The present invention relates generally to the game of golf. More particularly, it relates to a reeled golf club cover retainment system which is modular and thereby allows for reeled retainment of one or a plurality of golf club covers on retractable flexible members or lanyards.
The game of golf has been played worldwide for hundreds of years. While equipment has evolved over time, the basic game still employs a set of golf clubs which are specialized to yield a particular flight of a golf ball when struck correctly.
Many of the golf clubs carried in a golf bag by golfers are protected by golf club covers. Such may be made of woven or unwoven fabrics and are conventionally engaged upon the head portions of the clubs chosen for such covers.
When so engaged, conventional golf club covers are configured to protect the golf club heads and shafts from dirt and damage which can occur when the clubs are jostled during movement of the golf bag. Additionally, some golf club covers can have value as souvenirs and bear indicia about a golf course the golfer has played in the past.
Whether used just for club protection or held and employed for souvenir value, such golf club covers can easily be lost when dismounted from a club being used. This occurs when they are left at a position where the golfer may have removed them and dropped them or forgotten them. Such is a significant problem where the covers cannot be replaced or are costly to replace.
With respect to the above, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the golf club cover retainment system herein, it is to be understood that the disclosed retainment device and system are not limited in application to the details of employment and to the arrangement of the components or the steps set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The various apparatus and operations of the herein disclosed golf club cover retainment system herein are capable of other embodiments, and of being practiced and carried out in various ways, all of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art once the information herein is reviewed.
Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description, and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized reeled golf club cover retainment systems. It is important, therefore, that the embodiments, objects and claims herein, be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
The golf club cover retention system herein disclosed and described provides for the reeled retainment of individual golf club covers to the golf bag in which the golf clubs on which the club covers are situated. In a simplest mode of the device, a primary reeled retainer can be employed which has a flexible member or lanyard which is engaged to an internal reel.
The flexible member may be metal or polymeric, natural fiber, or metal formed to a flexible member, or other flexible material which will wind on an internal reel and thereby connect the reel and the surrounding housing to the chosen golf club cover. A fastener located at the distal end of the flexible member is configured for a secure engagement with the golf club cover of choice. Such may be a spring loaded clip, mating fasteners on the cover and the flexible member, magnets, or other connectors configured for a connection to a golf club cover. Currently preferred is a clip which engages a portion of the cover between two coaxial round connector portions which has been found in experimentation, to form a non-slip and especially secure connection of the clip to the cover. Additionally, a rotating barrel connector positioned between the clip and the flexible member has been found to reduce twisting of the flexible member when in use. While the device works well with a clip having the coaxially positionable connector portions, and without such a rotating barrel connector, the addition of the rotational barrel in combination with the clip, was found in experimentation to enhance the prevention of snags and other problems with the flexible member when retracted upon the reel which occurred without the rotating barrel.
The retainment system herein can be used in singular reels and can also be employed in a modular configuration to allow for a plurality of first and secondary housings to be engaged together. Each of the housings has a flexible member operatively engaged with an interior-positioned reel.
Each of the secondary housings are configured with connectors on one side of their housing which will allow for a removable engagement with receptors on the opposite side of the housing of an adjacent reel housing. Thus, a first secondary housing may be removably engaged with the primary housing and thereby form a modular retainment system with two reels and two flexible members which will connect to two golf club covers.
Because the secondary housing has housing connectors on an opposite side from its connection to the first or primary housing, a third housing with a third reel and flexible member can be engaged therewith, as well as subsequent connected housings to form a plurality of housings connected in a sequential engagement to each other. By sequential engagement is meant herein that a first or primary housing is connectable to a golf bag and any number of secondary housings are engaged to the first housing and each other in a row, wherein only the first housing need be connected to the bag. The modular system thus allows the user to engage any number of secondary housings with reeled flexible members to a primary housing in a modular retainment system.
