Patent Application
20240050818
The present disclosure relates to a loft adjustment apparatus method for a golf putter.
In golf, players may use a variety of golf clubs to strike the golf ball. Club selection depends on a variety of factors such as whether the ball is being hit from the tee or the ground, the type of surface the ball is being hit from (fairway turf, sand, greens turf, rough, etc.), the distance the player wishes for the ball to travel, and the amount of backspin the player wishes to impart to the ball. In general, golf clubs can be classified as drivers, irons, wedges, and putters, although so-called “hybrid” clubs that incorporate features from more than one of these club types also exist. These club types differ from one another in a variety of ways, including the “loft” or angle of the club's face—the portion of the club head that strikes the golf ball.
Drivers, for example, are generally used for striking the ball when it rests upon a golf tee. The face of a driver generally has a minimal loft of around 10 degrees (i.e., it is not highly angled). This results in a relatively flat flight trajectory for the golf ball and imparts relatively low spin to the golf ball. Fairway woods, which are used to strike the ball from the fairway, will typically have loft ranging from approximately 3 degrees (3 wood) to approximately 18 degrees (5 wood). As club loft increases, ball flight trajectory becomes less flat, and more spin is imparted to the golf ball. Irons likewise have progressively more loft which results in even higher flight trajectories with more spin. For example, a 4 iron typically has a loft of approximately 20 degrees and a 9 iron typically has a loft of approximately 40 degrees.
Depending on playing style and swing or stroke mechanics, players may benefit from clubs with slightly more or less loft than is typical for a club of a given type. For example, if a player strikes the ball with a downward angle of attack, they may benefit from a club with more loft. In addition, the layout and conditions of a golf course may influence the amount of loft that a player desires for a particular club. For example, a player may desire a driver with slightly more loft on courses with relatively shorter fairways.
Although they have substantially less loft than other clubs, golf putters also have loft—with typical values of approximately 3 to 5 degrees. However, unlike other clubs where loft primarily impacts the golf ball's flight trajectory and spin, the loft of the putter also impacts the golf ball's interaction with the turf on the greens.
This is because when putting, both air friction and ground friction impact the distance that the ball travels, because the loft of the putter impacts the ratio of ground friction to air friction acting on the ball. Due to the impact of ground friction on the ball, the choice of loft for a putter may be driven in part by the speed of the green. Play on low speed greens will typically benefit from a putter with higher loft which imparts some lift to the ball upon striking, resulting in less rolling friction, while lower loft may be more suitable for faster greens with less friction.
The speed of putting greens may be measured, for example, with a device known as a stimpmeter. A stimpmeter is used to measure the speed of a putting surface by applying a known velocity to a golf ball and measuring the distance that the ball travels on the putting surface. In general, a green on which a ball travels eight feet is considered a “slow” green, a green on which a ball travels ten feet is considered a “medium” green, and a green on which a ball travels 12 feet is considered a “fast” green. Thus, the condition of the greens can have a substantial impact on the distance the ball travels.
Numerous patents have attempted to address golfers' desires to adapt their play to course layout, course conditions, and differing swing mechanics by providing golf clubs having a striking face which may be inclined at different angles to vary the club's loft. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,087 discloses a golf club design for an iron that allows the blade of the iron to be secured to the shaft at a variety of different angles, thus varying the loft of the striking face such that it may replace multiple individual irons.
Similar patents exist for putters. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 10,994,179 discloses a golf club putter design which allows the entire golf club head to be adjusted in order to vary the loft, lie, and mass of the golf club. U.S. Pat. No. 10,427,015 discloses a golf putter with adjusting components that may be engaged to adjust the loft of the blade relative to the housing component. These designs, however, are mechanically complex and have numerous components which may substantially increase manufacturing costs.
Moreover, the USGA's Rules of Golf impose certain requirements and limitations on golf equipment that may result in adjustable golf clubs being deemed as nonconforming and thus unsuitable for USGA sanctioned play. Among these rules are prohibitions against the use of clubs whose performance characteristics have been deliberately changed during a round of golf, including through the use of an adjustable feature of the club.
A need thus remains for a loft adjustment mechanism for a golf putter that may be installed on an existing golf putter head that is simple and economical to manufacture and use, and remains fixed for the duration of a round of golf such that it will be compliant with the USGA's Rules of Golf.
