GOLF FLAGPOLE SOCKET

Abstract

Sleeve (10) for a golf flagstick (40) comprising: a lower body (11) configured for insertion 5 into a hole (30) of a golf game; and wherein when a ball (20) is inserted into the golf hole (30) with the flag inserted into said hole (30), a first point of contact (c.1) is defined between the ball (20) and the golf flagstick (40); a second point of contact (c.2) between the ball (20) and a conical base (31) of the hole (30); and a third point of contact (c.3) between the ball (20) and the external surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10); characterized in that on the external surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) the third point of contact (c.3) is configured at any angular position between 271° and 310° with respect to the Cartesian axis (X,Y) of the ball (20).

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is a sleeve for a golf flagstick which is a mechanism for ejecting a golf ball from the hole without damaging it, with the flag attached.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to Rule 13. 2nd of the game of golf which allows the flag not to be removed when the ball resides in the area called the green, where the club called the putt is normally used. The problem to be solved is that the edge of the hole is frequently damaged when the player removes his ball with the flag on. Before the modification of this rule, this did not happen, because with the flag removed there was enough room to put the hand in the hole without damaging it.

In the prior art there are several patents that either do not address this problem or do not solve it adequately, for example, in USD 939,653; U.S. Pat. No. 8,740,716B1; KR102189431; U.S. Pat. No. 10,471,316B1; ES217293333T3; U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,045A; US20200330832A1.

One of the drawbacks of the devices described in the above patents is that there is a basket (1.1) which can damage the hole when removing and inserting the flag, as can be seen in FIG. 1. It is also problematic that the ball (20) does not release well from the basket. In fact, the use of the basket is not new in the sport of golf, but its use has always been confined to the flags on the practice greens. They are not used on the flags of each official 18-hole course, because they can damage the hole and because it is uncomfortable to handle them when installed on a long-playing flag—the practice flags are short-.

On the other hand, on a practice green, it is not so important to damage the hole. The only advantage offered by the baskets is the possibility of taking out more than one ball at the same time, which is useful when practicing—it is done with several balls-, but is not of interest in the playing holes, where only one ball is used.

Another disadvantage lies in the fact that the ball, in general, is not released from the basket, except when using a large, round and convex ring in relation to the ground plane that pushes the ball to the outside of the center of the hole and where, due to that convex shape, the ball will be rubbing the walls of the hole looking for the exit, with the risk of damaging the perimeter grass when it gets it. With the rest of the baskets, it is necessary to help the flag by tilting it to release the ball or balls. This is very uncomfortable and costly with putting green flags, which are small.

With the long flags it would be practically impossible to play with only one hand, two hands would be needed, one to lift the flag and the other to pick up the ball, since when the player goes to pick up the ball from the hole, he usually carries the putter in one of his hands with which he has just hit it. He would have to rest it on the ground and then pick it up, totally contrary to the objective that is ultimately sought, speed of play, or at best, take the flagpole with the same hand with which the putter is held, very difficult.

Explanation of the Invention

An object of the present invention is a golf flagstick socket configured to remove only one ball, the playing ball, and to allow the player to do so cleanly and effectively with only a slight tug on the flag, thanks to a slight modification of the current sockets of the playing flags and not the practice flags. The modification enlarges the radius of the current socket by only 5 mm, so that both its appearance and its current functionality are virtually unchanged.

More specifically, the object of the present invention is achieved with a sleeve according to claim 1. Particular and/or preferred embodiments of the invention are shown in the dependent claims.

Thanks to the claimed sleeve the hole is not damaged because the player does not have to reach inside the hole. It must be remembered that nowadays the player always puts his hand in because he knows that pulling the flag is not a solution, the designs of the current caps do not allow this action to be effective. Most of the time the ball stays back in the hole and damages it greatly due to the shape of the current caps. If the flag is pulled with the ball inside the hole, the thrust to the ball would be exerted from the top of the socket contacting a point of the ball too far from its center, which together with the contact surface of the current sockets being inclined, the result is a lateral thrust of the ball towards the walls of the hole, trapped between the socket and the wall, instead of vertical looking for the exit of the hole. However, if the pull is very strong, the ball can still get out, but the damage, both to the hole and to the edge of the grass on the green surface is very great, which is not recommended at all.

Furthermore, the present invention has the added advantage of being a minimal modification of the flag socket and, therefore, the socket does not become a kind of basket (as in the prior art) which itself damages the edges of the hole when the flag is taken out and put in. In cases where the flag is indeed taken out—the rule allows kicking with the flag on or with the flag off—the present baskets are very large in diameter and their handling is very awkward for depositing and picking up the flag back from the ground. Even their edges could mark the surface of the green that requires so much care. For all these reasons, the present baskets are not installed in any playing hole, only in the practice holes. The present invention solves this problem.

