Putter Face Variable Land Areas for Off-Center Strike Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional putters with smooth or grooved faces suffer from inconsistent ball roll distances due to reduced contact surface area between grooves, leading to less distance traveled with off-center strikes, and existing designs fail to maintain consistent roll characteristics across the face.
Innovation Solution
A putter face configuration with progressively larger land areas away from the center of percussion, providing increased impact and rebound effect to compensate for off-center strikes, ensuring similar roll distances regardless of strike location.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If grooves are added to the putter face to create lift and eliminate skipping, then the ball rolls more immediately, but the contact surface area is reduced leading to softer hits and reduced travel distance
Solution Approach 1:
The putter face is designed with non-uniform groove spacing where grooves are closer together at the center and farther apart toward the periphery. This creates variable land areas that provide different contact characteristics for center versus off-center strikes, optimizing both immediate roll and travel distance for various strike locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove spacing parameter is varied across the putter face surface. By changing the spacing between grooves from center to periphery, the land area between grooves is modified to compensate for off-center strikes, maintaining consistent ball roll characteristics across different impact points.
2Force
If land areas between grooves are reduced to provide softer contact, then the ball is lifted more effectively, but the ball travels shorter distances after impact
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the putter face have different land area characteristics. Center strikes experience smaller land areas for effective lifting, while off-center strikes encounter larger land areas that provide greater contact force and extended travel distance, compensating for the softer contact.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove pattern is intentionally asymmetric with respect to land area distribution. The varying land areas create different contact characteristics for different strike locations, allowing the design to optimize both lifting force and travel distance for various impact points on the face.
3Ease of manufacture
If consistent groove spacing is used across the face, then manufacturing is simplified, but off-center strikes produce inconsistent roll distances
Solution Approach 1:
The groove spacing is intentionally made non-uniform across the putter face, with closer spacing at the center and wider spacing toward the periphery. This local variation in groove geometry compensates for off-center strikes by providing appropriate land area contact, maintaining consistent roll characteristics while remaining manufacturable.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design ensures that the golf ball travels similar distances on both center and off-center hits by increasing the contact surface area further from the center, enhancing the rebound effect and maintaining consistent roll characteristics.
Implementation Method 1
Friction with the putting surface eventually causes the ball to assume a forward roll toward the target
Implementation Method 2
the ball is struck with the smooth face type putter described above
Implementation Method 3
The gripping effect of the face grooves combined with low loft enables the golf ball to be lifted off the green's surface
Implementation Method 4
a smooth, flat ball-striking face with four to six degrees of loft, it being common wisdom this amount of loft is necessary to cleanly launch a golf ball
Data Source
AI summary
A putter type golf club head having a frontal face formed with ball striking, land areas in a repeating patter between the toe and heel and complementary recesses between the land areas. The land areas are smaller than the recesses at the midpoint of the striking face and are progressively larger away from the midpoint on the face providing a progressively larger ball contact area the further the land area is displaced from the midpoint of the striking face.