The present disclosure addresses this need by providing a loft adjustment apparatus for a golf putter that allows a player to adjust putter loft in view of greens conditions, swing characteristics, or other factors of concern to the player, while remaining mechanically simple and complying with the USGA's Rules of Golf. The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented elsewhere.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a loft adjustment mechanism for a golf putter that allows a player to adjust putter loft. The loft adjustment mechanism may comprise a plate, a plurality of spacers, and a plurality of locking screws.
The plate may have a shape generally similar to that of the face of the golf putter and may be comprised of materials such as aluminum, titanium, copper, or carbon-based plastic. The plate may have a plurality of holes into which locking screws may be inserted.
The plurality of spacers may be of a circular shape and may be tapered such that the top is thinner than the bottom. Alternatively, the plurality of spacers may be tapered such that the bottom is thinner than the top. The plurality of spacers may be composed of a variety of materials such as vinyl plastic, aluminum, copper, linen, or carbon-based plastic. Multiple sets of spacers with a variety of thickness profiles may be provided.
The plurality of locking screws may be standard self-locking screws that allow for removal with tools or may be permanent self-locking screws that may not be removed without destruction of the coupled components.
The loft adjustment apparatus may be attached to a golf putter in the following manner: the face of the putter may tapped to accept the screw threads from the plurality of locking screws; the plurality of spacers may be positioned between the plate and the golf putter head, and the plate may be coupled to golf putter head with the plurality of locking screws by passing them through the holes in the plate and the spacers and coupling them to the tapped holes in the face of the golf putter head.
Alternatively, the loft adjustment mechanism 10 may be installed on a golf putter at the time that the golf putter is first manufactured.
The selection of spacers with a top thinner than the bottom will result in the putter having a positive loft, which will tend to increase the distance traveled by the ball on the green, while the selection of spacers with a bottom thinner than the top will result in a negative loft which will tend to decrease the distance travelled by the ball on the green.
The plurality of spacers may suspend the center of the plate away from the face of the putter. Suspension of the plate away from the face of the putter in this manner provides additional advantages as it allows the plate to resonate at constant and specific vibration tones to assist the golfer in rolling the ball equal distances when imparting the same force to the ball.
These and other aspects will become apparent to those skilled in the art after a reading of the description when considered with the drawings.
Exemplary embodiments are illustrated in the referenced figures of the drawings. It is intended that the embodiment and figures disclosed herein are to be illustrative rather than limiting.
Several embodiments will be described more fully in reference to the accompanying figures. However, this disclosure should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements throughout. Thicknesses and dimensions of some components may be exaggerated for clarity.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “and,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “attached,” “coupled” or “connected” to another element, it can be directly attached, coupled or connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly attached,” directly coupled” or “directly connected” to another element, there are no intervening elements present.
All patents, patent applications and publications referred to herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In case of a conflict in terminology, the present specification is controlling.
It is noted that any one or more aspects or features described with respect to one embodiment may be incorporated in a different embodiment although not specifically described relative thereto. That is, all embodiments and/or features of any embodiment can be combined in any way and/or combination. Applicant reserves the right to change any originally filed claim, or file any new claim, accordingly, including the right to be able to amend any originally filed claim to depend from and/or incorporate any feature of any other claim although not originally claimed in that manner. These and other objects and/or aspects of the present invention are explained in detail in the specification set forth below.
It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and sub-combinations and are contemplated within the scope of the claims.
Referring now to
The plate 100 may generally correspond to the shape of golf putter head 20, namely the shape of the face of the golf putter head 200. The plate 100 may have one or more holes 101 for accepting screws. The spacers 110 may be of a generally circular shape and may have circular holes 111. The screws 120 may be semi-permanent or permanent locking screws.
The loft adjustment mechanism 10 may be attached to golf putter head 20 by coupling plate 100 to golf putter head 20 with screws 120. Spacers 110 may be inserted between plate 100 and golf putter head 20 to suspend plate 100 away from putter head and provide an open area or space between golf putter club head 20 and plate 100 behind the center of face 100.
Two primary variables under the golfers control impact a putt: 1) the contact area with the putter face itself; and 2) the speed of the putter head the golfer applies in stroking the ball.
In one embodiment, the spacers may suspend the face plate away from the putter head.