The reels of each of the primary housing and the secondary housings are configured to unwind and allow a flexible member, wound thereon, to connect to an individual chosen golf club head cover. As noted, at the distal end of each flexible member, opposite the first end which is engaged to a reel, is positioned a clip to removably connect the flexible member to a chosen golf club cover. Such, for example, may be a spring loaded alligator type clips (well known), magnets, snaps, buttons, or other grasping fasteners adapted to engage the distal end of a flexible member, to a chosen club cover.
Currently, a spring loaded clip having coaxially positionable connectors on opposing clip members, which hold a cover therebetween around a circumference of each, is preferred due to the especially secure connection which resists sliding and slipping of the cover from the clip. Additionally preferred are a rotating barrel positioned in between the distal end of the flexible member and the clip.
Currently, in one preferred mode of the system herein, the connectors positioned on a first sidewall of the first or primary housing are configured for engagement to a mating connector located on a sidewall of adjacently positioned housings. One such connector is a twist lock engagement of receptors on the first or primary housing and an adjacent secondary housing. Such a twist lock is accomplished by projections forming the connectors and by recesses on the adjacent housing forming the receptors. Thus, a user need only line up and insert the mating connectors on one housing into the recesses of an adjacent housing, and then rotate them in opposite directions to thereby lock the projections into the recesses.
Alternatively, magnets on the first or primary and the secondary housings can magnetically connect to magnetically attractive locations on adjacent housings. In another mode, first connectors, on one side of each housing, are configured to engage with secondary connectors on a side of secondary housings to provide for this sequential engagement of additional housings to the primary housing and secondary housings as needed. This ability to connect additional housings in sequence is especially preferred, in all modes of the device, to allow the user to add as many housings with reels and flexible members connected to more club covers as needed.
With respect to the above description, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the herein disclosed modular golf club cover retainment system herein, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention herein described, is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other reeled modular golf club cover retainment systems and for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
As used in the claims to describe the various inventive aspects and embodiments, “comprising” means including, but not limited to, whatever follows the word “comprising”. Thus, use of the term “comprising” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present. By “consisting of” is meant including, and limited to, whatever follows the phrase “consisting of”. Thus, the phrase “consisting of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, and that no other elements may be present. By “consisting essentially of” is meant including any elements listed after the phrase, and limited to other elements that do not interfere with or contribute to the activity or action specified in the disclosure for the listed elements. Thus, the phrase “consisting essentially of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present depending upon whether or not they affect the activity or action of the listed elements. Finally, the term “substantially” if not otherwise defined for size or dimension or positioning of a specific part or configuration, means plus or minus ten percent.
It is an object of this invention to provide a modular system for attaching flexible members to golf club covers where a primary housing of the system engages with a golf bag and secondary housings will engage with the primary housing and/or secondary housings and provide a flexible member to engage with a chosen golf club cover.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present golf club cover retainment system, as well as the advantages thereof over existing prior art, will become apparent from the description to follow, and are accomplished by the improvements described in this specification and hereinafter described in the following detailed description which fully discloses the invention, but should not be considered as placing limitations thereon.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some, but not the only or exclusive, examples of embodiments and/or features of the various modes of the modular golf club cover retainment invention herein which as noted may be employed singularly or in combination. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than limiting.
In the drawings:
Other aspects of the present golf club cover retainment system herein shall be more readily understood when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the following detailed description, neither of which should be considered limiting.
In this description, the directional prepositions of up, upwardly, down, downwardly, front, back, top, upper, bottom, lower, left, right, first, second, and other such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears in the drawings and are used for convenience only, and they are not intended to be limiting or to imply that the modular golf club cover retainment device has to be used or positioned in any particular orientation.
Now referring to drawings in
As shown in
The reel 14, as noted, is rotationally engaged within the interior cavity 16 upon an axle 18. A surrounding sidewall 26 is engaged between the first sidewall 22 or the first cavity sidewall 24 and a second sidewall 28.
While not required, the engagement of the first cavity sidewall 24 and second sidewall 28 to opposing sides of the surrounding sidewall 26 is preferably removable to allow access to the interior cavity 16 for insertion and removal of the reel 14. Such may be by snaps, clips, mating fasteners, or by using projections on one component operatively engageable with receptors on the other.
