Adapter for golf bag

United States Patent

<td> [72] [21] [22] [45] [73]</td><td> Inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee</td><td colspan="2"> Joseph P. Mangan : Whitestone, N.Y. 771,815 Oct. 30,1968 Jan. 12,1971 North American Forwarding Corporation Sparta, NJ. a corporation of New Jersey</td>

<td> [54]</td><td colspan="2"> ADAPTER FOR GOLF BAG 4 Claims, 1 Drawing Fig.</td><td></td>

<td> [52] [51] [50]</td><td colspan="2"> U.S.CI............................... Int. CL...................................................... Field of Search.........................................</td><td> 150/1.5 ..A63b 55/00 .. 150/1.5A, 1.5B.1.5C</td>

<td colspan="3"> [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,860,679 11/1958 Kouke..........................</td><td> 150/1.5( A)</td>

<td> [Hl 3</td><td> ,554,255</td>

<td> 2,879,819 3/1959 Turnbull....................... 3,101,108 8/1963 Ingoldt.. 3,139,132 6/1964 Shiller.......................... FOREIGN PATENTS 980,829 1/1965 Great Britain............... Primary Examiner—Donald F. Norton Attorney—Edward H. Loverman</td><td> 150/1.5( A) 150/1.5(A) 150/1.5(A) 150/1.5(A)</td>

ABSTRACT; The invention is concerned with an adapter for facilitating the orderly arrangement of golf clubs within the open end of a golf bag. The adapter comprises a resilient body member removably positioned in the open end of the golf bag in frictional engagement therewith. The body member has a plurality of passageways therethrough for the reception of the golf clubs and preferably, the passageways are arranged in a predetermined pattern in accordance with the preferred order of golf club usage.

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PATENTED JAN 1 21971

3’554,255

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ATTORNEY

3,554,255

ADAPTER FOR GOLF BAG

This invention relates to accessories for golf bags and more particularly relates to an adapter which can be easily inserted in the open end of a golf bag to facilitate the orderly arrangement of golf clubs.

Golf bags come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and are additionally manufactured with a variety of special features which enhance their usefulness on the golf course. For example, many golf bags have sophisticated pocket designs which maximize storage capabilities but which at the same time facilitate the removal of balls and other items customarily stored therein.

Another problem which has plagued golfers and in turn the manufacturers of golf bags, concerns the need for providing an orderly arrangement of the golf clubs within the open end of the golf bag. To a golfer, nothing is more disconcerting than attempting to pick out a particular club from the group of entangled clubs which normally results (no matter how orderly the golfer) after only a few holes of golf. Furthermore, if the clubs are bunched together and allowed to engage one another, damage is inevitable.

In an attempt to alleviate this problem, golf club manufacturers have taken two approaches. In very expensive bags, the manufacturers provide, as an integral portion thereof, an apertured closure piece which seals the ndrmally open end of the bag The golf dubs may then be inserted in the apertures of this member and thereby retained in an orderly fashion at all times. The second approach is used on less expensive bags where it is economically unjustifiable to provide an integrally molded, apertured closure member for the normally open end of the bag. Instead, the manufacture will provide a plurality of ribs transversely across the open end of the bag which ribs tend to divide the open end of the bag into two or three compartments by which the golfer may classify his clubs as for example by woods in one section and irons in another. The ribs are better than no compartments at all, but of course do not adequately segregate the individual clubs from one another.

The instant invention is primarily directed to those types of relatively inexpensive golf bags which do not include an integrally molded apertured closure member for the end thereof but instead include either the above described ribs or no means whatsoever for arranging the golf clubs in an orderly, noninterferring relationship with respect to one another. To that end, the instant invention consists of a simple adapter which may be used with golf bags of virtually any diameter which adapter comprises a resilient body member which is removably positioned in the open end of the golf bag in frictional engagement with the side walls thereof. The body member has a plurality of parallel passageways therethrough for the reception of golf clubs, and, thus, with the simple, inexpensive adapter of the instant invention every golf bag can be easily provided with the individually compartmentalized construction which was previously reserved for expensive golf bags only.

As particularly advantageous feature of the instant invention, the resilient body member which comprises the adapter of the instant invention may be provided with one or more transverse channel-ways on the undersurface thereof which channel-ways receive the previously mentioned ribs so as to accurately position and align the body member in golf bags which employ such construction.

As a further feature of the instant invention, the passageways provided in the resilient, removable, body member are arranged in a predetermined pattern corresponding to a preferred order of golf club usage.

