because the club head weight is concentrated behind the center of the hitting face.

Because of the reduction of torque described above, the hitting face of the club head can be better controlled by a golfer to squarely strike the ball. This results in elimination of raking of the hitting face across the ball, this being caused by angularity of the hitting face caused by the torque problem herein discussed, i.e., so-called opening of the club face. The concentration of the club head weight behind the center of the hitting face resulting from formation 13 results in better club head speed and better impact and spin on the ball so that the ball flys faster and farther, and is less affected by wind. The repositioning of the shaft augments this result. The weight of the club head and the shaft driving force are centered directly behind the ball. There is no tendency to allow the face of the club to lay open and to drag the face of the club more quickly.

With the new pivot point of the club head around the shaft, the club head swings squarely into the ball and drives it straight down the fairway. Because the shaft is from three-fourths inch to one inch closer to the heaviest weight concentration in the head of the club, torque or twisting about the shaft is reduced to almost nothing. Longer leverage on the shaft resulting from the conventional longer-faced clubs is reduced.

While the clubs have a shorter club head length from heel to toe, there is a larger hitting face than in a standard club because all of the face of this club is hitting face. The flat hitting face position resulting from reduced shaft torque is much less likely to put side spin on the ball, and will produce straight hits from the club from almost any point of the hitting face that comes into contact with the ball. The fact that the hitting face covers the entire front side of the club head will eliminate uncontrollable hits off of the heel or toe of the club head. No matter what part of the hitting face comes into contact with the ball, the ball will be hit harder and straighter because all of the weight of the club head is centered and compressed into a more compact club head so that whether a player makes contact with the ball at the heel, center or toe of the hitting face, there is more solid impact on the ball than is possible with a regular club.

As has been mentioned, the dimension from heel to toe of the club head is preferably about three to three and one-half inches. The distance from the top to the bottom of the hitting face may vary from about one and one-fourth inches to two inches, in a club of preferred form. The bottom edge of the hitting face will preferably be about two and one-half inches. The thickening of the club head at the back at the center and along the bottom edge of the back may be such as to achieve the same weight as has been present in conventional clubs. The weight of the club head will be symmetrically disposed about a line or plane perpendicularly from the center of the hitting face to the center of the rear of the club head.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown in the drawings and described, many modifications thereof may be made by a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to protect by Letters Patent all forms of the invention falling within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. Golf club of the type referred to as an iron, comprising a horizontally elongate club head having the front side thereof completely flat to form a hitting face over its entire area whereby a golf ball may be struck at any point thereof without angular deflection of the golf ball, said hitting face having a loft angle of conventional angular inclination for an iron-type club head, one end of said club head being angularly inclined upwardly and outwardly and forming the heel of the club head, the other end of said club head forming the toe of said club head, the reverse side of said club head having disposed thereon a uniformly thickened, integral, and continuous projecting ridge, said projecting ridge being located (a) coextensively along the heel end and completely within the boundary edge of said heel end; (b) coextensively along the lower edge of said reverse side from the heel end to the toe end; and (c) vertically along the center of said reverse side to approximately the upper edge of the club head in order to distribute the weight of the club head symmetrically about a plane perpendicular to the center of the hitting face and to adjust the horizontal center of gravity of said club head to its horizontal center whereby said club head will be less likely to twist about vertically directed axes upon striking golf balls at random points of said hitting face, the upper and lower edges of said club head and of said hitting face being substantially parallel whereby the heel and toe portions of said club head are of substantially the same weight, said thickened portion along said heel at said reverse side of said club head forming a hosel, a shaft having its lower end fixed in said hosel, and further having the length of said club head from the toe to heel ends being approximately three to three and one-half inches and with the maximum distance of the shaft axis to the center of the hitting face being approximately one and three-quarters inches in order to further reduce the torque produced on the shaft by ball impact.

2. The combination of claim 1, said shaft means being disposed at an angle of approximately 54.degree. with respect to the bottom of said club head means.