Suspension of the plate away from the putter head provides several advantages over a typical solid face putter and helps minimize the effect of one of the variables that impact a putt—the contact area with the putter face. Specifically, in a typical solid face putter there is no space between the contact plate and the putter head. In such a putter, vibration upon striking the ball is hardly recognizable to the golfer except upon a miss-hit. A miss-hit is when putter and ball contact is off the sweet spot or the center of mass, creating noticeable force vectors of varying vibrations.
In contrast, with a suspended face putter the contact face will resonate at constant and specific vibration tones, which assists the golfer in rolling the ball equal distances when providing the same force. Vibration tones for a face plate according to this embodiment were measured using a BISONIC C4096 tuning fork. When a tuning fork is struck, it vibrates to particular vibration rate or resonance. When placed on a solid putter, face the tuning fork shuts off immediately and ceases to vibrate. In contrast, when the tuning fork is placed on a suspended face coupled to the same putter in accordance with this embodiment, the tuning fork continues to vibrate at a consistent rate. This is true no matter where the tuning fork is placed on the suspended face putter, so long as it is placed between the locations where the face plate is coupled to the putter head, which encompasses all areas of the face plate that are likely to strike the ball during a putting stroke.
Testing demonstrates that the resonant vibration in the contact plate of the suspended face plate embodiment and the tuning fork continues to remain consistent with very little variance, regardless of where the ball is hit or contacted on the suspended face putter (with the exception of the attachment areas where the spacer and the screws hold the contact plate in place to the putter body). This creates a consistent roll coming off of the putter if the speed of the putter also remains constant, even if the ball is miss-hit.
The suspended plate embodiment thus minimizes or eliminates the impact of one the primary variables impacting putt performance—the contact area with the putter face—and leaves only one primary variable that the golfer must control—the speed of the putter head. This greatly simplifies the putting stroke and allows the golfer to putt with greater control and consistency on greens of any speed.
The loft adjustment mechanism 10 may be installed on an existing putter according to the following steps. First, it should be determined what degree of loft the player desires for the putter. While commercially available putters typically have loft angles between 3 and 5 degrees, the present invention can be configured to provide loft angles ranging from −10 degrees to 10 degrees.
In order to adjust the loft angle of the golf putter, the player may select an appropriate set of spacers 110. As shown in
Alternatively, or in addition, spacers 112 may be provided with a thickness profile such that the top is thinner than the bottom, which will result in the putter having a negative loft. Spacers 112 may be provided with differing thickness profiles to achieve negative lofts of −1 degree to −5 degrees, which will tend to cause the struck ball to bite into the turf, resulting in a slower speed and less distance traveled on relatively fast greens. In a preferred negative loft embodiment, the spacers 112 are configured such that the putter has a loft of −2 degrees.
Spacers 110 may be formed from a variety of materials including, for example, rubber, vinyl, plastic, aluminum, copper, titanium, linen, or carbon-based plastic.
Screws 120 may be of any commercially available kind suitable for semi-permanently coupling the plate 110 to the golf putter head 20. Use of semi-permanent locking screws allows for a player to set the loft of the putter prior to a round of golf and have the golf putter remain fixed for the duration of the match in order to comply with the USGA Rules of Golf-specifically, USGA Rule of Golf 4.1(a)(3), which prohibits use of “an adjustable feature or physically changing the club” during a round of golf. Thus, in a preferred embodiment, locking screws that require tools such as a screwdriver or hexagonal wrench for removal may be used for semi-permanent attachment in order to prevent the club from being easily modified (or accidentally adjusted) during a round of golf. However, because this embodiment utilizes semi-permanent locking screws, after a round of play the player may remove the loft adjustment apparatus from the golf putter, select a new set of spacers with a different thickness profile in order to set a new loft angle, and utilize the semi-permanent locking screws to once again semi-permanently couple the loft adjustment apparatus to the golf putter. In this way the player may adjust the loft of the putter prior to each round of golf in order to account for the green conditions of the course to be played.
Alternatively, screws 120 may be permanent locking screws that once coupled result in a permanent coupling. In this embodiment the player (or manufacturer of the putter) would decide on the preferred loft angle, select appropriate spacers, and permanently couple the plate to the golf putter such that it cannot be removed non-destructively.
Many different arrangements of the various components depicted, as well as components not shown, are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure have been described with the intent to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art that do not depart from its scope. A skilled artisan may develop alternative means of implementing the aforementioned improvements without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and sub-combinations and are contemplated within the scope of the claims.
