GB2172511A - Golfing aid - Google Patents

Abstract

A golfing aid for use in perfecting direction of drive in practice comprises a pressed steel member. An arrow head 2 at one extremity of an elongate portion 3 provides direction indication. At the other extremity, an upstanding plate 4 is provided, the plate 4 having spikes for ground penetration to prevent inadvertent dislodgement of the aid in use through contact with a club head. The aid shown can be made by a simple pressing operation which is followed by bending of the resulting part-formed blank to provide the plate 4 in upstanding condition. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Golfing aid The invention relates to a golfing aid useful as a reference by which to check for perpendicularity between the lateral axis of a club striking face and an ideal direction of ball projection.

Golf is a serious game requiring great skill, a good deal of which is concentrated in the correct club action or "swing", especially when driving. One major factor which influences the success of both a drive and a put is the ability of the golfer to orient the club striking face with its lateral axis perpendicular to the required direction of the ball.

Small errors at the origin of the ball are, of course, well-known to result in significant loss of accuracy in placing the ball at the end of what may well be a long trajectory. The correct correlation between striking face orientation and direction of travel is, however, difficult for human faculties to accomplish and thus there would be a considerable advantage to be gained from use of a device which would aid the player to make this difficultjudgement.

According to the invention, there is provided a golfing aid useful as a reference by which to check for perpendicularity between the laterial axis of a club striking face and an ideal direction of ball projection, the aid comprising an elongate portion which in use is disposed in ground contact and signifying said ideal direction by alignment of its longitudinal axis therewith, a second portion which defines an upstanding face when the elongate portion is ground contacting, said face having an axis which is transverse and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said elongate portion, and means engageable with the ground so that the aid, when disposed in a chosen orientation, is restrained from any positional disturbance as may result from light contact with the club.

The elongate portion will generally be provided with direction-indicating means such as an arrow head with the second portion provided at a position on the elongate portion remote from the arrow head: The elongate portion and the second portion will normally be disposed relative to one another such that they define three orthogonal axes.

The upstanding face of the second portion will normally be at least the width of a club striking face, preferably greater, and may conveniently be 2 to 4 times (e.g. 3 times) the width of the elongate portion of the golf aid.

The ground engagement means may conveniently take the form of spikes which in use penetrate the ground. The spikes preferably originate from the said second portion of the aid, especially when the latter is relatively wide whereby firm ground-engagement can be achieved by providing the spikes or the like at or near the lateral extremities of the said second portion. Spikes having a ground-penetrating length of from 10 to 40 mm (e.g. 15 to 25 mm) have been found to be satisfactory for the intended purpose.

The aid.may be made of plastics material but for ease of manufacture will preferably be of metallic material such as steel which may be surface coated for example by powder coating. When made of metallic material, the aid will conveniently be a onepiece construction in which the said second portion is formed by bending upwardly after forming an appropriate configuration from a blank. Thus, an aid according to the invention may be made by pressing from a steel or other metal blank, a pressing having an arrow head at one extremity and, at the other, a wider generally rectangular portion having a spike extending toward the arrow head from a point either side of the elongate portion and in the same plane.

On bending the rectangular portion through 90" at its junction with the elongate portion, a completed aid is formed with downwardly extending spikes.

The following specific description of a preferred embodiment of the invention is intended to illustrate the invention by way of example only, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure lisa plan view of a golfing aid according to the invention; Figure 2 is an end view from the direction of the arrow shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view from the direction of the arrow III shown in Figure 1; and Figure 4 is a steel blank for the aid of Figure 1, the configuration of an initial pressing requiring subsequent forming being shown in dashed lines.

The golfing aid shown in the figures comprises a formed 16 gauge steel member designated generally by the reference numeral 1. A 30 mm based triangular-shaped portion 2 at one extremity forms an arrow-head direction indicator. Integral therewith, a 90 mm long and 20 mm wide central portion 3 extends rearwardly to a 20 mm high upstanding portion 4 which is an upwardly bent integral 60 mm wide extension of central portion 3.

An integral downwardly extending 20 mm long spike 5 of triangular configuration is provided at each of the two opposed lateral extremities of portion 4.

