Wood-type golf club head

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-124280, filed May 12, 2008, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-305227, filed Nov. 27, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to a wood-type golf club head. In particular, the present invention relates to a golf club head for promoting, as a driver head, the increase in flight distance.

Flight distance in golf is determined by a ball initial velocity, a launch angle and a spin rate. In general, the higher the ball initial velocity, the greater the flight distance, and there exist a launch angle and a spin rate which make the most of the ball initial velocity. On the other hand, the current golf ball development aims at improvement of ball initial velocity and lower spin (reduction in spin rate) in order to obtain longer flight. More specifically, it is said that, current balls have spin rates too high to hit a long ball, and it is also said that a combination of current golf club and golf ball does not realize a launch angle and a spin rate which make the most of a ball initial velocity.

As one of golf club design techniques concerning flight, there is a technique for optimizing a launch angle and a spin rate by utilizing gear effect resulting from the specialty of a wood-type golf club head, which has a deep center of gravity. The launch angle and spin rate at each position on a hitting plane (face) are determined by a loft angle at this point (each position); however, in the face design of a wood club head, a loft angle at each point of the face is determined so as to provide the launch angle and spin rate at which the flight distance is maximized, and then, upon connecting each point of the face vertically so that the determined loft angle at each point of the face becomes tangential, a curve is formed longitudinally, which is a roll design. In other words, this technique is a face roll design technique provided in consideration of impact factors such as the center of gravity and moments of inertia. Further, in a head of a wood-type golf club, having a deep center of gravity, a position at which the maximum flight is obtained is generally located above a perpendicular line drawn from the center of gravity of the head onto a face plane as shown in FIG. 11. This is because, with the position of the perpendicular line drawn from the center of gravity of the head onto the face plane defined as a boundary, the spin in a topspin direction and the spin in a backspin direction act as gear effects at the upper side and the lower side, respectively, and the backspin at the upper side is reduced, which leads to the increase in flight.

On the other hand, in view of hitting points of golfers, most of professional and advanced golfers each apparently hit a ball with a face center at the sight of their club faces. Among them, there are some golfers who empirically know that the maximum flight point is located above the face center, but the aim of the hitting point in a stable game is hitting of the face center. Next, FIG. 12 shows the location of the position of the center of gravity on the face plane, which is the position of the perpendicular line drawn perpendicularly from the center of the gravity of the head onto the face plane, with respect to the face center. “DYG” in FIG. 12 indicates the difference between the position of the perpendicular line drawn from the center of gravity of the head onto the face plane and the face center (in units of mm), and shows that most of the positions of the center of gravity on the face are located 4 to 8 mm above the face center, and that the greater the loft angle of the face, the greater the “DYG”. Furthermore, the relationship between the face height and the “DYG” is shown in FIG. 13, from which it can be understood that the height of the center of gravity is located 4 to 8 mm above the center of the face regardless of the face height, and that the height of the center of gravity with respect to the face height is substantially constant.

Moreover, FIG. 11 shows that the above-mentioned maximum flight distance point on the face is located above the position of the perpendicular line drawn from the center of gravity of the head onto the face plane; however, it can be assumed that the maximum flight distance point often significantly differs from the hitting point at which professional and advanced golfers aim, i.e., the face center. In other words, it can be said that the hitting with the face center, at which many professional and advanced golfers aim, induces the action of gear effect in a direction in which backspin is increased, leading to the reduction in flight distance. In order to hit a long ball, it is necessary to hit the ball with a point located above the face center. Even though professional and advanced golfers know this, the hitting point in a stable game is the face center. It is an object of the present inventor to make the hitting area of a golfer, i.e., the face center, coincide with the maximum flight distance point. To achieve this object, the position of the center of gravity of a head has to be lowered by 10 mm or more. Conventional techniques for lowering the center of gravity of a wood head include ones in which attempts are made to daringly change head shape (see JP-A-H07-178207 (Page 3, FIG. 1) and JP-A-2000-262657 (Page 2, FIG. 1)).

In a wood-type golf club head disclosed in each of JP-A-H07-178207 and JP-A-2000-262657, an intersection point of a perpendicular line from the center of gravity with respect to a face plane, i.e., a sweet spot, is to be located at the center of the face plane (face center); however, the head has an unusual shape such as a vault shape or a potbellied shape, and a golfer has felt the difficulty of coming to the ready because of the unduly peculiar shape when the golfer has seen the head from above at address.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a golf glove including: a main body that includes a palm side portion and a back side portion, the palm side portion being configured to closely fit to a palm of a hand of a golfer, the back side portion being configured to closely fit to a back side of the hand; a first slip preventive element placed at least on a first area that is interior of a grip receiving area on an outer surface of the main body, where a grip portion of a golf club is in contact with the main body when the golfer grips the golf club; wherein the first slip preventive element has a larger slip resistance to sweat of the hand and water coming into an inside of the golf glove than the main body.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a golf glove including: a main body that includes a palm side portion and a back side portion, the palm side portion being configured to closely fit to a palm of a hand of a golfer, the back side portion being configured to closely fit to a back side of the hand; a second slip preventive element placed on a second area that is interior of an intermediate portion area in the main body, the intermediate area being positioned at a substantially intermediate between a lowermost position of a little finger portion of the main body and a wrist portion of the main body, so as to extend from the palm side portion to the back side portion; wherein the second slip preventive element is made of a porous elastic resin film.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a golf glove including: a main body that includes a palm side portion and a back side portion, the palm side portion being configured to closely fit to a palm of a hand of a golfer, the back side portion being configured to closely fit to a back side of the hand; a third slip preventive element including a traversing portion and a lower portion, the traversing portion placed on an interior of the palm side portion so as to traverse bases of finger portions except thumb portion in the main body, the lower portion placed on the interior of the palm side portion so as to extend along a life line on the palm of the golfer in a direction reverse to an extending direction of the life line; wherein the third slip preventive element is made of a resin foam film.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a golf glove including: a main body that includes a palm side portion and a back side portion, the palm side portion being configured to closely fit to a palm of a hand of a golfer, the back side portion being configured to closely fit to a back side of the hand, the back side portion including an access opening formed at a lower position thereof; a locking belt that is sewn to the back side, the locking belt for closing the access opening; a forth slip preventive element placed on a forth area that is interior of the back side portion, the forth area extending from a lowermost position of an index finger portion of the back side portion toward the locking belt, the forth slip preventive element including minute projections and made of an artificial leather.

In this way, the invention is characterized in that the preventive elements which exhibit the high resistance to slip relative to water secreted from the hand of the golfer and water which penetrates into the golf glove in wet weather are affixed to the specific locations on the inner surface of at least the portions on the palm side area or the back side area of the glove main body with which the grip portion of the golf club is brought into abutment, whereby the stable grip is obtainable under every condition, thereby making it possible to prevent effectively an error in hitting a ball.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other object and advantages of this invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a lateral view of a golf club head according to exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a lateral view showing a head lower portion rectangularly removed from a leading edge to a sole according to exemplary embodiment of the invention.

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Previous Patent Application:
Golf putter with an adjustable handle and a shaft that rotats about the handle and method for using the same
Next Patent Application:
Golf club head
Industry Class:
Games using tangible projectile

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