Throughout the description and the claims, the word “comprises” and

variants thereof are not intended to exclude other technical features, additives, components or steps. To those skilled in the art, other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be apparent in part from the invention and in part from the practice of the invention. The following examples and drawings are provided by way of illustration and are not intended to restrict the present invention. Furthermore, the invention covers all possible combinations of particular and preferred embodiments indicated herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following is a very brief description of a series of drawings which help to better understand the invention, and which relate expressly to an embodiment of said invention, which is illustrated as a non-limiting example thereof.

FIG. 1. It shows a view of a basket according to the present state of the art.

FIG. 2. It shows a comparison between a sleeve according to the state of the art.

FIG. 3. It shows a schematic view of a sleeve according to the present invention inserted in a hole and with a golf ball resting thereon.

FIG. 4. It shows a schematic view of a sequence of extraction of a golf ball inserted in a hole and extractable thanks to the sleeve of the invention.

FIG. 5. It shows the point of contact of maximum efficiency between the sleeve of the invention and a golf ball introduced into a hole.

FIG. 6. It shows the range of maximum efficiency contact between the sleeve of the invention and a golf ball introduced into a hole.

FIG. 7. It shows two views of an adapter or attachment for a prior art sleeve for transforming it into a sleeve according to the present invention, in section (left) and complete (right).

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF A MODE OF REALIZATION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1, as mentioned above, shows a basket (1.1) of the kind described in the prior art which, due to its shape, necessarily forces the ball (20) to rest higher than in its normal position at the bottom of the hole (30), which, in addition, increases the risk of the ball (20) bouncing on the flat part of the basket (1.1) and could fall out of the hole (30), which is one of the reasons why they are not installed in the playing holes.

FIG. 2 shows how the conical sleeve (1.2) according to the prior art with an essentially conical shape and concentrically coupled to the club of a golf flag (40) which, in turn, is inserted into a hole (30) remaining between the ball and the hole (30) a nearly triangular free space (32).

However, in FIG. 3, there is observed a sleeve (10) for golf flagstick (40) according to the present invention, wherein, without changing the normal resting position of the ball (20) on a conical base (31) of the hole (30), the sleeve (10) can push the ball (20) from underneath the latter, taking advantage of the free space (32) existing between the ball (20) and the hole (30) when the ball is at rest, said free space (32) being of an area considerably smaller than that created by the conical sleeves (1.2).

For this purpose, the ball (20) is supported—at least-on three contact points (c.1, c.2, c.3), which reduces the area of the free space (32) on which to act without modifying the position of the ball (20). The first contact point (c.1) is between the ball (20) and the club (40) of the golf flag, being aligned with the horizontal equator (22) of the ball (20) in a particular non-limiting embodiment. The second point of contact (c.2) is established between the conical base (31) of the hole (30) and the ball (20). The third contact point (c.3), which is also configured as a thrust point of the ball (20) in its extraction from the hole (30), is established between the sleeve (10) and the ball (20). In any case, the contact points indicated are in an idealized and illustrative situation of the operation of the invention, since, in reality, there may be dirt and/or soil in the hole (30) that alters the relative position of the contact points, without this entailing an alteration of the operation of the invention.

Using the Cartesian axes X, Y of the ball section (20) the first point of contact (c.1) will be approximately at 0° (first quadrant), the second point of contact (c.2) will be at a position between 235° and 270° (third quadrant), while the third point of contact and thrust (c.3) will be at a position between 271° and 310° (fourth quadrant).

For maximum effectiveness in the extraction of the ball (20), the third point of contact and thrust (c.3) cannot be in the vertical of the transverse axis of the ball (20), i.e., it cannot be in the 270° position. In this position it would cause the completely vertical 30 ascent of the ball (20) and, foreseeably, also a vertical descent back to the hole (30). It is for this reason that the third point of contact and thrust (c.3) must be displaced from the vertical, at an angle between 1° and 40° (from 271° to 310° on the XY axis of the ball (20)), as can best be seen in FIG. 6, although in a preferred embodiment, an angle of 6°(276° on the XY axis of the ball (20)) has been established as the optimum point of extraction of the ball (20) from the hole (30).

