Iron and wedgetype golf clubs with ground engaging sole structures and open channelstherebetween

Abstract

An iron type golf club head, having a bottom sole including shaped ground engaging members having a bounce structure to prevent or reduce digging of the sole of the club head into the ground including open channels adjacent to each shaped ground engaging members to provide a path for debris from the turf as the club head contacts the turf resulting in the bottom sole being maintained above the ground during the execution of a conventional golf shot for improved performance of distance and or direction to an intended target resulting in lower scores.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] During the playing of the game of golf, a golf ball finds a resting place between the teeing area and the green that present a variety of different challenges and opportunities for playing different golf shots. Generally, a golfer will use an iron from the fairway, rough, or fairway bunker, and a wedge near the green on in a green side bunker, which all areas collectively referred to the “ground”. In addition, near the green, golfers use a wedge when the ball is on the turf or in a green side bunker or sand which is also included in the meaning of the use of the term “ground.”

[0002] There are prior art iron and wedge type golf clubs having various ground engaging structures located on the sole that interact with the turf in an effort to improve the performance of the club head when striking the golf ball and / or to prevent the club from contacting the turf in an adverse way that often results in a poor golf shot that fails to end up close to its intended target. More specifically, known golf club heads provide various bounce features on the sole that seek to prevent the club head from digging excessively into the turf but does not always successful, and at the same time, these features can reduce the effectiveness of a given golf shot.

[0003] The following references relate to these iron and wedge type golf clubs, namely: U.S. Pat. No. 1,089,881 to James, U.S. Pat. No. 1,505,296 to Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 3,830,503 to Consoli, U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,796 to Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,388 to Crow, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,125,662, 5,154,423, 5,390,924 and 5,603,668 to Antonious, U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,469 to MacDougall, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,029 to Roberts; Applications 2011 / 0077101 to Bennett et al, 2012 / 0108356 to Harrington and 2013 / 0072319 to Dolezel et al.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The present invention relates to golf irons and wedges for striking a golf ball lying on or in a turf or sand surface of the type described above, that is an improvement of the known prior art golf clubs. The clubs of the present invention relate to a novel and unique sole structure that provides an improved sole interaction with the ground to stabilize the club head that eliminates or substantially reduces twisting when the golf ball is struck off the center of the club face. The sole structure, in particular, of the club head of the present invention also allows the club head to move through and glide through the turf or sand where the golf ball lies more easily. The club head of the present invention is generally conventional in the overall shape and includes a ball striking face, a rear surface, heel, toe, bottom sole and hosel for connection to a shaft and grip.

[0005] The soles for the irons and wedges of the present invention represent an improvement over the prior art and as a result improved performance is realized. The soles have one or more ground engaging members that extend outwardly from the surface of the sole. These ground engaging members are located in a front to rear direction between the leading edge of the club face and the rear edge of the sole of the club head. Each ground engaging member is formed with a generally flat top or upper surface that forms a bounce area when the club head strikes the ground preventing or at least reducing the digging of the club head into the ground. The ground engaging members are preferably elliptical with pointed ends at the forward and rear sections of the members whereby the middle area of each member is wider than each pointed end and the sides of each member are arcuate or curvilinear in shape. The side walls of each member extending upwardly from the sole surface may be formed with a slanted side wall configuration. The spaced location of the ground engaging members on the sole creates open channels between each of the ground engaging members having a reduced waist or venturi shape. These channels facilitate removal of excess ground material rearwardly through the channels and beyond the club head during execution of a golf shot as the club head strikes the ground. As a result, the present invention reduces the loss of clubhead speed and various degrees of twisting and torquing of the club head as it moves through the ground surface, which otherwise often results in the golf shot falling short of and or in a direction away from the intended target resulting in higher scores such as a bogey or worse for a particular hole being played.

[0006] Depending upon the softness or hardness of the turf or sand, the ground engaging members elevate the sole surface above the ground thereby reducing contact of the sole surface with the ground, since these members strike the ground surface first before the remaining part of the sole is able to make contact with the ground.

[0007] The open channels between the ground engaging members are wider adjacent the leading edge and rear surface and narrower midway on the sole creating a venturi fluid flow effect to facilitate movement of turf debris or sand when the ground engaging members contact the turf or other ground surfaces which will also increase the swing speed of the club for more distance.

[0008] The generally pointed ends of the ground engaging members allow the club head to move through the turf more efficiently as it engages the ground while the flat upper bounce structure prevents excess digging of the club head during a normal golf swing.

[0009] Each ground engaging member is preferably thinner adjacent the leading edge and is preferably formed progressively thicker toward the center of the sole and then tapers towards the trailing edge of the sole.

[0010] An object of the present invention is the provision of a golf club head having ground engaging members on the sole to facilitate movement of the club head through various ground surface conditions during the execution of a golf shot with an improved direction of the golf ball and improved performance of the golf ball after it hits the surface of the ground including a fairway, rough, bunker or green.

[0011] Another object of the present invention is the provision of a club head with ground engaging members that reduces loss of club head speed, and twisting and turning of the club head as the club head engages the ground during a golf shot.

[0012] Still another object of the present invention is the provision of a golf club having ground engaging members that move through the turf efficiently keeping the face squared to the target line while stabilizing the head on off-center impacts to produce more accurate golf shots playing the game of golf for more greens in regulation resulting in lower scores.

[0013] Another object is the provision of a wedge type club head that more consistently achieves an intended height and distance for a given golf shot for more greens in regulation for lower scores.

[0014] Other objects will be apparent with reference to the following written description and accompanying drawings.DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an iron golf club head in accordance with the present invention.

[0016] FIG. 2 is a toe end elevational view of the golf club head of FIG. 1.

[0017] FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the club head of FIG. 1.

