Patent Application
20170167940
None.
This invention was not federally sponsored.
Field of the invention: This invention relates to the general field of golf club manufacture, and more specifically, to a balancing device that can be used to find the center of gravity of a golf club head. It is specifically applicable to finding the “sweet spot” of putters. The device comprises a base portion that holds the device in place, and a fulcrum portion, upon which the head is placed and moved back and forth until it is balanced. The section of the golf club directly above the fulcrum is thereby found to be the center of the club, with an even amount of weight distributed on either side of the fulcrum. This allows a golf club manufacturer to accurately place a line on the golf club head that guides the golfer to the ideal portion of a golf club that should strike the ball.
History of the invention's industry. Golf clubs have been used to play golf for around 500 years, but attempts to find the true, balanced center of a golf club have been popular for only the last couple of decades. When a golf club strikes a ball with a portion of the club face other than the true center, the club face will twist in the direction of the off centered area and slightly deflect the ball form its ideal path. So if the ball is stuck toward the heel of the club and the sweet spot is toward the center the face will turn inward toward the heel. Same goes for the toe of the club. And while the deflection may be less than one degree, even half a degree of deflection on a 20′ putt can result in a missed putt. While many golf clubs, particularly putters, have a line on the head indicating where the manufacturer thinks the true center is, in many cases the location is incorrect as the club head was not correctly balanced before the location of the line was selected.
Thus there has existed a long-felt need for a means by which golf club manufacturers—and hobbyist golfers who build their own clubs—can find the true center of a club head, and to do it accurately, easily, and with minimal expense.
The current invention provides just such a solution by having a fulcrum device upon which a golf club head can be placed, and moved back and forth until it balances. The place upon which it balances is the true center of the golf club, and an appropriate location for a line to be placed guiding golfers where to strike the ball.
It is a principal object of the invention to provide a simple, inexpensive device that can be used to effectively find the true center of gravity for the head portion of a golf club.
It is another object of the invention to create a device upon which an existing golf club head can be placed to determine whether the line drawn on the head was placed correctly.
It should be understood the while the preferred embodiments of the invention are described in some detail herein, the present disclosure is made by way of example only and that variations and changes thereto are possible without departing from the subject matter coming within the scope of the following claims, and a reasonable equivalency thereof, which claims I regard as my invention.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. The features listed herein and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of this invention.
Many aspects of the invention can be better understood with the references made to the drawings below. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Instead, emphasis is placed upon clearly illustrating the components of the present invention. Moreover, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts through the several views in the drawings.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that the embodiments of the invention are not limited in their application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The embodiments of the invention are capable of being practiced and carried out in various ways. In addition, the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
It should be understood that while the preferred embodiments of the invention are described in some detail herein, the present disclosure is made by way of example only and that variations and changes thereto are possible without departing from the subject matter coming within the scope of the following claims, and a reasonable equivalency thereof, which claims I regard as my invention.
All of the material in this patent document is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in official governmental records but, otherwise, all other copyright rights whatsoever are reserved.
