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Chipping golf clubRelated Patent Categories: Games Using Tangible Projectile, Golf, Club Or Club Support, Hands Spaced Apart On HandleChipping golf club description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070197310, Chipping golf club. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates generally to the sport of golfing, and more particularly to a golf club for making "chip" shots. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] Typically, a golfer carries many different clubs during a round of golf, each club having a relatively specialized function. The clubs generally break down into three categories, namely, a putter for hitting the golf ball on the green with no loft, drivers for driving the ball in the air very long distances off of a tee, and fairway irons for hitting the ball various distances off the fairway (or from the rough) with loft. The fairway irons are typically numbered 3 through 9, each higher number designating a club having (1) a shorter shaft and (2) a club head with a ball striking face with a greater angle to the horizon so as to provide greater loft and, inherently, less distance for a given swing strength. The fairway irons also typically include one or both of a chipping club (or chipper) and a pitching wedge. These clubs typically are even shorter than a 9 iron and have an even greater loft angle so as to provide very short shots with loft. [0005] A golfer typically uses a chipping club when the ball is not on the green and, therefore, needs to be hit with loft, but is very close to the green and therefore must be hit softly so that the ball travels a very short distance. [0006] Chipping with a chipping club is one of the hardest aspects of the game for a golfer to learn. This is because golfers usually take a full strength swing with almost any club other than the putter. That is, a golfer typically will select the iron (or driver) having a shaft length and club face angle that will cause a well-hit ball to go the approximate distance the golfer wishes it to go while taking his or her normal full swing. However, once the ball is within a certain distance of the green, e.g. 50 yards or less, even the shortest club with the greatest loft, i.e., the chipper or the pitching wedge, will hit the ball too far if swung with full strength. [0007] Therefore, in connection with chipping, a golfer must display much more swing control than with most other clubs. Accordingly, amateur golfers, sometimes called "hackers", often have great difficulty chipping. Particularly, they often hit the ball with too much power and send it much farther than desired. Alternately, they "top" the ball, meaning that they held the club too high so that the striking face of the club did not properly contact the ball squarely, but instead the bottom edge of the club head hit the ball and the ball only dribbles a few feet along the ground. Another type of mis-shot is to hold the club too low so that the club head strikes the ground behind the ball before striking the ball, also typically resulting in the ball dribbling along the ground with no loft only a few feet. [0008] Many golfers believe that one of the keys to proper chipping is not breaking the wrists during the swing. In almost all other uses of fairway irons and drivers (all clubs intended to hit the ball with loft), the golfer should break his or her wrists. [0009] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide on improved chipping club. [0010] It is another object of the present invention to provide a new chipping club that helps a golfer avoid breaking his or her wrists during chipping. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a chipping wedge is provided having a longer than usual shaft, so as to provide an overall club length on the order of approximately 40 to 55 inches long and preferably about 47 inches, so that the top of the shaft comes up to about the middle of the golfer's chest when properly positioned for addressing the ball. The shaft includes an upper hand grip at the top of the shaft and a lower hand grip intermediate the shaft at approximately the height where a hand grip would be on a typical chipping wedge. Near the bottom of the shaft, the shaft is bent away from the golfer at about a 10-25.degree. angle. [0012] A right-handed golfer places his or her left hand on the upper grip essentially at the very top of the club with the thumb facing up and the fingers wrapping around the shaft. Preferably, the golfer holds the top of the club against his or her chest (i.e., with the left hand touching the chest). The golfer's right hand is placed on the lower grip in essentially the normal position as if the person were holding a standard club. The golfer holds the club with the shaft vertical or near vertical and swings the club holding the left hand essentially motionless and swinging with the right hand in a pendulum type motion. The bottom portion of the shaft of the club is angled away from the golfer's body at about a 10-25.degree. angle, and more preferably about 15.degree.-20.degree. and most preferably about 18.degree. and the club head is mounted to the shaft in essentially a standard fashion. Hence, the club face strikes the ball in the same way as it would in a properly swung standard chipping wedge. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of a golfer addressing a ball and holding a chipping wedge in accordance with the present invention taken from a view facing the golfer head on. [0014] FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the golfer and club of FIG. 1 taken from a view rotated 90.degree. from the view of FIG. 1 and taken from the direction in which the golfer is hitting the ball. [0015] FIG. 3 is a close up view of the bottom of the golf club of FIG. 1 taken from the same angle as FIG. 2. [0016] FIG. 4 is a close up view of the bottom of the golf club of FIG. 1 taken from the same angle as FIG. 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0017] Golf club 100 includes a club head 101, a shaft 103, and upper and lower hand grips 105 and 107, respectively. The shaft may be made of any one or more conventional materials and be constructed in any reasonable fashion. The club head may be essentially any conventional chipper club head. In fact, one of the advantages of the present invention is that, despite the other innovative modifications of the chipping club of the present invention, the club head 103 still may be essentially any normal chipper club head, as will be discussed further below. [0018] As is typical, the club head 101 has a ball striking face 109 that typically is flat. The edges of the ball striking face 109 are the lower front edge 111, the upper front edge 113, the heel edge 115, and the toe edge 117. The bottom of the club head, called the sole 119, extends rearwardly from the lower front edge 111 to a rear edge 121. [0019] Extending generally from the top heel corner of the club head is a hosel 123, which is a tubular extension to which the shaft 103 is coupled to the head. There is a socket in the end of the hosel 123 into which the shaft 103 is inserted. The plane of the ball striking face should be between about 25.degree. and 45.degree., and preferably about 30.degree., tilted upwardly relative to vertical in order to provide significant loft to the ball. The aforementioned features of the club head are essentially conventional and any other features not specifically mentioned above may be essentially conventional for a chipper club head. [0020] The club is between about 40 and 55 inches long, more preferably between about 45 and 50 inches, even more preferably between 46 and 48 inches, and most preferably about 47 inches long. For purposes of United States Golf Association (USGA) approval, a club must be 48 inches in length or less. Therefore, for purposes of USGA approval, the club preferably is less than or equal to 48 inches in length. Continue reading about Chipping golf club... Full patent description for Chipping golf club Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Chipping golf club patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Chipping golf club or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Golf practice device Next Patent Application: Interchangeable golf club heads with shared shaft Industry Class: Games using tangible projectile ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Chipping golf club patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.97219 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Computers: Graphics , I/O , Processors , Dyn. Storage , Static Storage , Printers 174 |
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