WO1994002216A1

WO1994002216A1 - Golf club

Info

Publication number: WO1994002216A1
Application number: PCT/DK1993/000240
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jesper Bülow Carsten PETERSEN; Søren Carsten PETERSEN
Original assignee: Petersen, Carsten, Carsten, Jr.
Priority date: 1992-07-17
Filing date: 1993-07-16
Publication date: 1994-02-03
Also published as: DK92792A; AU4559193A; DK92792D0

Abstract

For a golf club made of wood, where the grain runs parallel with the shafts longitudinal direction and the front of the club head, a golf club must be procured of the above-mentioned kind, which can without the introduction of weak spots and at the same time decreasing the amount of joints, thus obtaining a high degree of feel with the ball but also securing partially lower production costs. This is achieved by a golf club that is manufactured of one piece of wood that has been bent along at least one set of mutual perpendicular points of bending and which prior to bending has been butted by compression.

Description

GOLF CLUB

The invention concerns a golf club made of wood, where the grain runs parallel with the shafts longitudinal direction and the front of the clubhead.

A golf club must usually, depending on usage, meet certain requirements, adequately hard being one of these, so as not to be damaged during play (usage).

Such a golf club is known eg. from US-PS 1,567,323, where it states a construction of a golf club head, which is made of compressed hickory, cut so that the grain runs parallel with the front of the clubhead and the shaft in general. During compression the wood is pressed transversely to the grain in an effort to increase the woods density. The compression pressure is stated to be about 10,3 MPa (1500 lbs/sq.inch). It also states the usage of a form of laminated wood, known in general as plywood. The possibility of inserting harder wood in the face of the club head is also mentioned as is too letting the end of the hard wood constitute part of the front side.

A hockey stick is known from US-PS 1,631,960 which is made by laminating the wood with the grain facing in several differant directions. It specifically states that stick and blade are glued together in a V- and wedge shaped joint to try and establish that the grain in the wood runs both in the sticks and in the blades direction.

A similar construction is stated in US-PS 2334,860, where a stick and blade are one piece of wood, which has been bent, the height of the blade has been increased by glueing another piece of wood on top with the aid of grooves in the blade and in the glued on piece of wood.

The known construction (US-PS 1,567323) necessitates a large consumption of time during production, and the finnishing process is very labour consuming which increases the cost of production. Finally the requirements put to hockey sticks are of a completely differant nature than the requirements needed for a golf club.

Golf clubs are usually produced in a number of differant materials, amongst others metal, graphite and /or compositematerials. This is done to enable the golf balls center of gravity when it hits the face of the club head, to lie in a straight continuation of the shaft and preferably hit the face of the club head on the sweetspot during the clubs motion. This entails that the face of the club head does not lie on line with the shaft but is displaced backward in the direction of movement, which in reality means that the shaft is displaced in a parallel line just above the club head. The disadvantages with known golf clubs is that it can accur that a player does not have feeling with the ball during play, which is due to the nature of the differant materiales used to join the club and thereby introducing weakspots in the golfclub. A high degree of feeling with the golf ball is an important factor in a golfclub, and such a degree of feeling cannot be obtained in a satisfactory degree with known clubs.

The invention seeks to provide a golf club of the above-mentioned kind which can without the introduction of weakspots and at the same time decreasing the amount of joints, thus obtaining a high degree of feel with the ball but also securing partially lower production costs.

In accordance with the invention, this objective is accomplished in that the golf club is manufactured of one piece of wood that has been bent along at least one set of mutual perpendicular points of bending, and which prior to bending has been butted by compression.

A golf club formed in accordance with the invention has a special advantage in that the shaft of the club above the club head has two equally large bends bent in opposite directions that have parallel bending points.

Further advantages with the invention will now be described by way of example and with referance to the accompanying drawings in which: fig. 1 three differant basic types of golf clubs in accordance with the invention, namely "woods", "irons" and "putter", all frontal views, fig. 2 heads of the three types of club shown in fig. 1 as seen from the side, fig. 3 an enlarged reproduction of a "putter"-club, where the clubs sweetspot is approximately indicated.

Fig. 1 illustrates the three types of club that are used for differant strokes of varying distances, strikeangles and spin, that must be applied to the ball, etc. It can be seen from both fig. 1 and fig. 2 that the heads, apart from being bent from the shaft also have varying forms and mass, this is done so that the golfer independantly of the actual stroke should be able to feel nearly the same response from the club. It is therefore necessary that all influences on the clubhead without distortion are transmitted to the grip of the shaft, which is the only direct (apart from the optical) connection between player and ball. It is for this reason that the amount of joints and weakspots etc are reduced as much as possible.

Fig. 1 shows furthest to the right indicated as "putter" a known golf club from the front, it can be seen that the shafts central axis points down towards the center of the club head, the hitting surface of which is plane. In accordance with the invention it is not only the club head that is bent away from the shaft but the shaft itself is also bent along two parallel bending points, which are to be seen at a right angle on the drawing. It can also be seen here that these two bends result in the center of the golf ball or its center of gravity lie in a straight continuation of the shafts central axis.

It can be seen that with a golf club in accordance with the invention a. simplefied working procedure is obtained, due to the fact that it is not necessary to cut or make slots or cutting surfaces, where glueing and trimming afterwards is needed to assemble the individual parts. It is therefore neither necessary with any major assembly of angled parts nor fittings.

Claims

1. A golf club made of wood, where the grain runs parallel with the shafts longitudinal direction and the front of the club head, characterised in that the golf club is manufactured of one piece of wood that has been bent along at least one set of mutual perpendicular points of bending, and which prior to bending has been butted by compression.

2 A golf club as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the shaft of the club above the club head has two equally large bends bent in opposite directions that have parallel bending points.

3. A golf club as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the club head is equiped with a large cavity made up of smaller cavities to hold weight, and a metal sole plate.