Golf club head

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9174096-B2
Application number	US-201313946918-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 19, 2013
Priority date	Dec 23, 2009
Publication date	Nov 3, 2015
Grant date	Nov 3, 2015

Abstract

A golf club head comprises a sole, a recessed sole port in the sole; and a rotatably adjustable sole piece adapted to be at least partially received within the sole port and comprising a central body having a plurality of contact surfaces adapted to contact the sole port and being offset from each other along a central axis extending through the central body of the sole piece. The sole piece can be positioned at least partially within the sole port at five or more rotational and axial positions with respect to the central axis, wherein at each rotational position, at least one of said contact surfaces of the central body contacts the sole port to set the axial position of the sole piece. The sole port and/or the sole piece can be generally pentagonal in shape.

First claim

We claim:

1. A golf club head comprising:
a body having a face, a crown and a sole together defining an interior cavity,
the body having a channel located on the sole and extending generally from a heel end of the body to a toe end of the body;
at least one ledge extending within the channel from the heel end of the body to the toe end of the body, the at least one ledge including a plurality of projections located on an exposed surface of the at least one ledge;
at least one weight member movably positioned within the channel, wherein a position of at least one weight member within the channel is able to be adjusted, wherein the at least one weight member comprises a plurality of recesses adapted to selectively receive the projections located on the at least one ledge, the recesses being sized relative to the projections such that the at least one weight member can move within the channel a limited amount when one of the projections is received in one of the recesses.

2. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the at least one weight member comprises:
an outer member retained within the channel and in contact with the at least one ledge, the recesses being formed in the outer member;
an inner member retained within the channel; and
a fastening bolt that connects the outer member to the inner member.

3. The golf club head of claim 2 , wherein the outer member has a length L extending generally in the heel to toe direction of the channel, and wherein each adjacent pair of projections are separated by a distance D1 along the at least one ledge, and wherein L>D1.

4. The golf club head of claim 1 , further comprising:
a rotatably adjustable sole piece configured to be secured to the sole at one of a plurality of rotational positions with respect to a central axis extending through the sole piece, wherein the sole piece extends a different axial distance from the sole at each of the rotational positions.

5. The golf club head of claim 4 , wherein adjusting the sole piece to a different one of the rotational positions changes the face angle of the golf club head independently of the loft angle of the golf club head when the golf club head is in the address position.

6. The golf club head of claim 4 , further comprising a releasable locking mechanism configured to lock the sole piece at a selected one of the rotational positions on the sole.

7. The golf club head of claim 6 , wherein the locking mechanism comprises a screw adapted to extend through the sole piece and into a threaded opening in the sole of the club head body.

8. The golf club head of claim 4 , wherein the sole piece has a convex bottom surface, such that when the sole piece is at each rotational position the bottom surface has a heel-to-toe curvature that substantially matches a heel-to-toe curvature of a leading contact surface of the sole.

9. The golf club head of claim 1 , wherein the distance between a first vertical plane intersecting a center of the face and a second vertical plane bisecting the channel is less than about 50 mm over a full length of the channel.

10. The golf club head of claim 9 , wherein the distance between the first vertical plane and the second vertical plane is less than about 40 mm over a full length of the channel.

11. The golf club head of claim 9 , wherein the distance between the first vertical plane and the second vertical plane is less than about 30 mm over a full length of the channel.

12. A golf club head comprising:
a body having a face, a crown and a sole together defining an interior cavity;
the body having a channel located on the sole and extending generally from a heel end of the body to a toe end of the body;
at least one ledge extending within the channel from the heel end of the body to the toe end of the body, the at least one ledge including a plurality of projections located on an exposed surface of the at least one ledge;
a weight member movably positioned within the channel such that a position of the weight member within the channel is able to be adjusted, wherein the at least one weight member comprises a plurality of recesses adapted to selectively receive the projections located on the at least one ledge, the recesses being sized relative to the projections such that the at least one weight member can move within the channel a limited amount when one of the projections is received in one of the recesses;
wherein the face includes a center face location that defines the origin of a coordinate system in which an x-axis is tangential to the face at the center face location and is parallel to a ground plane when the body is in a normal address position, a y-axis extends perpendicular to the x-axis and is also parallel to the ground plane, and a z-axis extends perpendicular to the ground plane, wherein a positive x-axis extends toward the heel portion from the origin, a positive y-axis extends rearwardly from the origin, and a positive z-axis extends upwardly from the origin;
wherein a maximum x-axis position adjustment range of the weight member (Max Δx) is greater than 50 mm and a maximum y-axis position adjustment range of the weight member (Max Δy) is less than 40 mm.

13. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein the weight member has a mass (M WA ) and wherein the product of M WA *Max Δx is at least 250 g·mm.

14. The golf club head of claim 13 , wherein the product of M WA *Max Δy is less than 1800 g·mm.

15. The golf club head of claim 13 , wherein the product of M WA *Max Δy is between about 0 μmm and about 1800 μmm.

16. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein the weight member has a mass (M WA ) and wherein the product of M WA *Max Δx is between about 250 g·mm and about 4950 g·mm.

17. The golf club head of claim 12 , wherein a center of gravity of the body has a z-axis coordinate (CGz) that is less than about 0 mm.

18. A golf club head comprising:
a body having a face, a crown and a sole together defining an interior cavity;
the body having a channel located on the sole and extending generally from a heel end of the body to a toe end of the body;
at least one ledge extending within the channel from the heel end of the body to the toe end of the body, the at least one ledge including a plurality of projections located on an exposed surface of the at least one ledge;
a weight member movably positioned within the channel such that a position of the weight member within the channel is able to be adjusted, thereby adjusting a location of a center of gravity of the body, wherein the at least one weight member comprises a plurality of recesses adapted to selectively receive the projections located on the at least one ledge, the recesses being sized relative to the projections such that the at least one weight member can move within the channel a limited amount when one of the projections is received in one of the recesses;
wherein the face includes a center face location that defines the origin of a coordinate system in which an x-axis is tangential to the face at the center face location and is parallel to a ground plane when the body is in a normal address position, a y-axis extends perpendicular to the x-axis and is also parallel to the ground plane, and a z-axis extends perpendicular to the ground plane, wherein a positive x-axis extends toward the heel portion from the origin, a positive y-axis extends rearwardly from the origin, and a positive z-axis extends upwardly from the origin;
wherein adjustment of the weight member provides a maximum x-axis adjustment range of the position of the center of gravity (Max ΔCGx) that is greate

Assignees

• Taylor Made Golf Co

Inventors

• Sargent Nathan T
• Nielson Joseph Reeve
• Johnson Matthew David
• Greensmith Matthew
• Beach Todd P
• Franz Michael

Classifications

• A63B60/00

  Details or accessories of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like · CPC title

• A63B53/047

  iron-type · CPC title

• A63B60/52

  with slits · CPC title

• A63B53/06

  adjustable · CPC title

• A63B53/0487

  for putters (A63B53/065 takes precedence) · CPC title