Adjustable height practice golf tee

Abstract

This invention concerns an adjustable height practice golf tee for use with any of the existing golf hitting mats used at or incorporated into golf driving ranges, public and private indoor hitting areas, golf club fitting, testing and swing teaching stations, electronic golf swing analyzers and golf simulation video games. The invention incorporates a hidden thread design into two-piece and three-piece models to provide a greater range of adjustment and better durability than older designs. The inventive device uses a passive capture design which allows assembly without additional fasteners or retaining devices while preventing disassembly during use. A combination three-point ball seat reduces the tee's mass and effect on the ball launch while acting as a handle to facilitate precise and easy height adjustment.

Description

[0001]This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 133,329 filed on Jun. 27, 2008, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]The most common type of practice golf tee in use today at commercial driving ranges when hitting from a mat is a hollow rubber-like tube of fixed height which extends from a circular flat base. The tube portion protrudes up through a hole in the hitting mat slightly larger than the diameter of the tube. It is held in place by a round flat base and the golf ball is placed on the round open end of the tube. When using this type tee, the golfer can only change the height of the teed ball by exchanging the tee for one with a longer or shorter tube section. This type of tee is still popular with range operators because it is inexpensive and simple. While many adjustable tees have been designed, most have not proven practical for multiple reasons, particularly comp...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The invention provides an improvement to the existing practice golf tees in common use when hitting golf balls from mats at driving ranges, public and private indoor hitting areas, golf club fitting, testing and swing teaching stations, and when using electronic golf swing analyzers and golf simulation video games. It is not intended for use as a tee when actually playing golf on a golf course. It is a new design which overcomes the problems inherent in all of the currently available adjustable and non-adjustable practice tees.

Problems solved by technology

While many adjustable tees have been designed, most have not proven practical for multiple reasons, particularly complicated design, difficulty of use and poor performance, especially the inability to easily be adjusted over a wide range and retain the set height after multiple impacts.

While this design maximizes the adjustment range and the increased mass of the center “tee” part provides durability, it cannot be easily used with other mats and for some users the large tee does not simulate a real tee when struck.

The two piece design naturally limits the adjustment range to some fraction of the height of the base piece.

Increasing the height of the base increases the adjustment range but makes the tee unacceptable for use with thin hitting mats because even in the full down position it is too tall for thinner mats which can commonly be less than one inch thick.

Decreasing the height of the base piece allows for use in thin mat but limits the range of adjustment.

The thick mat taller model has an acceptable range of adjustment but the shorter thin mat version is too tall and in the full down position is too short in the full up position for all the tee shots a golfer might wish to practice.

All the earlier threaded types have additional common design problems.

The center “tee” or ball holding part has external threads which weaken its structure, causing it to be easily bent and have a tendency to not return to the original straight upright shape.

The external threads also provide tear points when struck repeatedly by a club leading to early failure.

While several other adjustable practice tees have been invented, none are widely in use today because they fail to meet one or more of these requirements:Universality.

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