Patent Application
20080167143
The present disclosure relates to a golf tee that is easily molded, easy to use and designed to avoid damage or breakage.
The following features are of interest to golfers with respect to golf tees. This list is roughly ordered according to importance.
Conventional wooden tees do not meet all of these desirable features, even though they have been widely used for many years. They require close attention to depth of insertion into the turf to achieve constant tee height. They are often hard to find after a hit. They are often broken and the pieces are left to clutter the teeing ground. These effects result in tees or parts of tees frequently being lost, left on the teeing ground, or nearby. In turn, this is not only unattractive, but can also damage the mowing machinery and necessitates carrying extra tees, which are inexpensive, but tend to be a bother when a tee is lost or broken. Breakage of the stem is very common, particularly with modern long wooden tees. Care is required to insert a wooden tee with its stem nearly vertical or the ball will fall off. An indication of golfers' concern and extent of the problem is evident in the very large number of patents for tees, reaching back to year 1900 or earlier.
Rules of the United States Golf Association require that the tee shall not have any features that could help in aiming the shot in the right direction. It is understood that this includes a lanyard since it could be laid out as a direction guide. These requirements are at odds with some tee designs. A tee is also limited to a maximum length of 4 inches.
The prior art is extensive. Pertinent U.S. patents include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 648,956, W. Herrrick, shows a cone shape like the horn end of a trumpet. It includes a lanyard attached to the tee. The cone is made of rubber for durability. Large shape and minimum weight are suggested to provide large aerodynamic drag and minimize flight distance of the tee when it happens to be hit by the driver head.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,142,997, H. True, shows a frustum of a cone in the mathematical meaning, which is made of paper having been folded with many creases from bottom to top for stiffness. It is intended for single use.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,413,496, J. Sibbald, shows a flat base and a screw with vertical axis to accept the vertical part of the tee and to provide height adjustment.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,535,181, B Sawyer, shows a partial conical device of thin resilient material having an open side to facilitate collapse of tee when hit. It may have a convex, concave, or irregular surface shape (column 2, lines 39-44).
U.S. Pat. No. 1,599,310, W. Wiley, shows a metal frustum of a cone with portions cut out of the large end.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,604,390, C. Coker, shows a frustum of a cone made of paper wrapped numerous times around to provide ample strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,636,655, P. Young, shows a conical cup shape molded of rubber about 0.05 inch thick and having provision for easily cutting off the lower portion to provide for height adjustment.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,858,800, C. Boatman, shows a structure similar to the horn of a flute and having fuzzy or other surface to enhance aerodynamic drag to minimize flight distance after being hit.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,358, H. Dawson, shows a base portion, a frustum of a cone, and a top circular cylindrical shape, both parts made of corrugated cardboard, and with up-down adjustability of the top to the base portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,805,071, R. Kaplan, shows a shape much like the head of a rubber toilet plunger with thin walls and designed so as to have 2 stable positions, one fully extended and the other with a strong distortion of the rubber shell to shorten the tee height.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,676, F. Costa, shows a 2-part structure similar to '358 but made of resilient plastic with many openings in the lower conical part supposedly to increase air drag when the tee is hit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,999, Voinovich, shows a rubber tube mounted on a threaded rigid spike that is screwed into the ground. It requires an insertion tool 40 and is suited for practice tees but much less so for playing the game. It requires two parts, the rigid spike and a soft upper tube. It does not have an optional provision for floating in water.
Other related U.S. patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,470,817 and 4,524,974.
D306,751, J. Orton, shows an “ornamental” adjustable golf tee somewhat like the above patents in configuration, but apparently having a top portion in the form of a conventional wooden tee that is adjustable in height by friction between the top portion and the base portion. Since there is essentially no verbal description, this adjustable structural feature is inferred.
D461,216S, W Luther, shows tees of varying height, generally similar to some of those above, and having a lanyard connecting all to a cylindrical body whose use is unclear.
A golfing toy shows a tee made of light-weight foam material and uses a foam ball. It was found on the internet to be commercially available. Also, for strong winds, the tee is subject to being moved.
Tee designs are commercially available that use bristles in various forms that project upward from a base having a conventional spike to be inserted in the turf. The bristles are sufficiently stiff and appropriately arranged to support a golf ball on top. Claims are made that such designs do not affect flight of the ball. In fact, maximum forces of impact of ball and club are in the range of 2500 pounds, so it is believed unlikely that forces on any tee design have a significant effect on flight of the ball.
The embodiment disclosed herein has a tube above the ground that has a diameter less than the diameter of a golf ball, with an open upper end for supporting a golf ball. A lower end has a integral tip (herein called a “spike”) that can be inserted into the ground. The tube material as disclosed is any of various stiff materials that can be deformed when hit but which spring back to the original shape.
The material for the present golf tee can be any of various rather stiff elastomeric, plastic materials or of a suitable rubber-like material. The material choice is made on the basis that the tee can be severely deformed by a hit from a club head and yet will spring back very nearly to its original shape. Polyurethane of durometer 67 D is a preferred material. The durometer is not critical and may be substantially less stiff or more stiff. A range of stiffness of the elastomeric material of between 50 A and 75 D durometer (Shore scale) is workable. Durometer 50 A is like tire rubber and 75 D is like a construction worker's hard hat.
The tube 3 of
Tube 3 may be provided with short, elastomeric projections 7 (herein called “prongs”) as shown in
It was found that 0.75 inch diameter at the top of tube 3 (dimension D in
Air drag when a tee flies through the air from a hit is a major factor regarding the distance it flies, and weight is important as well. A tubular, 4-inch long golf tee of this type with D=0.75 inch, W=0.025 inch, and L=4 inches weighed 3.21 grams. By comparison, a 4-inch conventional wooden tee has comparable weight if its stem is of large enough diameter to resist breaking for most club-head-tee impacts. The more bulky size for the present invention causes more air drag. Thus it flies less far when hit compared with wooden tees of similar length.
Some teeing grounds have water at the end of the teeing ground in the direction of the target. The density of polyurethane is about 7% greater than water, so the tee could sink, should it land in water. For this reason, a flotation chamber or other flotation means is desirable. It was found that a common, flexible, closed-cell plastic foam, such as polyethylene foam, is satisfactory in the form of a disc indicated at 5 on the interior of tube 3 in
As shown in
It is preferred to add colorant to the polyurethane or other plastic such as bright yellow or white, to make it easier to find if it is hit and lands in deep grass. Its large size compared with conventional wooden tees is also a major factor in making it easy to find.
While the preferred form uses durometer 67 D polyurethane integrally molded as a unit, including the spike 4, and a polyethylene foam disc for floatation, any of various other materials could be used. In the preferred form, the tee is cast, injection molded, or reaction-injection-molded as a single part. The tube cross section need not be circular, but can be other suitable cross sections and as noted above the tube can be conical.
It is seen that this novel tee meets all of the eight enumerated desirable features listed above.
