US20080085786A1

US20080085786A1 - Golf tee anchoring system

Info

Publication number: US20080085786A1
Application number: US11/544,160
Authority: US
Inventors: Hirofusa Otsubo
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-10-06
Filing date: 2006-10-06
Publication date: 2008-04-10

Abstract

A golf tee anchoring system disclosed herein has two or more anchoring fins and an energy deflecting section integrated in one piece tee unit composed of flexible but substantially indestructible, reusable material or plastic which is adapted to prevent the unwanted loss of the tee by the impact of a golf club.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the sport of golf and, more particularly, to a golf tee anchoring system equipped with anchoring fins located at the bottom of the tee to hold more area of the ground against the club head impact and combined with an impact energy deflect section at the middle of tee to easy club head impact by swaying away.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the sport of golf, tees breakage and loss at the tee shots requires a golfer to keep spending time to find dislodged tees and to use a large quantity of tees during golf play. Eventually, lost and broken tees at the tee ground requires green keepers to clean them. In an attempt to overcome the breakage and loss problem a variety of tees have been produced. Unfortunately, although plastic tees are almost reusable, they are ejected from the ground and fly quite a distance through the air at the club head impact and a golfer wastes time to recover or ends up losing the tee.
In order to prevent the above mentioned time and tee loss, several anchoring systems have been developed, each comprising a ball support tee and an anchoring element for tethering the ball support tee to the ground. Unfortunately, none of them are designed in a one piece and one motion set up unit for the convenience of a golfer to use repeatedly. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,645,208; 5,242,170; 5,413,348 and 7,011,586.
Another prior art U.S. Pat. No. 1,623,782 suggested the use of one or more barbs, flukes or hooks for anchoring systems. The barbs or flukes are designed not to come off by digging into the ground with their sharp edges when they are to be pulled out. The barbs resist to come off by catching the ground and turn roots with their sharp hooked edges. The golf tee itself is made by metal such as aluminium with potential damages to recent titanium coated heads of golf clubs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a golf tee anchoring system with anchoring fins and energy deflecting section integrated in one piece tee unit composed of flexible but substantially indestructible, reusable material or plastic which is adapted to prevent the unwanted loss of the tee by the impact of a golf club.
The present invention is made by a substantially flexible but indestructible, reusable plastic member or other materials to serve the purpose.
The anchoring system combined with anchoring fins and energy deflect section prevents the unwanted loss of tee by flying away at the club head impact. Impact energy deflect section in the middle of tee sways the impact energy away to ease the direct impact to the anchoring fins. Advantageously, the tee incorporates with anchoring fins, energy deflects section and resilient reusable material for composition is to prevent tee breakage and dislodgement due to the club head impact.
The anchoring system of the anchoring fins according to the present invention does not use sharp-edged barbs to hook the ground or roots to prevent dislodgement. Rather, the anchoring system of the present invetion uses blunt-shaped fins to stabilize the golf tee in the ground by pushing the ground horizontally at the golf club impact to prevent its dislodgement combined with added its impact deflection section.
Several embodiments of a golf tees anchoring system with different types of energy deflecting flexible point are constructed in accordance with the present invention, each incorporating the above-described general configuration, are described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become readily apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1( a) is a perspective view of a golf tee anchoring system having three anchoring fins and an energy deflection flex section in a tee in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1( b) is a view from the bottom of the golf tee anchoring system illustrated in FIG. 1( a);

FIG. 1( c) illustrates the golf tee anchoring system in use and at the moment immediately after the impact of a club head while the anchoring fins are holding the ground and the energy deflection flex section sways away to release impact energy.