[0018] FIG. 4 is a heel end elevational view of the club head of FIG. 1.

[0019] FIG. 5 is a rear view of the club head of FIG. 1.DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0020] Referring to the drawings, an iron type golf club head 100 includes a ball striking face 102, a rear surface 104, a toe 105, a top edge 106, a heel 107, a bottom sole 108 with a leading edge 110 and a hosel 111 for connection to a conventional shaft and grip (not shown). The bottom sole 108 is essentially flat or slightly curved, convex, or concave and has a zero degree, with little or no bounce angle, when the club head 100 contacts the turf. In accordance with the present invention, the bottom sole 108 includes a plurality of raised, generally elliptical, ground engaging members 112 that include a generally flat upper surface 113 to provide a bounce function as the club head 100 strikes the ground during the execution of a golf shot. The flat upper surface 113 of each ground engaging member 112 prevents or reduces digging of the club head 100 into the ground upon contact therewith. The ground engaging members 112 are spaced along the length of the sole 108 between the toe 105 and heel 107 forming channel type openings 114 between adjoining ground engaging members 112 that direct ground debris rearwardly away from the sole 108 when the club head 100 strikes the turf or similar support surface where a golf ball lies.

[0021] Referring to the drawings, the elliptically shaped ground engaging members 112 have a first elongated dimension in a direction between the striking face 102 and the rear surface 104 and a second shorter dimension in a direction between the toe 105 and the heel 107. This shape of the ground engaging members 112 is generally tapered and creates sharp or pointed ends 116 that facilitate movement through the ground surface, both on the takeaway swing and the follow through swing. The ground engaging members 112 act to stabilize the club head 100 when contacting the ground even if the golf ball is struck off center of the club face and provides increased stability with less twisting and torquing during the execution of a golf shot.

[0022] Because the shape of the ground engaging members 112 is generally curved and wider in the middle, the channel type openings 114 between the members 112 are narrower at the wider, middle portion of the ground engaging members 112. This structure creates a narrow waist 117 that acts like a fluid flow venturi at an approximate midpoint of said openings 114 that further facilitates debris flow in accordance with laws of fluid flow. The channel type openings 114 are at least as wide as the widest part of a ground engaging member 112 although preferably the openings 114 are substantially wider.

[0023] The ground engaging members 112 are further defined by preferably being thinner tapering toward and adjacent the striking face 102 and gradually becoming thicker backward from the face 102 thus forming a bounce angle 118 of preferably between 2 degrees to 12 degrees.

[0024] The exact dimensions of the engaging members 112 will depend upon the size of the bottom sole of the club head 100. However, a normal sized club head 100 would be formed with ground engaging members 112 that are approximately 3 mm-9 mm in width and approximately 12-mm-33 mm in length. The empty space forming openings 114 between each ground engaging member 112 is approximately ⅜ of an inch wide assuming there are four ground engaging members 112. The ground engaging members 112 may be as large as 75% of the size of the sole 108, or as large as 50% of the sole 108 or, as small as, 25% of the sole 108.

[0025] It will be appreciated that other modifications and structures of the invention may be made in accordance with the following claims.

Claims

1. An iron type golf club head including a frontal ball striking face with a leading edge at a lower frontal location thereof, a rear surface, a heel, a toe, a hosel for connection to a shaft, a top ridge and bottom sole having an outer surface wherein said bottom sole includes ground engaging members; said members being oriented in a direction between said leading edge and said rear surface; said ground engaging members being further defined as having pointed ends adjacent said leading edge and said rear surface and having a generally flat upper surface providing a bounce function to said club head when said club head impacts a ground surface; and, said club head further including openings forming channels on said bottom sole adjacent each side of said shaped ground engaging members to facilitate removal of ground debris during a golf shot.

2. The club head of claim 1 further defined by a plurality of at least three ground engaging members spaced on said bottom sole.

3. The club head of claim 1 wherein said openings between said ground engaging members are oriented in a direction between said leading edge and said rear surface and are formed with a narrow waist area at approximately the midpoint of said openings; said narrow waist area creating a fluid flow type venturi to facilitate passage of ground debris during the execution of a golf shot as the club head contacts the ground surface.

4. The club head of claim 1 wherein said ground engaging members are elliptical in shape having a first elongated side dimension in a direction between said striking face and said rear surface and a second shorter dimension in a direction between said heel and said toe.

5. The club head of claim 1 wherein the empty space between the engaging members is equal to or greater than the width of each engaging member.

6. The club head of claim 1 wherein the channel openings between the ground engaging members increase in size at both the leading edge and rear surface of the club head.

7. The club head of claim 1 wherein the empty channels between the engaging members are greater than the width of each element.

8. The club head of claim 1 wherein a leading edge of the ground engaging members tapers flush at the leading edge.

9. The club head of claim 1 where the ground engaging members tapers at both ends that will provide a smooth transition through the turf on both the takeaway and the follow through.

10. The club head of claim 1 where engaging members is 75% of the total size of the entire sole size.

11. The club head of claim 1 where engaging members is approximately 50% of the total size of the entire sole size.

12. The club head of claim 1 where engaging members is no greater than 25% of the total size of the entire sole size.

13. The club head of claim 1 wherein said ground engaging members are further defined by being formed with a bounce angle extending downwardly from said bottom sole in a front to rear direction.

14. The club head of claim 1 wherein said bounce angle is formed by said ground engaging members having a progressively increased thickness in a frontal ball striking face to a rear surface direction.

15. The iron club head of claim 1 wherein said ground engaging members have a bounce angle of 2 to 12 degrees.

16. The iron club head of claim 1 wherein said ground engaging members have a thickness of approximately 3 mm to 9 mm and a length of approximately 12 mm to 33 mm.

17. The iron type golf club of claim 1 having a wedge type loft angle.

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