Patent Application
20120028726
The present invention relates to the game of golf; and more specifically, to a golf practice ball designed for players in search of improved putting skills.
Golf is a challenging game requiring a golfer to dedicate time to practice. Putting is one of the most difficult parts of the sport. To putt well consistently is very difficult. A good putt requires the player to strike the ball with his/her a putter in the desired direction with a stroke of proper speed. Achieving this requires an accelerating smooth and continuing stroke through the ball. A good stroke swings through the original ball position while the golfer barely perceives the impact of the club with the ball. Many golfers have difficulties in aligning their putts and making a smooth putting stroke.
It is generally accepted that a correct execution of a putt requires the face of the putter to be exactly perpendicular to the desired starting direction of ball travel. If the clubface at the time its meets the ball is not perpendicular or “square” to the desired direction the typical result will be a missed putt.
To make putting easier, it is known to include alignment lines on either or both of the ball and the putterhead to allow the golfer to properly align the clubface properly in relation to the direction of ball travel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,172 to Yamamoto, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, teaches a golf ball and a putting club, which each include alignment lines. The ball includes equatorial markings that are at right angles to each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,799 to Balmat, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a golf ball with two perpendicular lines, one indicating the direction of travel, one indicating the alignment of the putter head.
Other arrangements of alignment lines have also been proposed, but despite the availability of such technologies, golfers still struggle to putt consistently and accurately.
It is an object of the invention to provide a golf putting practice ball that aids the player to position his eyes vertically above the ball at the time of aligning his putt and striking the ball.
It is an object of the invention to provide a golf putting practice ball that aids the player to accurately align the golf ball to the intended direction of travel and align the clubface in proper angle relative to the properly aligned ball.
It is an object of the invention to provide a golf putting practice ball that aids the player to learn to make a putting stroke with appropriate power.
It is an object of this invention to provide an accurate golf putting practice ball that in use will provide immediate visual feedback to the player regarding whether the ball has been properly striken.
It is an object of this invention to provide a golf putting practice ball that helps golfers to become more consistent in putting, which leads to better scores.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description considered together with the accompanying drawing.
The present invention comprises a practice putting golf ball and method adapted to provide the user with significant and useful visual feedback about the user's putting stroke. The golf putting practice ball has two visually contrasting parts of the total surface area, one of lighter color than the other being a darker color or black, and a visually contrasting aiming line located on the lighter color half positioned in 90 degree angle to the border between the two halves of different color, and optionally, a second visually contrasting line located on the lighter colored half running parallel to the aiming line. A visually contrasting mark is located on the equator of the ball at a location 90° away from the aiming line. In other words, for purposes of illustration, if the aiming line is located on the equator of the ball, the visually contrasting mark is located at the “North Pole” of the ball. In the preferred embodiment, a weight is positioned off center totally inside the darker colored half of the ball and axially aligned with the aiming line.
When practicing, a golfer will start by placing the ball on the ground with the aiming line aligned with a line of travel to a hole, and with the visually contrasting mark located on a far side of the ball away from the player; the golfer will position his head over the ball as far as necessary for the golfer to be able to see the visually contrasting mark with the golfer's one eye directly over the ball; and will execute a putting stroke by hitting the ball with the face of the club in 90 degree angle to the aiming line. The golfer can visually detect whether his/her clubface hit the ball squarely by seeing whether the ball keeps rotating with the aiming line maintaining a recurrent positioning at the top of the ball on every rotation while the ball maintains its directional stability. The player will also get a sense of the power used in hitting the ball by viewing the visually contrasting upper and lower sections as they alternately become visible as during ball rotation, creating a slower or faster pulsating impression depending on the power of the putting stroke used. The user then uses the visual feedback to modify his putting stroke, until the user's putting has improved.
All references in the explanations of the illustrations made to such expressions as left side, right side, top, bottom, upper and/or lower part, front side, striking side, far side and similar descriptions are made based the positioning of a ball on a putting green for use by a right handed player. Additional references to the player's view are taken from the right handed player's position to start his/her putting stroke (addressing the ball) with his/her feet and shoulders approximately perpendicular to the intended line of the putt, with the club head of his/her putting club positioned at the rear side (his/her right side) of the ball, and his/her head directly above the ball.
All drawings are illustrations of the various versions of the ball, all made for a right handed player. Illustrations of the same balls made for left handed players would be mirror images of those described in this patent application.
Referring now to
The section of the surface of the top half 12 and the bottom half 16 of the ball have visually contrasting appearances. In one preferred embodiment, the top section 12 is colored by a light color, and the lower section 16 is of a darker color. In the most preferred embodiment, the upper top section 12 is yellow and comprises the entire surface of the top half of the ball 14, and the bottom section 16 is black and comprises the entire surface of the bottom half 18 of the ball 10. The outer surface of ball 10, including the upper and lower halves of the ball 12 and 16 may have a surface of a variety of textures, and may be same or similar to that of a conventional dimpled golf ball, or it may be smooth, or be combinations of the two or of other surface characteristics.
A visually contrasting aiming line 20 going across the lighter area of the ball on the equator of the ball in the upper surface 12. As can be seen in the Figures, aiming line 20 preferably extends across the lighter color section of the surface of the upper half of the ball in a direction in 90 degree angle to the border between the lighter and darker color sections.