FIG. 2( a) is a perspective view of a one variation of golf tee anchoring system having four anchoring fins and an energy deflection flex section in a tee in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2( b) is a view from the bottom of the golf tee anchoring system illustrated in FIG. 2( a);

FIG. 2( c) is a perspective view of another variation of golf tee anchoring system having two anchoring fins and energy deflection flex section in a tee in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2( d) is a view from the bottom of the golf tee anchoring system illustrated in FIG. 2( c) ;

FIG. 2( e) illustrates an additional variation of a golf tee anchoring system divided in three pieces into golf ball supporting section, an energy deflection flex section and an anchoring section.

FIG. 2( f) is a view from the bottom of the golf tee anchoring system illustrated in FIG. 2( e).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the attached drawings, there is illustrated a golf tee anchoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The golf tee 10 with an anchoring system as illustrated has two or more anchoring fins 16 having blunt edges (not sharp edges) and an energy deflection section 18. The golf tee 10 also has a ball supporting section 12 at the top of the golf tee 10. The ground holding the golf fee anchoring system is designated by 11.
A main shaft or stem of the golf tee 10 is designated by 14. The anchoring system of the golf tee 10 is comprised of three radially extending anchoring fins 16 and the energy deflection section 18. It is noted that the energy deflection section 18 of the anchoring system is thinner than the main shaft or stem of the golf tee 10. The golf tee 10 with the anchoring system is made of a flexible but substantially indestructible, reusable material, as one-piece unit, that is, a proper plastic material such as high density polyethylene.
The anchoring system combined with the radially extending anchoring fins 16 without any sharp edges and the energy deflect section 18 prevents the unwanted loss of the tee 10 by flying away at the club head impact. The impact energy deflect section 18 in the middle of the tee stem 14 sways the impact energy away to ease the direct impact to the anchoring fins 16. Advantageously, the tee incorporates with the anchoring fins, energy deflects section and resilient reusable material for composition is to prevent tee breakage and dislodgement due to the club head impact.
The anchoring system of the present invention uses the blunt-shaped fins 16 to stabilize the golf tee 10 in the ground by pushing the ground horizontally at the golf club impact to prevent its dislodgement combined with added its impact deflection section 18.
Although the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1( a) to 1(c) has the three anchoring fins 16, FIGS. 2( a) and 2(b) shows a variation of the anchoring system having four anchoring fins 16 and FIGS. 2( c) and 2(d) shows another variation of the anchoring system having only two anchoring fins 16. Another variation of the anchoring system as illustrated in FIGS. 2( e) and 2(f) show a separate energy deflection section 28 made by different material which has more flex and durability than the main tee composed material.
Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A golf tee with anchoring system, comprising:

a tee main shaft having a ball supporting section at the top of the main shaft;

two or more anchoring fins with blunt edges secured at the end portion of the tee main shaft, the two or more anchoring fins to be inserted into the ground and held to stabilize the tee main shaft in the ground; and

an energy deflecting section secured at the middle of the tee main shaft for swaying impact energy away to ease the direct impact to the anchoring fins;

wherein the tee main shaft, the two or more anchoring fins and the energy deflecting section are made of substantially flexible but indestructible, reusable plastic material as one piece tee unit.

2. A golf tee anchoring system for holding a golf tee in the ground, comprising:

two or more anchoring fins with blunt edges to be secured at an end portion of a main shaft of the golf tee, the two or more anchoring fins to be inserted into the ground and held to stabilize the tee main shaft in the ground; and

3. The golf tee anchoring system as defined in claim 2 wherein the anchoring fins include three radially extending anchoring fins.

4. The golf tee anchoring system as defined in claim 2 wherein the anchoring fins include four radially extending anchoring fins.

5. The golf tee with anchoring system as defined in claim 1 wherein the energy deflecting section at the middle of the tee main shaft is thinner than the tee main shaft for swaying impact energy away to ease the direct impact to the anchoring fins the anchoring fins include three radially extending anchoring fins.

6. The golf tee with anchoring system as defined in claim 1 wherein the energy deflecting section at the middle of the tee main shaft is made of different plastic material which has more flex and durability than the tee main shaft.