Wood club

• US 20090264219A1
• Filed: 06/18/2008
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsuhiro Saso, Sunao Umemura, Tomohiko Sato, Yutaka Kawata
• Original Assignee: Mitsuhiro Saso, Sunao Umemura, Tomohiko Sato, Yutaka Kawata
• Inventors: Sato, Tomohiko, Kawata, Yutaka, Umemura, Sunao, Saso, Mitsuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,713,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 473/345
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/01 Special aerodynamic features, e.g. airfoil shapes, wings or air passages
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0433 with special sole configurations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0437 with special crown configurations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0466 wood-type
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/52 with slits

Abstract

A wood type club is provided of which a club head is capable of being swung lightly at a high speed and which is capable of reducing and restricting a covering phenomenon or a toe-down phenomenon of the club head.

A toe-side part and a heel-side part located between the crown part and the sole part of the head are respectively provided with at least one concave groove opened outward in a horizontal direction and extending from the face part to the back part in a longitudinal direction so as to guide an air stream to the head in case of a swing action; and a whole part or a part of the concave groove is provided with a curved part bulging outwardly so that an angle in which a concave groove bottom formed from an inlet of the concave groove to an inside thereof is inclined inward with respect to a line perpendicular to the face part is smaller than an angle in which a line connecting an inlet of the concave groove bottom and an outlet thereof is inclined inward with respect to the line perpendicular to the face part.

Claims

1. A wood type club which comprises a hollow head provided with a face part, a crown part, a sole part, and a back part and in which a hosel is formed on a heel side of the crown part so as to be connected to a shaft,

wherein a toe-side part and a heel-side part located between the crown part and the sole part of the head are respectively provided with at least one concave groove opened outward in a horizontal direction and extending from the face part to the back part in a longitudinal direction so as to guide an air stream to the head in case of a swing action, and

wherein a whole part or a part of the concave groove is provided with a curved part bulging outwardly so that an angle in which a concave groove bottom formed from an inlet of the concave groove to an inside thereof is inclined inward with respect to a line perpendicular to the face part is smaller than an angle in which a line connecting an inlet of the concave groove bottom and an outlet thereof is inclined inward with respect to the line perpendicular to the face part.

2. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein the curved part is continuously formed from an inlet of the concave groove to an outlet thereof.

3. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein the concave groove is a curved groove having a wide inlet in which a vertical opening width of the concave groove is larger than a depth thereof in a vertical sectional view.

4. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein an opening area of an outlet of the concave groove is larger than that of an inlet thereof.

5. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein a vertical opening width of the concave groove is ¼

to ⅖

of a height of the crown part in a vertical sectional view upon taking a normal address posture with the head.

6. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein the concave groove is formed in a U-shape, a semi-circular shape, or an oval shape in a sectional view.

7. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein the back part is formed into an inclined surface inclined toward the face part while being closer to the crown part, and

wherein a rear-end outline of the crown part is formed in a linear shape in a head projection plane and protrudes backward in a roof shape so as to be continuously formed with an upper end of the inclined surface of the back part.

8. The wood type club according to claim 6, wherein the back part is formed in a concave circular-arc shape or a concave oval shape in which a center portion thereof is lower than both side portions thereof in a direction intersecting at a right angle a reference vertical plane passing through a center of gravity of a head and a center of gravity of a face of the face part of the head.

9. The wood type club according to claim 1, wherein the crown part is formed in a circular-arc shape in which a line, extending backward while forming an angle in a range of −

15°

to +15°

with respect to a horizontal plane and passing through a position of an upper-end outline of the face part of the head in a reference vertical plane passing through the center of gravity of a head and the center of gravity of a face of the face part of the head upon taking a normal address posture with the head, intersects a position between a rearmost point of the crown part and 25% of a longitudinal distance from the rearmost point to the face part and a maximum vertical distance between the crown part and the line is 10 mm or less, and

wherein the circular-arc shape of the crown part is a shape of a curve surface continuously formed in a toe-heel direction so as to have a band shape having a predetermined width when viewed from the reference vertical plane.

10. The wood type club according to claim 9, wherein an outer surface facing backward from the crown part has a portion forming an angle with respect to the line of the outer surface in the reference vertical plane, the angle being larger than the angle formed between the line nd the horizontal plane.

11. The wood type club according to claim 9, wherein the circular-arc shape of the crown part is in the shape of a curved surface extending continuously in a toe-heel direction so as to correspond to a shape of the upper-end outline of the face part.

12. The wood type club according to claim 9, wherein the crown part is formed in the circular-arc shape in which the line extends backward while forming an angle in a range of −

10°

to +10°

with respect to the horizontal plane and the maximum vertical distance between the crown part and the line is 8 mm or less.