ES324119A1 - Apparatus for teeing golf balls - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for successively presenting golf balls on a tee ready for driving comprises a tee 1 which is movable by means of lever 2 into an upper and a lower position along a vertical guide 3, the lever 2 is forked to provide arms 4 which are slotted at 5 to .engage pins 6 on tee 1 and at its other end is pivotally mounted on a fixed pivot pin 7, the lever 2 comprises one arm of a bell crank lever the other arm 8 of which may be welded thereto the free end of arm 8 is pivotally connected to one end of an indexing lever 9 the other end of which is hooked at 10 and 11 to engage spaced pins 12 projecting outwardly from a side wall 13 of a drum 14 which is mounted on an axle 15 and has four apertures 16 evenly spaced around the periphery thereof and each adapted to receive a golf ball from a supply thereof at receiving station 17 the lever 2 may be operated manually by a rod 20. By operation of lever 2 the tee I can be moved to its upper position to present the ball thereon for driving during the course of this operation the arm 8 acts to move indexing lever 9 to the right - see fig. 1 so that hooks 10 and 11 engage the two uppermost pins 12 on drum 14. When lever 2 is again operated to move tee I to its lower position indexing lever 9 is returned to its original position and causes the drum 14 to rotate through 90 to deliver a fresh ball to receiving station 18. The tee 1 is formed from rubber or other suitable resilient material and is also pivoted at 1a to its support 1b so that it will turn about said pivot under the impact of the club. The tee is releasably retained in its upright position by a spring clip 21., A cam or other means may be provided for automatically returning tee 1 to its upright position. The apparatus may be mounted below a platform on a practice range, the tee, together with. a ball, projecting through 22 in the top cover 23 and said platform when in its upper position. The practice range may be provided with one or more sloping guide channels e.g. 24 whereby when a ball has been driven from the tee the ball will roll and be returned to said receiving station. The apparatus may be contained within a casing which may be complete or partial. Other modifications of this apparatus are described.