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Golf club shaft

Golf club shaft description/claims

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/324,067, filed Dec. 30, 2005 (pending).

This invention relates to golf clubs, more particularly to golf club shafts. More particularly still, this invention relates to golf club shafts having a non-circular exterior cross-section along at least a portion of their length.

Currently, golf club shafts are hollow steel or graphite tubes that have a relatively thick outside dimension at the grip end of the golf club, that narrows as the club head is approached. Some golf club shafts, particularly those made of steel, may have a series of steps therein. In these shafts, the thickness of the shafts changes to a narrower thickness at each step from the grip end to the tip end. Other golf club shafts taper smoothly from the grip end to the tip end. Still other golf club shafts, such as the TAYLOR MADE® Bubble™ shaft described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,299 issued to Feche, et al. on May 31, 1994, have had discontinuities in thickness, such as a bubble, between their butt end and tip end.

Golf club shafts must meet the requirements of the United States Golf Association Rules of Golf (“Rules of Golf”) to be considered “legal” for tournament play. The USGA Rules require in Appendix II, Rule 4-1b, that the shaft be so designed and manufactured that at any point along its length: (i) it bends in such a way that the deflection is the same regardless of how the shaft is rotated about its longitudinal axis; and (ii) it twists the same amount in both directions.

This Rule is believed to be the reason that most golf club shafts are currently of circular cross-section. Over the years, golf club shafts have been proposed with various other cross-sections. One example of such a shaft is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,094 issued to Hsu. Most of these proposed shafts are not believed to have been marketed on a commercial scale in the U.S. One possible reason for this may be that they have not received U.S.G.A. approval. Whether the shaft described in the Hsu reference has been approved, however, is not known.

The present invention relates to golf club shafts having an exterior with a non-circular cross-section along at least a portion of the length of the shaft.

There are numerous, non-limiting embodiments of the invention. All embodiments, even if they are only described as being “embodiments” of the invention, are intended to be non-limiting (that is, there may be other embodiments in addition to these), unless they are expressly described as limiting the scope of the invention.

The golf club shaft has a longitudinal axis, a cross-section, a butt end, a tip end, and a length extending from the butt end to the tip end. In one non-limiting embodiment, the cross-section of the exterior of the shaft along an intermediate portion of the shaft between the butt end and the tip end is non-circular. In this embodiment, the cross-section of the exterior of the shaft at the end regions containing the butt and tip ends of the shaft may be circular. The cross-section of the intermediate portion may be any symmetrical shape. In one version of such an embodiment, the cross-section of the exterior of the shaft along an intermediate portion of the shaft is substantially triangular in configuration.

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• Utility Patent

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