Sole plate secured to club head by screws of different specific gravities

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For many years golf clubs have been made in matched sets by weighting the heads of the club to balance about a certain determined point by means of a “swing weight” machine. Wooden clubs or clubs having a wooden head are usually provided with a metal sole plate for protection of that head as it strikes and slides across the ground. Such a sole plate is held in position by screws passing through openings in the sole plate with the heads of the screws flush with the outer surface of the sole plate, and no attempt has been made to utilize such screws for any other purpose than for holding the plate in position. If a weight was to be added to the club head, such as the conventional wooden club head, some separate and additional means have been provided for doing so completely independent of the screws which hold the plate in position, thus making an additional and technical operation for the accurate weighting of the head.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention applies to a wooden club head having an attached sole plate held in position by means of screws and also utilizing the screws for balancing the club head by making the screws in identical physical dimensions but of different materials with various specific gravities and then selecting the proper number of screws of one or more materials until the head is weighted to the desired extent to provide the proper balance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a persepective view of a golf club head with the shaft broken away and showing the front edge of the sole plate;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a plurality of sole plate attaching screws of different materials;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view on line 4-4 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is an elevation showing a step in the swing weighting of the clubs.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the drawings 10 designates a golf club with a shaft 11 broken away, the head 12 being of wood or synthetic material with a face 13 and a sole plate 14. The sole plate 14 is attached to the bottom or sole of the head 12 by screws 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, (FIG. 2), each of which screws is threaded as at 20 for insertion in the clubhead material and with a shank 21 tapered as illustrated. The screw head 22 is slotted as at 23 and beveled as at 24 to fit into a companion beveled opening 25 in the sole plate 14 so as to secure the sole plate firmly to the head 12 with the outer surface of the screw head flush with the outer surface of the sole plate.

The screws which hold the plate in position are ordinarily all of the same material and are used solely for holding the plate in position. However, in the case of this invention the screws are made in identical exterior dimensions from a variety of different materials with varying specific gravities which will be of different weights, such as brass, stainless steel, aluminum and lead, and the weight of the head of the golf club may be varied easily and accurately by using screws of different materials in the several locations. Thus, the heaviest head may be provided by using all lead screws, and the lightest head provided by using all aluminum screws, whereas intermediate weights of heads to the player’s preference may be provided by choosing the brass or the stainless steel or in some cases there may be utilized screws of different materials in the same head. Thus, in order to make up the proper weight, a choice may be had of two or more of a variety of materials.

The method of the present invention is of particular advantage in the making of matched sets in which the clubs of the set are tested in the usual swing-weight machine W shown in FIG. 5 to determine the required amount of weight to be added or subtracted from the head with the screws each of a known weight. These may be interchanged until that exact weight is obtained, while the screws do the double duty of holding the plate in position.

Further, by having a number of screws located at various locations in the bottom of the head, some torsional balance of the head may be made by interchanging the screws of one weight with the screws of another weight in the center or closer to the face or heel of the club to mitigate the tendency of a player to “slice” or “hook. Thus, a large variety of fine weightings may be provided easily and personally without any special construction modification of the club but merely by utilizing ordinary screw sockets primarily intended to hold the plate in position.

If desired, it may be found helpful to use large size screws in order to get a greater scope of weights than would occur if the screws were of the usual small diameter.