Patent Application
20200282268
This application claims priority back to U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 16/213,883, filed Dec. 7, 2018, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
This invention was not federally sponsored.
Lapuz-CIP-LieDetector
This invention relates in the field of putters and more specifically, to a lie adaptor that allows a putter manufacturer, club fitter, retailer, or consumer to adjust the length, lie, and shaft of his/her putter quickly, accurately and in economical manner.
The lie of a putter is extremely important, as an ideal putt will be accomplished with the toe and the heel of the putter level to the ground. If the toe is “up” in the air, the ball will be “pulled” off its intended target; when the toe is “down”, the ball will be “pushed”. In either case, even if the golfer perfectly lines up his/her putt, the ball will be unintentionally deflected away from the cup just because the lie was incorrect.
The length of a putter works with the lie angle to position the golfer's grip on the putter. Grip position changes depending on each golfer's unique body type and putting style. Two golfers of the same height might not have the same length of the arms thus each golfer would need a different length and lie angle on their respective putters to fit their body types. A putter with a length and lie angle that is not fit to the size of the golfer is detrimental to the golfer's ability to use the club. The golf industry has seen an increase in golf shops specializing in custom-fitted golf clubs.
The putter fitting process is a blend of objective and subjective feedbacks. The objective side is analyzing the data taken from various trials and observing the errors by use of the golf putter. Putter performance is measured utilizing high-speed cameras, accelerometer attachments, and laser alignment systems among other technologies. The subjective side is heavily weighted on the customers feeling toward the putter. Thus it is important to quickly and accurately be able to interchange various putter components to fit the putter to both types of feedback.
The advent of technology around measuring biomechanical movements has increased awareness around the importance of fitting equipment to optimize performance. The current putter fitting marketplace does not have a method to quickly change out the lie angle, shaft, or length of a putter without drastic changes to the putter head shape. The current tools used for putter fitting are not designed to be used on the golf course as they are not conforming to the United States Golf Associations rules and regulations.
Various efforts have been made for many years to resolve this problem, but none provides an efficient and economical solution.
There are some prior art examples. For examples, U.S. Pat. No. 7,931,542 to Kusumoto provides an adjustor element that can be screwed in between the shaft and the head of a wood. This invention, however, requires multiple threaded sections, support surfaces, and multiple adjuster elements.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0165115 to Matsunaga, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,591,352 to Hirano, both of these applications describe golf club heads that have cavities into which a variety of gravity point adjusters can be inserted to change the center of gravity of the club.
US Pub No. 2018/0028877, to Bennett provides an adaptor to receive the shaft, a plurality of sleeves that angle the shaft and bolt at the bottom that holds the assembly together. This requires multiple elements to be manufactured and assembled together requiring more time between changing out the lie angles and the shafts. The bottom bolt has to be completely removed to change out the shaft type. Furthermore, the adaptor must be inline and on the same plane as the shaft limiting the possible angles to the size of the bottom opening hole that receives the bolt. The receiving hole inside the putter head would need to be conical at a minimum. This conical-shaped hole would limit the design possibilities in weighing the head. Just as an example the industry-standard shaft if 0.370 inches in diameter. The adaptor sleeve would have to be greater than the shaft and the hole would be even greater than the adaptor sleeve. If we use a 4 degree angle change over a 1 inch length this would result in an opening that would need to be a minimum of 0.509 inch. This is over a 37.5% increase in the area being lost due to the hole opening. This calculation would be the absolute minimum the opening would have to be and this is not including the thickness of the adaptor itself. An elbow-shaped adaptor would allow the receiving hole to remain cylindrical to match the standard shaft diameter allowing the putter head itself to be relatively unchanged maintaining the proper weight distribution in the putter head to optimize the moment of inertia which translates into a larger sweet spot or more forgiving golf club.
US Pub No. 2011/0123265, to Moore provides an adaptor made up of a plurality of cylindrical sleeves with the angle cut into the cylinder. Similar to the Bennett patent, the adaptor angle must be in a continuous line into the putter head creating a hole that takes on an elliptical shape whichever increases the amount of space taken in the head. Using a similar example a shaft of 0.370 inch in diameter over a 1 inch length is limited to a 6 degree angle in a 0.500 inch diameter envelope. An elbow-shaped lie adaptor is not limited by a section of the putter head because the angle is being changed outside of the head on a separate plane.