The aid shown in Figure 1 may be made in a simple operation from a steel blank using a combination of pressing and subsequent bending.

Using a suitable former, the configuration represented in dashed lines in Figure 4 is pressed from the blank 6 and the pressing is then bent upwardly along line 7 to form the semi-finished article which is then finished by powder coating using, for example, an epoxy resin. In Figure 4, the parts of the aid are designated with the reference numerals assigned to them in Figures 1 to 3.

In use, the golfing aid shown in Figures 1 to 3 is placed in a desired position on the ground and the spikes 5 urged into the ground to fix the aid in position. A golfer may then check the correctness of his swing in terms of orientation of the club striking face using the perpendicularity of upstanding portion 4 relative to a desired ball direction represented by the arrow-head 2 of the aid. A tee or similar member may penetrate the hole in portion 2 to provide additional ground engagement.

The invention as described earlier without reference to the drawings may include any one or more features of the invention as described with reference to the drawings.

The invention includes within its scope a method of checking for the striking face perpendicularity referred to, using an aid as defined earlier herein or one which is devoid of said ground-engagement means.

The aid of the invention may employ as groundengagement means, one ortwo or more groundpenetrating members engageable by the aid, e.g. by their reception through an aperture in the aid.

Claims (13)

1. A golfing aid useful as a reference by which to check for perpendicularity between the lateral axis of a club striking face and an ideal direction of ball trajectory so that the ball can be struck with improved control of direction, the aid comprising a portion which in use is disposed in ground contact and signifying said ideal direction in use by alignment of an axis therewith, a second portion which defines a face which is upstanding when the first-mentioned portion is ground-contacting, said face having an axis which is transverse and perpendicular to the aforesaid axis of said firstmentioned portion, and means penetrable into or otherwise engageable with the ground so that the aid, when disposed in a chosen orientation, is restrained from any positional disturbance as may result from light contact with the club.

2. A golfing aid as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the first-mentioned portion is provided with directionindicating means, with the second portion being provided at a position on the first-mentioned portion remote therefrom.

3. A golfing aid as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the first-mentioned portion and the second portion are disposed relative to one another such that they define three orthogonal axes.

4. A golfing aid as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3 wherein the upstanding face of the second portion has a width which is greater than the width of a club striking face.

5. A golfing aid as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the ground-engagement means takes the form of spikes which in use penetrate the ground.

6. A golfing aid as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the spikes originate from the said second portion of the aid at or near the lateral extremities of the said second portion.

7. A golfing aid as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the spikes have a ground-penetrating length of from 10 mm to 40 mm.

8. A golfing aid as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the aid is a one-piece construction of metallic material in which the said second portion is formed by bending upwardly after forming an appropriate configuration from a blank.

9. A golfing aid as claimed in Claim 8 wherein the aid is made by pressing from a steel or other metallic blank, a pressing formed with an arrow head configuration at one extremity and, at the other, a wider generally rectangular portion having a spike extending toward the arrow head at a point either side of the first-mentioned portion and in the same plane and bending the rectangular portion through 90 at its junction with the first-mentioned portion to form completed aid having downwardly extending spikes.

10. A golfing aid as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 8 wherein the first-mentioned portion carries a direction indication indicium.

11. A golfing aid as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 10 wherein the first-mentioned portion is of elongate form and signifies said ideal direction of ball trajectory by alignment in use of its longitudinal axis with said ideal direction.

12. A golfing aid useful as a reference by which to check for perpendicularity between the lateral axis of a club striking face and an ideal direction of ball trajectory so that the ball can be struck with improved control of direction, the aid comprising a metallic pressing or plastics moulding wherein a first portion is elongate and is connected to a second portion at one longitudinal extremity, the first portion having a partformed to provide direction-indicating means in the form of an arrow head configuration formed as part of the moulding or pressing at the extremity remote from the second portion and the second portion having a generally rectangular portion wider than the width of the first portion and being bent through 90 relative to the first portion at its junction therewith, a spike extending either side of the first portion from the second portion so that said spikes penetrate the ground when the aid is ground-contacting.

13. A golfing aid substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.