Pushing the ball (20) at this off-center point with respect to the vertical of the ball (20) allows the ball (20) to travel practically vertically during the first moments of the ascent and, with a slight forward-spin effect, begins to be felt when the ball 20 has passed the line of the floor of the green, practically outside the hole 30, beginning to rotate in the direction in favor of its own horizontal displacement, which moves the ball away from the hole with its satisfactory extraction. This forward-spin effect is described in the sequence of FIG. 4. Again, contrary to the basket of FIG. 1, whose object is to pick up the ball 20, in the case of the sleeve 10 of the invention, the technical effect obtained is the expulsion of the ball 20.

Thanks to the described invention, the following technical problems faced to date by existing sleeves are solved. First, the socket of the present invention is 5 mm (approximately) larger than the present sockets, making the use of additional baskets or devices unnecessary. Precisely this minimal modification facilitates that, in cases where the flag is removed from the hole, with the sleeve of the invention the flag can be replaced without difficulty. Moreover, since its diameter is very small in relation to the hole, the latter will not be damaged in any way.

The present invention, as indicated above, drives the ball forward-spin cleanly out of the hole without the use of the hands. With the ball on the ground outside the hole, the player can hit it with the putter in his hand and move it away from the playing area near the flag, which makes the game faster, and more importantly, the player does not have to reach into the hole with the risk of damaging it, something that is happening generally in all golf courses since the new rule was imposed that allows kicking without removing the flag.

The sleeve of the invention (10) geometrically comprises lower body (11), cylindrical and insertable in the hole (30) in the same way as the conical sleeves (1.2) of the prior art. The particularity of the sleeve (10) of the invention is that its upper body (12) also essentially conical, has a base radius greater than that of the traditional sleeves (approximately 5 mm greater, as shown in FIG. 3) in such a way as to define an external surface which is where the third point of contact and thrust (c.3) is defined.

This external surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) can adopt different geometries, depending on the angle at which is located-precisely—the third contact point (c.3). In a particular embodiment, this outer surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) is preferably concave and a profile in correspondence with the diameter of the ball (20), as depicted in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. But in other cases, it can adopt a practically straight geometry (FIGS. 6 and 7). Moreover, that outer surface (13) need not be intrinsic to the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) but may be an implement to the traditional tapered sleeves (1.2), as best seen in FIG. 7.

In any case, the essential characteristic on the external surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) is not its concave or straight geometry, but the position of the third point of contact (c.3) with respect to the vertical axis (Y) of the ball (20), in such a way that the range of efficiency in the extraction of the ball 20 is established between the angles 271° and 310°, preferably, between 273° and 300°, and more preferably at 276° with respect to the Cartesian axis XY of the ball 20 introduced into the hole 30, as can best be seen in FIGS. 5 and 6.

Thanks to the position of the third contact point (c.3) an ejection with a minimum effort of the player is achieved, where the 20 ball goes up without touching the walls of the hole 30 or its edge and that, when leaving, due to the displacement of the third contact point with respect to the vertical axis Y of the 20 ball, it does it with a forward-spin effect to move the 20 ball away from the hole 30.

Note, moreover, that the angular ranges described are dynamic, i.e., the closer the position of the third contact point (c.3) is to the angle of 276° (in another notation)−84° the more efficient the forward-spin effect will be in extracting the ball 20 from the hole 30. Thus, any angular position between the ranges indicated should be considered as explicitly described in the present invention.

Claims

1. A sleeve (10) for a golf flagstick (40) comprising: a lower body (11) configured for insertion into a golf hole (30);an upper body (12) comprising an outer surface;and that when a ball (20) is inserted into the golf hole (30) with the flag inserted into said hole (30), a first point of contact (c.1) is defined between the ball (20) and the golf flag pole (40); a second point of contact (c.2) between the ball (20) and a conical base (31) of the hole (30); and a third point of contact (c.3) between the ball (20) and the outer surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10);characterized in that on the outer surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) the third point of contact (c.3) is configured at any angular position between 271° and 310° with respect to the Cartesian axis (X, Y) of the ball (20) inserted in the hole (40).

2. The sleeve (10) according to claim 1 wherein the third contact point (c.3) is at any angular position comprised between 273° and 300° with respect to the Cartesian axis (X, Y) of the ball (20) inserted in the hole (40).

3. The sleeve (10) according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the third contact point (c.3) is at an angular position of 276° with respect to the Cartesian axis (X, Y) of the ball (20) inserted in the hole (40).

4. The sleeve (10) according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the outer surface of the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) is concave with a diameter in correspondence with the diameter of the ball (20).

5. The sleeve (10) according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the upper body (12) of the sleeve (10) is an external element adaptable to the upper body of a conical sleeve (1.2).