Games using tangible projectile – Golf – Projectile addressing surface and target – or distance marker
Patent
1997-10-29
2000-11-14
Graham, Mark S.
Games using tangible projectile
Golf
Projectile addressing surface and target, or distance marker
A63B 6936
Patent
active
061462845
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a putting green apparatus suitable for use in putting practice, and a putting game which may be played on said apparatus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It has been recognized that good putting is vitally important to successful golfing, and various devices have been previously proposed for use in practising putting. Examples of such known devices include U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,637 (Cross), U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,887 (DelRaso), U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,568 (Russo) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,538 (Gettelfinger). In general though these have provided only very poor or unrealistic representations of practical putting conditions and/or have been relatively complex or cumbersome in construction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to avoid or minimize one or more of the above disadvantages.
The present invention provides a golf putting green apparatus comprising a putting green surface having a putting-off area and a hole area which putting green surface is provided on a flexible panel means supported on spaced apart elongate generally rigid, at least in use, side members which are pivotally mounted at an intermediate portion on first leg means, and are mounted at the putting-off end on independently height adjustable second leg means so that as the putting-off end of each said side support member is raised or lowered the hole end of said side support member is lowered or raised, respectively, and when the putting-off ends of the side members are supported at different heights, the flexible panel means is twisted between said putting-off and hole ends, whereby adjustment of said height adjustable second leg means provides a variety of pitch and roll putting conditions.
Thus with an apparatus of the present invention a wide variety of substantially realistic putting conditions with different combinations of longitudinal slope (uphill or downhill in the putting direction), and borrow (left or right slope transversely of the putting direction), can be readily selected using a relatively simple and economic form of construction.
In another respect the present invention provides a golf putting green apparatus comprising a putting green surface having a putting-off area and a hole area which putting green surface is provided on a flexible panel means supported on spaced apart elongate generally rigid side members, respective ones of said side members being secured to side edge portions of said flexible panel means, and displacement means formed and arranged for displacement of at least a portion of at least one of said side members towards an opposed side member for deforming said flexible panel means into a curved, convex or concave, shape, whereby displacement of at least a portion of one side member with respect to another opposed side member provides a variety of putting conditions.
Various forms of displacement means may be used including for example a turnbuckle; a wire and pulley system; threaded rods, or a chain link/belt and buckle arrangement for deforming said flexible panel into said curved shape. Preferably said displacement means is provided with means, for example a handle, to manually adjust said displacement so as to vary the degree of curvature of said panel in a convex or concave shape.
As the hole area of the putting green does not require to be load-bearing, this is most conveniently simply supported by cantilevering thereof. If desired though the hole end (or some other part of the hole area) of the panel means could be provided with height adjustable leg means as well.
Preferably there is provided between said side members an elongate rotable member having at least one, desirably a plurality of cam means spaced apart therealong, and a lever means arranged to bring at least one of said cam means into contact with the underside of said flexible panel means so as to raise at least one portion of said putting green surface and thereby to provide a further degree of variety of pitch and roll conditions.
In order to facilitate
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