Games using tangible projectile – Golf – Club or club support
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-21
2003-03-11
Passaniti, Sebastiano (Department: 3711)
Games using tangible projectile
Golf
Club or club support
C473S345000, C473S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06530847
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the golf club heads shown and described in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,595, which is incorporated herein by reference, and in particular, to an improved metalwood type golf club head, having additional expanded ball contact area at the extreme toe and heel sections on the club face, including disproportionately downsized crown and sole sections.
Most wood-type club heads are currently made of metal, either totally of steel, titanium, or combined with other alloys. Other club heads include a shell made of a steel with a face insert that is made of titanium or similar lighter weight material. This permits club heads to be much larger, yet meet the accepted weight parameters for the respective drivers and fairway type metalwoods.
Although these club heads are substantially enlarged overall, with higher face heights and wider, bulkier crowns and sole bottoms, their club faces have not increased the effective ball contact hitting area, in a heel to toe direction, proportionately to the overall enlarged club heads for possible improved performance, for most golfers. To keep the overall club head size larger, and lighter, as currently demanded by most higher handicap golfers, the structural integrity of the side walls and the club faces, is often compromised. This causes stress cracks, unstable club head control at ball contact, and erratic ball flight control, resulting in loss of distance, accuracy, and inability to produce reassuring and repeating solid ball contacts, even when hit flush.
Many attempts have been made to reinforce metal wood type club heads as shown and described in the prior art. Raymont (U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,399) reinforces the back of the club face with a honeycomb structure. My own U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,230 reinforces the interior of a metalwood with a first mass located behind the ball striking face, and my U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,279 provides an interior peripheral mass basically along the inner periphery, of the club head shell behind the club face. U. S. Pat. No. 5,931,745 to Adams shows a low profile, wood type golf club head wherein the bottom sole surface is larger than the upper crown surface.
Various structural improvements have been used to strengthen and modify the integrity of prior art conventional metalwoods. Nevertheless, for most golfers, the subtle changes to the club head and the expected performance of the larger metalwood club heads, have been disappointing. The performance of most of these metalwoods has not materially improved club head feel at ball contact, or significantly increased club head stability and control for anticipated improved accuracy and additional significant distance. Consequently, they have not meaningfully advanced the golfers' performance potential.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The important effect of the aerodynamic behavioral characteristics especially for the larger metalwood club heads, is always a most critical aspect, in its overall design. The quest to create a substantive improvement in a metalwood club head, that exceeds the performances of all competitive leading brands, will always present a challenge for anyone involved in the design and development of metalwood club heads. The new concept of this invention accomplishes this objective, in a novel, practical and worthy manner by producing different results in a different manner. The extraordinary high-tech performance accomplishments of the present invention represent improvements in golf club technology which began over twenty years ago by the present inventor.
The improved concept of the present invention for metalwood type golf club heads, provides considerable additional laterally expanded ball contact areas, particularly at the toe and heel sections of the club face without proportionately enlarging the top or crown sections and the bottom or sole sections, of the club heads. Consequently, this improvement utilizes a smaller crown area and sole area than most of the larger club heads in the range of 230-300 cc and larger, to effectively redistribute the weight to the expanded areas, at the toe and heel ends of the club face of the present invention. This improved structural design increases the ball contact hitting area dramatically, by as much as 33%. By laterally expanding the hitting areas and increasing the weight at the extreme toe and heel sections, a much larger and more forgiving “sweet spot” is provided on the club face. This creates a low-profile, high-performance golf club head, supremely adaptable for both the driver-type or fairway-type metalwood club heads.
The driver-type metalwood club heads, generally have larger club faces than their counterpart fairway woods. Since the faces of the driver metalwoods are “wider and higher” with lesser lofts, which can be in the range of 7° to 11°, golf balls are usually “teed up”, at address. This facilitates making “solid ball” contact, within or adjacent to the more rewarding centrally located “sweet spot” on the larger club face of drivers, which can have heights in the approximate ranges of 1.625″ to 2.000″. However, the “wider and higher” club faces that create the “low profile” concept of the present invention, permits also having “higher lofts”, in addition to “wider and higher” club faces, for all sizes of fairway metalwood club heads. The higher club face lofts for these fairway woods are in the range of 13° to 28°. The unusual club face heights for fairway club heads of this invention are in the approximate range of 1.500″ to 1.625″.
Having fairway metalwoods with larger, more formidable-sized club faces, golfers are not intimidated by the size of the standard golf ball. The available ball contact areas of the smaller more “shallow faces” of the conventional fairway woods can be, and often are, intimidating by the much larger size of the golf ball, when aligning it with the “smaller faced” fairway clubs, at address. Unlike the smaller more “shallow faces” of the conventional fairway metalwoods, the much larger hitting area on the fairway metalwood club faces of the present invention, increases a golfer's confidence and enhances his ability to make more solid and effective ball contact, consistently.
Further, the concept of the present invention, made on a specific embodiment, permits and expanded hitting surface, located at the extreme lower portion of the club face. This unique formation on the club face, includes a reinforcing and supporting member that is located on the bottom of the club head and extends rearwardly from its own hitting surface, which is coincident with the club face. The extraordinary overall construction of the present invention, not only minimizes or eliminates undesirable shocks and vibrations, but produces the most formidable club head stability, when the most severe off-center ball contacts occur, even when made at the extreme toe, heel or lowest portion of the club face. The outermost extending surfaces of the laterally expanded areas to the club face, are generally curved, forming parabolic, rounded, or elliptical type end shapes.
Significantly, the golf club heads of the present invention also provide aerodynamically shaped reinforcing and stabilizing members that extend rearwardly from the expanded ball contact areas and are located at the rear and side walls of the club head body, forming the outermost perimeter of the club head and extend in an outward direction beyond the crown and sole surfaces of the club head. This improvement provides improved precise weight distribution, surrounding the club head, without proportionately enlarging the crown and sole sections of the club head. The expanded areas are located laterally, adjacent the heel and toe portions coincident with the ball striking face, thereby providing a larger, lateral ball contact area on the club face. The expanded areas to the club face, extend beyond a vertical plane defined by the boundaries of the top crown surface and bottom sole of the main club head body, as shown in the application drawings.
The reinforc
Passaniti Sebastiano
Welsh & Flaxman LLC
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