Golf Clubs Of The Type Known As Woods

Abstract

Golf clubs of the type known as "woods," wherein the torque resulting from striking golf balls with the clubs is reduced, wherein the length of the club head is reduced, wherein the shaft is close to the heaviest weight concentration of the club, and wherein the hitting face of the club occupies the entire front side of the club to eliminate erratic shots off a rounded heel or toe of the club, and wherein the hitting face is substantially flat in order to reduce side spin on the ball.

Parent Case Text

REFERENCE TO EARLIER FILED APPLICATIONS

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

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As the wood golf club of the form presently used evolved from the old form of wood 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 thickened 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 wood 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.

Because of the longer club head which evolved, and the placement of weight concentration toward the toe of the club head, it evolved that the club hitting faces were made curved from heel to toe in order to compensate for the off-position of the club face which resulted from the high torque. With elimination of the torque problem according to the precepts of this invention, it is now possible to again make the hitting face flat, and by so doing the chances of putting side spin on the ball which occurred with the curved hitting faces can also be eliminated.

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 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 reduction of side spin on the ball, which has been caused by the curved hitting faces of clubs in their evolved conditions, is reduced by making the hitting face substantially flat or completely flat, which is possible 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 a wood golf club, taken perpendicular to the 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.

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 heel and toe portions of the club head do not extend beyond the inner and outer edges of said hitting face 11 or beyond rearward projections of the inner and outer edges thereof. The hitting face occupies the entire front side of the club, and the other sides of the club head are of substantially symetrical curvature with respect to a vertical plane perpendicular to the horizontal center of the hitting face and are disposed entirely inward of the ends of the hitting face and rearward perpendicular projections thereof, as will be clear from FIG. 2 of the drawings. In other words, all inner and outer end portions of the club head are at a lesser distance from said vertical plane than are the inner and outer edges of the hitting face. The top surface 14 of the club head is preferably either flat or slightly uniformly convexly rounded, but may be of other symmetrical form. The shape of the back side of the club head is symmetrically rounded as is best seen in FIG. 2, in order that the weight distribution of the club head is balanced with the center of gravity or weight concentration being disposed along a line at its center perpendicular to the center of the hitting face. The vertical thickness 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 point spaced rearwardly of the hitting face which extends in front of the shaft, and at or close to the heel end of the top of the club head. A hosel 16 is shown formed upwardly integrally with the club head, but the hosel may be eliminated and the shaft connected directly into a hole into the club head if desired.

Because of rules imposed by professional golfing associations, the axis of the shaft cannot be farther from the heel of the club head than five-eighths inch at any point. 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 54.degree.. The club complies with this replacement.

The angle of the hitting face with the bottom face 18 of the club head will vary depending upon the loft of the club, wood clubs being numbered from the 1-wood, with least loft, to the 5-wood, with greatest loft.

The length of the club head from heel to toe of conventional golf clubs currently in use is about 41/2 inches. Although the length of the hitting face of the clubs herein disclosed is longer than in conventional clubs, the overall length of the club head is reduced to about 31/2 inches. Since the length of the hitting face of the herein disclosed club is 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 one 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 41/2 inches. The distance from the shaft axis to the center of the hitting face will be about 21/2 inches. With the herein disclosed clubs, the distance from the shaft axis to the toe end of the hitting face will be about 31/2 inches while the distance from the shaft axis to the center of the hitting face will be about 11/4 inches. Therefore, the leverage radius is reduced by about one 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. The symmetrical 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. Therefore, since the ball can be struck more squarely because of better club head control, the heel to toe curvature of the hitting face can be eliminated. The conventionally curved hitting face frequently results in raking of the hitting face across the ball, this being caused by angularity of the hitting face caused by the torque problem herein discussed. The concentration of the club head weight behind the center of the hitting face results in better club head speed and better impact on the ball. 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 across the ball, so that the ball leaves 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 at least 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, and by keeping this face as flat as possible with no curvature this club produces a straighter hit ball. The flat face is much less likely to put side spin on the ball, and will produce straight drives 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 drives 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 31/2 inches. The distance from the top to the bottom of the hitting face may vary from about 11/2 inches to two inches, in a club of preferred form. The bottom edge of the hitting face will preferably be about 21/2 inches. The thickness of the club head from the hitting face to the back will preferably be abbout 23/4 inches in order 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 from the center of the hitting face to the center of the rear of the club head. The position of the shaft should be about as shown in the drawings, a certain amount of variation being possible without detriment of the results.

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 a wood, comprising a horizontally disposed 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 a wood-type club head, one end of said club head being convexly curved backwardly and entirely inwardly of one end of said hitting face and forming the heel of the club head, the other end of said club head being convexly curved backwardly and entirely inwardly of the other end of said hitting face and forming the toe of the club head, the reverse side of said club head being thickened rearwardly and convexly curved symmetrically of the horizontal center of the club head and smoothly merging with said convex curvatures of said heel and toe in order to distribute the weight of the club head symmetrically about a vertical 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 sides of said club head and of said hitting face being substantially parallel whereby the heel and toe portions of the club head are of substantially the same weight, a shaft having its lower end fixed to the upper side of the heel of the club head, and further having the length of said club head from the toe to heel ends being approximately 31/2 inches and with the maximum distance of the shaft axis to the center of the hitting face being approximately 11/4 inches, the convexly curved heel of the club head being angularly inclined downwardly and inwardly parallel to the shaft axis from the upper edge of the heel substantially to the lower edge of the heel and being spaced conventionally no farther than five-eighths inch from the shaft axis.

2. The combination of claim 1, said hitting face being of substantially shorter length along its lower edge than along its upper edge.