Games using tangible projectile – Golf – Club or club support
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-17
2001-05-15
Chapman, Jeanette (Department: 3711)
Games using tangible projectile
Golf
Club or club support
C473S324000, C473S332000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06231455
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The present invention relates to golf club, and more particularly to a golf wood-club head that enables the user to slightly adjust the loft and lie angles to fit his or her personal height, and reduces the impacting vibration transferring to the golf shaft.
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
Irons and woods are two major kinds of golf club. Generally speaking, irons are designed for accuracy and woods can create distance. Nowadays, although the modern “wood-club” is substantially made of metal or alloy instead of wood, it is still traditionally called wood-club.
Hollow metallic golf club wood heads are well known in arts as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,429,357, 5,460,371, and 5,485,998. The conventional hollow metallic golf club head
10
of the so-called “wood” head type, as shown in
FIG. 1
, comprises a planar face member
11
, a rear shell member
12
having a connecting tube
121
integrally, upwardly and inclinedly extended from a side thereof for combining together with a hosel
13
. The rear shell member
12
contributes the major weight of the club head
10
for providing a steady swing. The inclined angle between the connecting tube
121
and the rear shell member
12
determined the lie angle of the club head. The face member
11
is the most important element of the club head
10
because it is the substantial part hitting the golf ball. The loft angle of the face member
11
determines the height and distance of the golf ball to be driven. The face member
11
also forms the impact plane that should be aligned in predetermined angle with the golf shaft
14
.
Driver and the fairway woods including such as 3-wood, 5-wood and 7-wood, each having a different loft angle and different shaft length, are the most common wood clubs in your golf bag. In 1915, Alex Smith won the Metropolitan Open, then a very important event, with a driver 48 inches long. Power comes from the length of the club shaft and the hitting force. Therefore, the longer of the club shaft and the smaller of the loft angle of a wood club can hit the golf ball farther for more distance.
As mentioned above, the longer the club shaft, generally enables the wood-club head to hit a ball farther. However, it is nearly impossible to have two persons having exactly the same height and the length of bands and legs. In other words, the body structure of everybody is different but all of them have to adopt the limited manufacturing sizes and shapes of the wood club. Practically, the length of a club shaft must match the distance between the user's hands and the ground. A shorter golf player such as Asian should uses a shorter club shaft in order to provide a perfect lie angle and generate a natural and solid swing but also limiting the distance.
As shown in
FIG. 5A
, when a golf player having a specific height and arm length sets a wood-club with matching shaft length, the club head should be naturally lie on ground corresponding to the constant lie angle of the golf club. If another wood-club having just one inch longer shaft length is used (as illustrated in dotted lines in FIG.
5
A), the club head is then unable to be addressed at the correct lie angle without changing the natural setting of the player. In other words, if a shorter golf player would like to use a longer club to create more distance, he or she must absorb the risk of having non-natural swings.
Besides, due to the structure of the conventional wood-club head as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 5A
, the loft angle and lie angle of the club head
10
are constant and unadjustable, so that the different users must adjust their bodies, settings and swings to adapt the particular club head
10
.
Moreover, the vibration and shock produced when the club head hits the golf ball will partially be absorbed by the club head and mainly be transferred to the golf shaft and be absorbed by the player's hands, arms and shoulders. That is why the manufacturers recently implant foaming material inside the golf shaft for helping to absorb some of shock and vibration. In fact, in order to minimize the sport injuries to the players, any structure improvement that can reduce the vibration and shock being transferred to the player is good design.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide a golf wood-club head that increases the horizontal distance between the golf head and the player's hand without changing the lie angle of the wood-club head and the vertical distance between the golf head and the player's hand.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a golf wood-club head which loft angle and lie angle can slightly be adjusted for better matching the height of the user personally.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a golf wood-club head that provides a vibration reduction means between the wood-club head and the club shaft to absorb the vibration and shock generated during the ball impacting.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a golf wood-club head, which comprises:
a rear shell,
a face inclinedly affixed in front of the rear shell,
a hosel,
a L-shaped connecting stem having a head connecting portion horizontally and integrally extended from a side of the rear shell, and a shaft connecting portion integrally, inclinedly and upwardly extended from the head connecting portion for combining together with the hosel, wherein a ring groove is provided around the head connecting portion, and
a shock absorbing ring situated around the ring groove for absorbing vibration transferring from the club head.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1553867 (1925-09-01), Maas
patent: 2470406 (1949-05-01), Matzie
patent: 3980301 (1976-09-01), Smith
patent: 4432549 (1984-02-01), Zebelean
patent: 4516778 (1985-05-01), Cleveland
patent: 5009423 (1991-04-01), Okumoto
patent: 5184819 (1993-02-01), Desbiolles
patent: 5197733 (1993-03-01), Schroder
patent: 5505447 (1996-04-01), Mockovak
patent: 5626528 (1997-05-01), Toulon
patent: 5647807 (1997-07-01), Nagamoto
patent: 5762567 (1998-06-01), Antonious
patent: 5772526 (1998-06-01), Hano
Blau Stephen L
Chan Raymond Y
Chapman Jeanette
David & Raymond Patent Group
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