US Pub No. 2004/0229712, to Jackson provides a shaft connected to a spherical shape that is embedded into the putter head and held at the desired angle by a set screw. This assembly does not allow the user to quickly change out the shaft length. The mechanism used to hold in the spherical shape is a plate held down by a plurality of bolts. The set screw is used to hold the angle. Thus by unscrewing the set screw, the assembly does not come apart rather the spherical shape is allowed to rotate freely causing the shaft to also rotate freely rendering the putter unusable. There is a high degree of inaccuracy to changing from one desired angle to another. Furthermore, it would be inefficient to try to switch out the shaft and to alter the length.
Neither of these inventions allows a quick and effective way to change the lie of the club. Thus, there has existed a long-felt need for an efficient and economical means by which the lie of a putter can be adjusted. The current invention provides a solution to this problem by providing a one-piece, small, lightweight adjuster that can be easily attached to the shaft and head of a putter to provide a variety of lie angles.
The lie adaptor that is described in this application offers a way that the lie of a putter can be adjusted such that the toe and heel of the putter will remain at the proper angle during putting. The basic concept is to create a solid piece of metal with two main parts that are slightly offset to one another, with a connecting piece by which the lie adaptor can be attached to the putter. By having a plurality of preset lie angles attached to a shaft (rotating the device), the putter head can be angled to correct an incorrect lie.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a lie adaptor that can be easily attached to the shaft and head of a putter to adjust the lie of the putter.
An additional object of the invention includes providing a lie adaptor that fits into the hollow shaft of a putter, and is also attachable to the putter head by a screw.
A further object of the invention is to provide a lie adaptor that has a cavity in its upper portion, into which a putter shaft, including a solid putter shaft, can be inserted.
Further objects of this invention include providing a single unit for effectively modifying the lie of a putter.
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 constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
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.
One preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Many aspects of the invention can be better understood with 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.
In one embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in
The canted joint 3 is manufactured to be “offset” from the adaptor hosel 2 by one or more degrees The canted joint 3 is configured to form an offset angle of connection between the putter shaft and the putter, The canted joint 3 includes a first shelf 6 that limits the depth of the lie adaptor.
The canted shaft 9 includes a male alignment guide 4, a threaded hole 5, a second shelf 7 and a connection face flat portion 8. The canted joint 3 connects the canted shaft 9 to the adaptor hosel 2. In one embodiment, the adaptor hosel 2 and the canted shaft 9 are on separate planes, namely, as illustrated in
The canted shaft 3 is inserted into a cavity in an upper portion of a putter head of a putter. In the preferred embodiment, the diameter of the canted shaft 3 is 0.355 inch or 0.370 inch, these are the industry standard shaft diameters. In one embodiment, the diameter of the canted shaft 9 is smaller than the inner diameter of the adaptor hosel 2, where the canted shaft 9 is configured to slide into the adaptor hosel 2.
It is contemplated that a variety of these lie adaptors could be made with a variety of offset angles, such that a shop adjusting the putter for a client could try out several different lie adaptors before selecting the one appropriate for that client and securing it into the putter shaft.
The male alignment guide 4 has a radius side. The Male Alignment Guide 4 can allow the lie adaptor to be inserted into putter head at two different angles, thereby allowing a user of the invention to select which angle would be appropriate for a particular golfer. The Male Alignment Guide 4 has a threaded hole 5 into which a bolt can be screwed to attach the lie adaptor to a putter head. A Connection face flat portion 8 secures the lie adaptor and prevents it from rotating within the cavity in the putter head. A second shelf 7 sits upon a corresponding shelf within the cavity of the putter head to maintain the amount that the lie adaptor is inserted into the cavity in the putter head. A first shelf 6 in between the adaptor hosel 2 and the canted joint 3 abuts the top of the cavity in the putter head, thereby providing additional control over the depth at what the lie adaptor 1 is inserted into the cavity in the putter head.
In this embodiment, the canted joint 3 is configured to form the offset angle of connection between the putter shaft and the putter, where the canted joint 3 is outside of the hosel outer 15 and where the putter shaft is on a separate plane to the canted shaft 9. Further, the canted joint 3 is outside of the hosel outer 15 on the putter head of the putter 13, and where the first shelf 6 has a first shelf diameter, and where the first shelf diameter is slightly larger than a diameter of the hosel outer 15 located on the putter head.
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.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16213883 | Dec 2018 | US |
| Child | 16857734 | US |
