Games using tangible projectile – Golf – Ball feeding means and tee
Patent
1995-06-08
1996-12-10
Terrell, William E.
Games using tangible projectile
Golf
Ball feeding means and tee
221250, 221263, 221283, 221295, 221185, A63B 5700, B65H 332
Patent
active
055823254
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the practice of golf, one of the most frequently repeated movements is that executed for positioning or picking up the ball. In the practice area, that is to say in the area where the movements involved in play are learnt or improved, and where each player exercises by driving off several tens of balls in succession, the positioning of each of the balls on a mat or on a tee needlessly increases the fatigue of the player and above all distracts him and quite often causes him to lose his positional references.
In order to alleviate this problem, ball dispensers have been proposed including a ball storage reservoir, means for selecting just one ball and means for conveying the ball selected to the driving area.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Current dispensers of the type of those described in French Patent No. 1,501,563 and in French Patent Application No. 2,616,673 are generally bulky, heavy and designed to be installed permanently close to the practice area. This drawback, associated with their high cost and with the complexity of their mechanisms, limits their use to organized ranges that have substantial financial means.
In practice, these are not very highly developed because since the majority of practice areas are out of doors, there is the risk of the mechanism of such dispensers being damaged by the weather.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,599,983 and 1,940,321 made known ball dispensers including a storage housing with an opening, means allowing just one ball to pass through this opening, and an arm articulated close to this opening and forming a dispensing chute. The downstream end of this chute has an opening in its bottom for dispensing the ball, whereas its upstream end is associated with sprung standing-up means and is equipped with a scoop for taking hold of a ball.
The first device can be used in a fixed position and has the drawbacks already indicated. The second device can be moved around but exhibits a lack of stability, a small storage capacity and allows its owner to take a certain number of balls away from the practice area with him.
This is a major drawback because since the use of the practice area is communal and balls belonging to the installation are used, any borrowing of balls with any device whatsoever causes a reduction in the available stock and, through the borrowed balls being replaced, leads to an increase in the operating costs.
Finally, most of the current devices regardless of their type have the drawback of always placing the ball in the same location whereas, as is known, depending on the length of the drive, this ball has to be placed forward or backward of a mean reference position. As a result, for long or short drives, the player has to adjust the position of the ball manually, or with his club, thus forcing him to take stock of his marks again, and distracting him.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to alleviate these drawbacks by supplying a portable dispenser which is lightweight, small, inexepensive, easy to use, of simple operation, and positions the ball accurately, while being easy to adjust as a function of the length of the drive in order to give automatic dispensing which does not distract the player and allows him to remain in position.
In this dispenser, the storage means consist of a prismatic housing which, including, close to its respectively upstream and downstream ends, means resting on the ground and on a support, giving its bottom a longitudinal inclination in the direction of its downstream end, forms a housing which is open at the top and at its downstream end and has longitudinal walls having a height less than that of a ball and extending downstream beyond its bottom to serve as the articulation for the arm, while this arm, forming a cover and capable of being folded back against the housing is composed, on the one hand, of the chute located in the extension of the outlet opening delimited in the housing by a transverse internal wall and, on the other hand, and beside this chute, of a wall the downst
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patent: 1940321 (1930-07-01), Pagett
patent: 2955823 (1960-10-01), Chanko
patent: 3599983 (1971-08-01), Melton
patent: 4146232 (1979-03-01), Stone
patent: 4796893 (1989-01-01), Choi
Janier Annick
Reichard Dean A.
Terrell William E.
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