A visually contrasting mark 22 is located on the border between the lighter and darker color sections at a location 90° away from the aiming line 20. Mark 22 may be of any desired shape and is sized to be visible when the ball is viewed from above.
In the second and third embodiments embodiment shown in
The United States Golf Association specifies a maximum total mass of 45.93 grams for regulation golf balls. In one embodiment, golf ball 10 has a total mass 45.93 grams or less. In one embodiment, the total mass of golf ball 10 is greater than 45.93 grams. For example, the total mass may be between 50 grams and 92 grams. A golf ball 10 with a higher total mass is advantageous because it rotates and travels more slowly, allowing the golfer to count the rotations and discern the exact travel path and rotation of golf ball 10. Furthermore, a higher total mass is advantageous because it gives golf ball 10 higher inertia, providing resistance to the golfer when he/she is hitting the ball with his/her putting stroke. This resistance forces the golfer to have a more powerfull putting stroke, primarily with longer follow-through. Practice with a heavier golf ball will train the golfer to have a longer, smoother putting stroke, even when the golfer returns to use a golf ball of a regular weight.
In one preferred embodiment, a weight 30 is embedded in ball 10. Weight 30 is shown in phantom outline in
Methods of golf putting practice using ball 10 are illustrated in
A practice putt stroke is executed by moving the club 108 in a path which brings the clubface at impact at a 90 degree angle or square to the aiming line 20 so that the putter head 106 hits the ball with the club face 108 perpendicular to the aiming line 20. To improve his/her chances of making a good putt the player keeps his/her head 102 in the position which enables him/her to see the visually contrasting mark 22 from above and keep it there until the follow through part of the putting stroke is completed.
Some putting techniques recommend looking at the hole, instead of the ball, and the present invention can be adapted to those techniques if the initial set up of the shot follows the positioning described above, followed by movement of the head to look at the hole, instead of the ball.
The player 100 visually detects whether his club face 108 hits the ball 10 squarely to provide a correctly aimed putting stroke by determining the degree of directional stability of the primary aiming line 20 (and if present the secondary aiming line 24) while the ball keeps rotating towards its desired direction during the putt. Aiming line 20 and second aiming line 24 provide visual feedback as to the squareness of the putting stroke as the ball 10 rotates. If the putting stroke produces a square impact, the aiming line 20 and second aiming line 24 will appear clear and distinct and remain in a stable directional rotation during the ball's travel. If the putt stroke is not straight and square, aiming line 20 and second aiming line 24 will go off the intended line losing directional stability.
The player 100 also visually detects whether his putter 104 hit the ball with the correct force to provide a correctly powered putting stroke by viewing the visually contrasting upper and lower sections 12 and 16 as they alternately become visible as during repetitive ball rotations. The player 100 can use this visual cue to estimate ball rotation speed. The alternation of the visually contrasting upper and lower sections 12 and 16 provides the user with feedback on the speed of travel and rotation of golf ball 10. The frequency of change between the visually contrasting upper and lower sections 12 and 16 or the visual impression of pulsation is influenced by the rotational speed of golf ball 10. The harder the ball 10 is hit the faster it rotates and the further it travels, and the higher is the frequency of pulsation of the visual impression experienced by the player. The user 100 can even count the rotations of golf ball 10. This allows the player 100 to make more informed adjustments to putting technique in future play for example by learning that only four and a half rotations are necessary for the ball to travel a distance of two feet, a specially scary length of putt to players suffering of putting yips. As a consequence the player may be able change his/her attitude of the degree of difficulty of the two feet long putt by starting to believe that he/or she needs to make the ball to travel in a desired direction only very few rotations, which with this realization no longer would feel difficult at all, and instead as a task mastering of which anybody should be able to learn quickly with the help of the ball of the invention.
Rotation of the heavier version of the practice ball having a mass of between 50 and 92 grams will seem slower than a normal weight ball. The darker coloring of the bottom section magnifies the sense of the ball's slow rotation giving the impression as if the ball would be pulsating. The player therefore learns to focus and see each rotation, initially with a heavier weight ball with slower rotations, then with a standard weight ball showing faster rotations, such that eventually the user can visualize the exact number of rotations necessary for the ball to travel from its starting point all the way to the hole in putts of any given distance. The player can mentally visualize a slow motion video showing every rotation of the ball over its entire path with the last rotation falling into the hole and use this visualization to control how hard to hit his/her putting stroke.
The weight 30 also helps improve swing smoothness and the follow through part of the putting stroke. Since the center of mass of the golf ball in the third embodiment is in a substantially different location than golf ball three dimensional center. Golf ball 10 with weight 30 has an asymmetric rotational pattern. The weighted putting practice ball 10 moves generally slower and travels shorter distance than regular golf balls.
The player will practice with the ball 10 and uses the visual feedback provided by the ball to modify and hone his/her putting stroke, until the his/her's putting has improved.
Although the invention has been described with reference to embodiments herein, those embodiments do not limit the scope of the invention. Modification to those embodiments or different embodiments may fall within the scope of the invention.
