US20110118058A1

US20110118058A1 - Sand wedge and club head thereof

Info

Publication number: US20110118058A1
Application number: US12/618,983
Authority: US
Inventors: Chih-Hung Chiu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-11-16
Filing date: 2009-11-16
Publication date: 2011-05-19

Abstract

A sand wedge and its club head are provided for reducing a striking resistance, and the sand wedge includes a club head coupled to a rod and a weight protrusion of the club head. The club head includes a club head body, an inlay formed on the club head body, and a hollow portion penetrated through the inlay. The weight protrusion is extended to the rear from the bottom of the inlay of the club head body, and provided for adjusting the weight and the center of gravity of the club head, such that when a golfer strikes a golf ball in a sand pit, sands can pass through the inlay to reduce the striking resistance.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf club, and more particularly to a golf club for striking a golf ball that is fallen into a sand pit.
2. Description of Prior Art
In recent years, golf sport becomes popular and not limited to a small number of players anymore, and many people start learning and playing golf now. Meanwhile, statistics also indicate many people give up this sport mainly because of the frustration brought by the difficulty of the game or the skill of using the golf clubs. If a design of the golf club allows golfers to strike the golf ball easily in a desired path, it may build up the beginner's confidence and interest, and that is exactly the motive of the present invention.
Striking a golf ball into a sand pit around a green is quite common, but is also troublesome to beginners. A golfer generally chooses a sand wedge (or generally called S-rod or wedge) and attempts to strike the golf ball from the sand pit back into the course or land the golf ball on the green. With reference to FIG. 1 for a perspective view of a conventional wedge 1 a, a golf ball falls into a sand pit, and a golfer wants to strike the ball out from the sand pit. The wedge 1 a has a club head 10 a with a striking surface 11 a disposed at an angle of 60 degrees with respect to the surface of the sand, such that when the golfer swings the club head 10 a to strike the golf ball, the strike does not hit at the ball directly, but digs into some sands in the sand pit to strike the ball out from the sand, and thus factors such as the resistance of sand and the change of center of gravity should be taken into consideration for striking the ball, otherwise the golfer cannot strike the ball to an expected falling point by an appropriate force.
A club head of a sand wedge disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. I238075 comprises a body, an inlay and a reinforced plate, wherein the inlay is coupled to a front side of the body, and a circular wall is formed on the periphery of the body and extended to the rear side, and the reinforced plate is integrally formed and coupled onto the back side of the inlay for enhancing the structural strength of the club head and absorbing the vibration produced by striking the ball. In one of the preferred embodiments, the reinforced plate has a deformable hole formed thereon, such that the inlay has the maximum elastic deformation strength when the ball is struck, so as to increase the striking distance. However, the additional resistance is formed by the sand may cause an error of striking the ball due to a change of center or gravity, when the inlay of the club head turns the sand over in the sand pit.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related field to conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally developed a sand wedge and a club head of the sand wedge in accordance with the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a sand wedge and its club head, such that sands in a sand pit can pass through the inlay to reduce the striking resistance and avoid changing the center of gravity of the club head due to the weight of sands on the inlay, so that a golfer can strike a golf ball to an expected falling point by an appropriate force.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a sand wedge club head comprising a club head body, an inlay disposed on a side of the club head body, and a hollow portion penetrated through the inlay.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a sand wedge comprising a club head, a weight protrusion and a rod, wherein the club head comprises a club head body, an inlay disposed on a side of the club head body, and a hollow portion penetrated through the inlay, and the weight protrusion is extended to the back side from the bottom of the club head body, and the rod is coupled to a side of the club head.
Compared with the prior art, the sand wedge of the present invention includes the hollow portion disposed on the inlay of the club head for facilitating a golfer to strike a golf ball in a sand pit, and the sand struck by the inlay can pass through the hollow portion. When the golfer strikes the rod and digs into the sand to hit the ball, the striking resistance caused by the sand can be reduced to overcome the problem of changing the center of gravity of a conventional sand wedge due to the weight of the sand. As a result, the golfer can hit the ball out from the sand pit and apply an appropriate force to strike the ball to an expected falling point, so as to improve the practicability and convenience of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional sand wedge;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a sand wedge in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a sand wedge in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of a sand wedge in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of using a sand wedge in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of movements of a sand wedge in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a weight protrusion of a sand wedge in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a weight protrusion of a sand wedge in accordance with a third preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The technical characteristics, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are provided for reference and illustration only, but not intended for limiting the present invention.
With reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 for a perspective view, a side view, and a partial cross-sectional view of a sand wedge in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention respectively, the wedge 1 comprises a club head 10, coupled to a rod 20 and a weight protrusion 12 of the club head 10, and the club head 10 comprises a club head body 100 having an inlay 11 disposed on a side of the club head body 100 and passed through a hollow portion 110 of the inlay 11. In this preferred embodiment, the hollow portion 110 is comprised of a plurality of long slots extended from the top 111 of the inlay 11 to the bottom 112 of the inlay 11, and the hollow portion 110 may have another deformable design, such as having a plurality of through holes that allow the sand in the sand pit to pass through and flow to the rear side of the inlay 11.
The weight protrusion 12 is extended to the rear from the bottom 112 of the inlay 11 of the club head body 100, and provided for adjusting the weight and the center of gravity of the club head 10. An included angle is formed between the top 121 of the weight protrusion 12 and the back side 113 of the inlay 11. In other words, the weight protrusion 12 and the inlay 11 have a groove 13 formed on the club head body 100, wherein the groove 13 of this preferred embodiment is a V-shaped groove. The invention is not limited to the V-shaped groove only, but a U-shaped groove can also be used in another embodiment as well.
In addition, the weight protrusion 12 has an extended section H, and the weight occupied by the extended length of the extended section H is determined by the weight of the hollow portion 110, so that if the weight of the hollow portion 110 is smaller, then the extended section H can be reduced to Ha and the weight is increased slightly to meet the required weight of the club head 10. On the other hand, if the weigh of the hollow portion 110 is greater, the extended section H can be extended to Hb and the weight is increased substantially to make up the reduced weight of the hollow portion 110 for the weight protrusion 12, and then the shape of the weight protrusion 12 is adjusted to change the position of the center of gravity of the club head 10. With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 for a schematic view of sand wedge and a schematic view of movements of the sand wedge in accordance with the present invention respectively, if the golf ball 2 falls into a sand pit 3, the golfer can hold the rod 20 to swing the wedge 1, such that the club head 10 digs slightly into the sand of the sand pit 3 and turns the sand over to allow the inlay 11 to hit the golf ball 2. When the rod 20 continues its forward-swinging movement, the club head 10 is driven to the front, such that the sand in the sand pit 3 can pass through the hollow portion 110 of the inlay 11 into the weight protrusion 12 at the back side of the inlay 11 or onto the sand pit. In addition, when the rod 20 is swung upward to change the direction of the club head 10, the sand fallen onto the weight protrusion 12 will drop, so that the force and resistance of striking the ball will not be increased.
With reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 for weight protrusions of a sand wedge in accordance with other two preferred embodiments of the present invention respectively, the weight protrusion 12 b has a separate extended section 121 b, wherein the shape and the length of the extended section 121 can be adjusted according to the weight and the center of gravity of the club head 10, and the extended section 121 b is secured to an end of the weight protrusion 12 b by a fastener 14 such as a screw. In FIG. 8, the weight protrusion 12 c can also be a separate extended section 121 c, wherein the extended section 121 c is secured onto the weight protrusion 12 c by an elastic clamping device 15, such that when a user wants to have a different extended section 121 c of the weight protrusion 12 c, the user can press the clamping device 15 to remove the extended section 121 c, and mount another set of extended section 121 c onto the weight protrusion 12 c to complete the assembly.
The present invention is illustrated with reference to the preferred embodiment and not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. Various substitutions and modifications have suggested in the foregoing description, and other will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A sand wedge club head, comprising a club head body, an inlay disposed on a side of the club head body, and a hollow portion penetrated through the inlay.

2. The sand wedge club head of claim 1, wherein the hollow portion is comprised of a plurality of long slots.

3. The sand wedge club head of claim 2, wherein the long slots are extended from the top of the inlay to the bottom of the inlay.

4. A sand wedge, comprising:

a club head, having a club head body, an inlay disposed on a side of the club head body, and a hollow portion penetrated through the inlay;

a weight protrusion, extended backwardly from the bottom of the inlay of the club head body; and

a rod, coupled to a side of the club head.

5. The sand wedge of claim 4, wherein the hollow portion is comprised of a plurality of long slots.

6. The sand wedge of claim 5, wherein the long slots are extended from the top of the inlay to the bottom of the inlay.

7. The sand wedge of claim 4, further comprising an included angle formed between the back side of the inlay and the weight protrusion for facilitating a groove to be formed on the club head body.

8. The sand wedge of claim 7, wherein the groove is a V-shaped groove.

9. The sand wedge of claim 4, wherein the weight protrusion has an extended section.

10. The sand wedge of claim 9, wherein the extended section is installed separately and secured onto the weight protrusion by a fastener.

11. The sand wedge of claim 9, wherein the extended section is installed separately and secured to the weight protrusion by a clamping device.