Accordingly, it is an object of the instant invention to provide an adapter to facilitate the orderly, noninterferring arrangement of golf clubs within the open end of a golf bag.

Another object of the instant invention is to provide such an adapter which comprises a resilient body removably positioned in the open end of the golf bag in frictional engagement with the side walls thereof.

Still another object of the instant invention is to provide such an adapter for a golf bag which is particularly constructed to coact with rib dividers customarily used on less expensive golf bags.

A further object of the instant invention is to provide such an adapter for golf bags which include a plurality of parallel passageways therethrough arranged in a predetermined pattern corresponding to a preferred order of golf club usage.

These and other objects and many of the attendant ad¹⁰ vantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which the one FIG. illustrates in an 15 exploded perspective view, the golf bag adapter of the instant invention.

Turning now to the FIG., there is shown a typical golf bag, generally designated by reference numeral 10 with which the instant invention is intended to cooperate. As is customary, 2Q the golf bag 10 includes handle means such as 12,14, and one or more pockets 16 for storage. As mentioned previously, the golf bag 10 with which the instant invention is intended to cooperate, is of the type which may include one or more supporting ribs such as 18,20 which, in addition to adding rigidi25 ty, also function to compartmentalize the open end of the golf bag into a plurality of sections such as 22,24 and 26 which can be utilized if desired to segregate the golf clubs such as for example by wood, and irons. As also noted previously, this method of segregating the golf clubs does not remain orderly 30 for any length of time and furthermore does not prevent the clubs from causing damage to one another as a group of clubs rattle about in each section.

To alleviate this problem, the instant invention includes an adapter generally designated as reference numeral 28 which comprises a body member 30 of any suitable resilient material such as foam rubber, polyurethane or any other equivalent substance, the only requirement being the resilient compressibility thereof. In its relaxed state, the body member 30 has an external configuration corresponding to, but larger than, the multitude of standard diametered golf bags into which the adapter can be inserted. It may be noted that because of its resilient nature, the generally oval (or even circular) configuration of the resilient body member 30 will conform itself to virtually any shaped golf bag.

The body member 30 includes a plurality of elongated passageways 32 therethrough which will receive the golf clubs when they are inserted into the golf bag. The passageways 32 are in parallel alignment with one another and with the vertical axis of the golf bag when adapter 28 is inserted in the open end thereof. As suggested in the FIG., the passageways 32 are arranged in a predetermined pattern including a first line 34 including four such passageways; a second line 36 including five such passageways; a third line 38 including three such passageways; and a fourth line 40 including two passageways. In use, the four passageways of line 34 would receive the 1 through 4 woods of a golf set; the second line 36 would receive the middle irons 2 through 6 of a golf set; the third line 38 would receive the high irons, namely the 7, 8 and 9 iron of a golf set; and the two passageways 32 of the fourth line 40 would receive the putter or putters of the golf set. This pattern is chosen according to the known usage of a golf club set during an 18 hole round of golf wherein the woods and high irons (and of course the putter) are used more frequently than the middle irons which are accordingly the least accessible by virtue of being located intermediate, the woods and the high irons.

In its preferred embodiment the adapter 28 of the instant in70 vention includes a plurality of transverse channel-ways 42 (only one of which is visible in the drawing) which receive and seat upon the ribs 18 and 20 provided across the open end of the golf bag. It will be appreciated that these channel-ways help in aligning the adapter 28 in proper relationship with 75 respect to the major axis of the elliptical opening of the bag.

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In use, the resilient body member 30 is compressed and inserted into the open end of the golf bag 10, When released, it naturally expands into frictional engagement with the side wall to maintain the adapter in place even as the clubs are pulled out of the bag. Of course, the channel-ways 42 aid the user in properly aligning the adapter within the golf bag. If desired, and indeed it is the preferred method of utilizing the instant invention, commonly available plastic tubes such as illustrated at 44 in the FIG. may be inserted through the passageways 32 before the golf clubs are inserted therein. By using plastic retaining tubes, it becomes absolutely impossible for the shafts of the clubs to contact one another along the length of the golf

Thus, there has been described an adapter for facilitating the noninterferring orderly arrangement of a set of golf clubs within the open end of a golf bag which adapter may be simply and inexpensively added to the multitude of golf bags which do not include means for individually compartmentalizing the storage of clubs therein.

It should also be understood that the foregoing relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for the purposes of the disclosure, which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.