Metal wood club with improved moment of inertia

The present invention relates to an improved metal wood golf club head. More particularly, the present invention relates to a driver, hybrid or utility-style hollow golf club head with an optimized moment of inertia.

The complexities of golf club design are known. The specifications for each component of the club (i.e., the club head, shaft, grip, and subcomponents thereof) directly impact the performance of the club. Thus, by varying the design specifications, a golf club can be tailored to have specific performance characteristics.

The design of club heads has long been studied. Among the more prominent considerations in club head design are loft, lie, face angle, horizontal face bulge, vertical face roll, center of gravity, rotational moment of inertia, material selection, and overall head weight. While this basic set of criteria is generally the focus of golf club designers, several other design aspects must also be addressed. The interior design of the club head may be tailored to achieve particular characteristics, such as the inclusion of a hosel or a shaft attachment means, perimeter weights on the club head, and fillers within the hollow club heads.

Golf club heads must also be strong to withstand the repeated impacts that occur during collisions between the golf club and the golf balls. The loading that occurs during this transient event can create a peak force of over 2,000 lbs. Thus, a major challenge is to design the club face and club body to resist permanent deformation or failure by material yield or fracture. Conventional hollow metal wood drivers made from titanium typically have a uniform face thickness exceeding 2.5 mm or 0.10 inch to ensure structural integrity of the club head.

Players generally seek a metal wood driver and golf ball combination that delivers maximum distance and landing accuracy. The distance a ball travels after impact is dictated by the magnitude and direction of the ball\'s initial velocity and the ball\'s rotational velocity or spin. Environmental conditions, including atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, and wind speed, further influence the ball\'s flight. However, these environmental effects are beyond the control of the golf equipment designers. Golf ball landing accuracy is driven by a number of factors as well. Some of these factors are attributed to club head design, such as center of gravity and moment of inertia.

Concerned that improvements to golf equipment may render the game less challenging, the United States Golf Association (USGA), the governing body for the rules of golf in the United States, has specifications for the performance of golf equipment. These performance specifications dictate the size and weight of a conforming golf ball or a conforming golf club. USGA rules limit a number of parameters for drivers. For example, the volume of drivers has been limited to 460±10 cubic centimeters. The length of the shaft, except for putter, has been capped at 48 inches. The driver clubs have to fit inside a 5-inch square and the height from the sole to the crown cannot exceed 2.8 inches. The USGA has further limited the coefficient of restitution of the impact between a driver and a golf ball to 0.830.

The USGA has also observed that the rotational moment of inertia of drivers, or the club\'s resistance to twisting on off-center hits, has tripled from about 1990 to 2005, which coincides with the introduction of oversize drivers. Since drivers with higher rotational moment of inertia are more forgiving on off-center hits, the USGA was concerned that further increases in the club head\'s inertia may reduce the challenge of the game, and instituted in 2006 a limit on the moment of inertia for drivers at 5900 g·cm²±100 g·cm² or 32.259 oz·in²±0.547 oz·in². The limit on the moment of inertia is to be measured around a vertical axis, the y-axis as used herein, through the center of gravity of the club head.

A number of patent references have disclosed driver clubs with high moment of inertia, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,607,452 and 6,425,832. These driver clubs use a circular weight strip disposed around the perimeter of the club body away from the hitting face to obtain a moment of inertia from 2800 to 5000 g·cm² about the vertical axis. U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2006/0148586 A1 discloses driver clubs with moment of inertia in the vertical direction from 3500 to 6000 g·cm². However, the \'586 application limits the shape of the driver club to be substantially square when viewed from the top, which in turn limits the mass characteristics of the club head.

However, most oversize drivers on the market at this time have moments of inertia in the range of about 4,000 to 4,300 g·cm². Hence, there remains a need for more forgiving driver, hybrid and utility hollow golf club heads with optimized moments of inertia.

The present invention is directed to a golf club head having a substantially I-beam-shaped mass distribution. More preferably, the present invention is directed to a driver, hybrid or utility hollow golf club head having a mass distribution that substantially resembles an I-beam or pseudo-I-beam to optimize the moment of inertia of the club head around the y-axis.

The golf club head of the present invention includes two discrete weight members, one located on the sole toward the face and one located on the sole toward the back. Said sole weight members may have greater density or thickness than the surrounding sole material. Alternatively, said weight members may comprise weights disposed on the surface of the sole. By placing mass in two discrete locations on the sole located away from the vertical axis that runs through the center of gravity of the club head, the rotational inertia of the club head about that axis is increased relative to a configuration in which mass is evenly spread around the sole.

In accordance with this invention, the club head may have a multitude of different shapes, although in each embodiment, weight is concentrated in distinct areas locations on the sole—at least one weight member is located on the sole toward the face and at least one weight member is located on the sole toward the back. According to an aspect of this invention, the weight member on the sole and toward the face may be divided into two zones of mass, and likewise the weight member on the sole and toward the back may be divided into two zones of mass.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the invention.

FIG. 1 is a top, perspective view of an idealized club head;

FIG. 2 is a top, perspective view of another idealized club head;

FIG. 3 is a top, perspective view of yet another idealized club head;

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Welded iron-type clubhead with thin high-cor face
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