In both of the primary housing 12 and secondary housings 17, the reel 14 is wound with a flexible member 20 formed of wire, polymeric, or plastic material which will wind and unwind from the reel 14, as needed. In all modes of the system 10, a clip 32 is engaged with the distal end of the flexible member 20 which extends from a first end connection to a reel 14 of an assembled device 10. Each clip 32 is configured for a biased removable engagement to a golf club cover 34 such as is shown in
In
Shown in
A clip 32 is engaged at the distal end of the flexible member 20, either directly, or more preferably, in a rotating connection. By rotating connection is meant herein that the clip 32 will rotate in a connection at the second end of the flexible member 20 without twisting the flexible member 20.
Currently, such a rotating connection is achieved using a barrel connector 45 in-between the clip 32 and flexible member 20. The barrel connector 45 has a barrel 46 which rotates around a shaft 47 extending to the connection to the flexible member 20 and engages to the clip 32 to allow the clip 32 to rotate with the barrel 46 around the shaft 47. This is preferred as it allows the clip 32, and any club cover 34 engaged thereto, to rotate without twisting the flexible member 20. This prevents kinks and other issues which would develop from twisting of the flexible member 20 which might jamb the reel 14. Other rotating connections as would occur to those skilled in the art may be employed and are considered within the scope of this patent.
In
In the mode of the housing connectors shown in
Depicted in
In
Also shown in
Also shown in
As also noted, in all modes of the system 10, the housing connector 57 can be configured using first and second portions thereof which formed by housing connectors 57 which are magnets, adhesive, twist locks, hooks and hook receptors, and other configurations of such housing connectors 57, where one half engages the other, as would occur to those skilled in the art. In a simple mode of the housing connector 57, it can be adhesive, where a first sidewall 22 of one housing 12 is adhesively engaged to one side of an adjacent housing 12 or 17 to yield the sequenced positioning of a plurality of housings, such as in
As noted above,
In
The stacked housings show the primary housing 12 of
The housing connector 57 engages each adjacently positioned primary or secondary housing to the others by connection of the first portion 56 of the housing connector on one housing to the second portion 58 of the housing connector 57 on the other. There can be any number of housings in the stacked or sequential engagement and each would engage the adjacent housings in this manner, and the connected sequence of housings will only have to engage the bag 15 with the bag connector 13 on what would be the primary housing 12, since it has the bag connector 13 thereon. As noted above, the housing connector 57 can be formed in many configurations, so long as the first portion 56 thereof will engage the second portion 58 thereof.
Shown in
Particularly preferred are the depicted first clip contact 62 which is substantially configured in a first circle which is positioned on a first clip member 70 manner such that it surrounds the circular second clip contact 64 located on the second clip member 72. The first clip contact 62 has a circumference larger than the second clip contact 64. When the clip 32 is biased by a clip spring 74 to a closed position in
Also, as shown in
The description of the features of the modular golf club cover retainment invention does not limit the claims of this application, and, other applications developed by those skilled in the art upon reviewing this application are considered to be included in this invention.
It is additionally noted and anticipated that although the cover retainment device is shown in its most simple form and potential configurations, various components and aspects of the disclosed wing system may be differently shaped or slightly modified when forming the invention herein. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate the descriptions and depictions set forth in this disclosure are merely meant to portray examples of preferred modes of the modular golf club cover retainment system herein within the overall scope and intent of the invention, and are not to be considered limiting in any manner.
Further, while all of the fundamental characteristics and features of the golf club cover retainment invention have been shown and described herein, with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure as well as the claims which follow, and it will be apparent that in some instances, some features of the invention may be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. It should also be understood that various substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Consequently, all such modifications and variations and substitutions are included within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/150,952, filed on Feb. 18, 2021, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference thereto.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2022/017033 | 2/18/2022 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2022/178284 | 8/25/2022 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20040031828 | Ziegler | Feb 2004 | A1 |
20090209369 | Smith | Aug 2009 | A1 |
20210059298 | Holmes | Mar 2021 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20240123300 A1 | Apr 2024 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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63150952 | Feb 2021 | US |