The present disclosure relates to a flexible grip for the shaft of a golf club and particularly for the shaft of a putter. The stroke employed for putting differs substantially from that of a full swing club; and, accordingly a different engagement of the user's hands with the club grip is required in order to effect a desirable accurate putting stroke. In this regard, it is necessary to maintain consistency and to eliminate unwanted and inconsistent movement. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary for the user to keep the fingers, hands, and wrists locked into a position relative to the arms throughout the entire putting stroke. With the fingers, hands, and wrist locked relative to the arms, the desired movement of the putter is accomplished by rotation of the arms and shoulders around the axis of the spine. However, for the less accomplished or average golfer, keeping the various parts of the hands locked into position relative to the arms has been found to be the most difficult aspect of the putting stroke for obtaining consistent accuracy of putting. In this regard, the user's two hands must work together as a single entity during the putting stroke which requires that the user gain sufficient muscle memory to lock the wrists and hands to provide the desired consistent motion. Typically, only professional or better golfers are able to do this because they have built up their muscle memory to make their hands more stable during the stroke; whereas, average golfers tend to put the hands and fingers in a more natural or relaxed position which fails to maintain stability during the putting stroke. In particular, better golfers have trained themselves to keep their finger positions and wrists stable during the putting stroke.
Heretofore, flexible grips for the shaft of a putter have utilized longitudinal curvature of the grip and an enlarged portion adjacent the closed end of the grip on the lower surface sometimes referred to as a “pistol” grip. As shown in
In the traditional reverse overlap style of gripping the club as shown in
Thus, it has been desired to provide the configuration for the flexible grip for the shaft of a putter which aids in the user gripping the club in a manner which will result in stability of the movement of the wrist and arms and increased consistency, thus greater accuracy of the putting stroke.
In order to improve the ability of the golfer to maintain a stable grip and movement of a putter during the putting stroke, the grip of the present disclosure provides a configuration which increases the ulnar wrist angle and creates a position that is less natural and reduces the dexterity of both hands and fingers.
The flexible grip of the present disclosure employs a raised portion on the upper face of the grip adjacent the closed or butt end, which tapers longitudinally toward the open end of the grip. This configuration tends to increase the ulnar deviation of the hands and to stabilize the hands and forearm during the putting stroke. The raised portion of the flexible grip of the present disclosure has the thumb pad of the upper hand resting on the upper face of the grip resulting in increased ulnar deviation of the hands causing both forearms to be more in line with each other, thereby retaining a more equal wrist angle which improves unity during the putting stroke. This arrangement causes the grip to be gripped closer to the base of the fingers as opposed to the fingertips, thereby reducing finger dexterity and movement.
The lower face of the grip of the present disclosure has a constant thickness linear configuration parallel to the putter shaft which gives a consistent feel within the user's fingers and causes the fingers to be in a more planar configuration. The flat surface on the upper face is a more stable resting point for the thumb and prevents placing the thumbs over to one side of the grip, thereby causing the putter face not to be perpendicular with the intended trajectory.
The side faces of the grip are tapered equally; and, the lower portion of the upper face, that is the portion that is not raised, has a taper rate which is consistent or equal to the rate of taper of the side faces of the grip. In one version of the grip of the present disclosure, the raised portion of the top face is raised an amount of about 20 mm within the upper span of about 110 mm of the grip length which creates an increased wrist angle of about ten degrees (10°) on the upper hand. This results in the wrist angle of the upper hand being more equal that of the lower hand.
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The side faces of the grip have a constant taper from the substantially closed end to the opened end as indicated by reference numerals 28, 30 in
The present disclosure describes a flexible tubular grip for a golf club putter which has a raised tapered portion formed adjacent the butt end of the grip with a flat surface extending along the upper face of the grip for increasing the angle of ulnar deviation of the wrists of the user upon gripping the club to thereby keep the forearms straight and aid in keeping the wrists and fingers locked during the putting stroke. The lower face of the tubular member is linear and parallel to the axis of the putter shaft to cause the fingers to have a consistent feel and to be placed in more of a planar position, thereby reducing dexterity and effecting less movement of the fingers during the putting stroke.
The exemplary embodiment has been described and illustrated with reference to the drawings. Obviously, modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the exemplary embodiment be construed as including all such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.
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