Club Head with External Hosel

Abstract

An adjustable golf club head and method of manufacturing the adjustable golf club head. The adjustable golf club head consists of a striking face, a soleplate, a crown, and a skirt connecting the face, the soleplate and the crown with the flange and hosel assembly being adjustably attached to the skirt. The flange and hosel assembly may be moved: laterally, tilted, vertically, both laterally and vertically, allowing for the optimization of one or more of the following specifications—loft angle, lie angle, face angle, center of gravity and face progression.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A golf club head comprising:
 a striking face;   a soleplate;   a crown;   a skirt for connecting the face, the soleplate, and the crown; and   a hosel displaced from the crown of the club head by a flange; and   a shaft;   an adapter coupled to said shaft; and   a hosel coupled to said adapter for adjustably securing said shaft to said club head.   
     
     
         2 . An adjustable golf club head comprising:
 a striking face;   a soleplate;   a crown;   a skirt for connecting the face, the soleplate, and the crown;   an adjustably coupled flange extending from the skirt; and   a hosel extending from the flange.   
     
     
         3 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 2  further comprising:
 (a) a shaft; 
 (b) an adapter coupled to said shaft, said adapter being capable of adjustably receiving said shaft; and 
 (c) a hosel coupled to said adapter for adjustably coupling said shaft to said club head body. 
 
     
     
         4 . The adjustable club head of  claim 2 , wherein said flange is laterally adjustably coupled to said skirt. 
     
     
         5 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 2 , wherein said flange is vertically adjustably coupled to said skirt. 
     
     
         6 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 2 , wherein said flange is laterally and vertically adjustably coupled to said skirt. 
     
     
         7 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 2 , wherein said flange is laterally and rotatably coupled to said skirt. 
     
     
         8 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 2 , wherein said skirt is indented to integrally form a slide track mechanism extending laterally from the striking face to rear skirt and said flange is adjustably coupled to said skirt. 
     
     
         9 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 2 , wherein the striking face is attached to a rim of uniform thickness comprised of the crown, skirt and sole and maintains a minimum displacement of the flange from the striking face of 1 mm. 
     
     
         10 . An adjustable golf club head comprising:
 a striking face;   a soleplate;   a crown;   a skirt for connecting the face, the soleplate, and the crown; and further comprising a periphery;   an adjustably coupled flange extending from the periphery of said skirt; and   a hosel extending from the flange.   
     
     
         11 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 10 , further comprising an adapter threadably connected to said hosel and adapted to adjustably receive said shaft for adjustably coupling said shaft to said hosel. 
     
     
         12 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 10 ,
 (a) wherein said skirt defines a plurality of vertically oriented grooves therein and   (b) wherein said flange defines a plurality of vertically oriented ridges thereon matingly engageable with the plurality of grooves for vertically positioning said flange relative to said skirt.   
     
     
         13 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 10 , further comprising a fastener assembly connected to said skirt and engageable with said flange for removably fastening said flange to said skirt. 
     
     
         14 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 13 , wherein said fastener assembly comprises:
 (a) an externally threaded male connector outwardly projecting from said skirt for mounting said flange on said male connector, and   (b) an internally threaded anchor threadably engageable with said externally threaded male connector for removably connecting said flange to said skirt while said flange is mounted on said male connector   
     
     
         15 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 14 , wherein said male connector is integrally formed with said skirt for preventing separation of said connector from said skirt. 
     
     
         16 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 15 ,
 (a) wherein said flange defines a slot therethrough, and   (b) wherein said male connector is sized to extend through the slot and threadably engage said female connector for removably connecting said flange to said skirt.   
     
     
         17 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 16 , wherein the slot defined by said flange is laterally oriented for allowing lateral displacement of said flange relative to said skirt. 
     
     
         18 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 16 , wherein the slot defined by said flange is vertically oriented for allowing vertical displacement of said flange relative to said skirt. 
     
     
         19 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 15 ,
 (a) wherein said flange defines a plurality of interconnected slots arranged laterally and vertically, and   (b) wherein said male connector is sized to extend through a predetermined slot selected from the plurality of slots and threadably engage said female connector for adjustably connecting said flange laterally, or optionally, vertically to said skirt.   
     
     
         20 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 15 , wherein said flange rotatably engages said male connector for rotatably positioning said flange about said male connector. 
     
     
         21 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 10 ,
 (a) wherein said skirt defines a threaded bore therein, and   (b) wherein said flange defines a slot alignable with the threaded bore and sized to receive a threaded male connector extending through the slot and threadably engaging the threaded bore defined by said skirt for removably connecting said flange to said skirt.   
     
     
         22 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 10 , wherein said skirt is indented to integrally form a slide track mechanism extending laterally from the striking face to rear skirt and said flange is adjustably coupled to said mechanism. 
     
     
         23 . The adjustable golf club head of  claim 10 , wherein the striking face is attached to a rim of uniform thickness comprised of the crown, skirt and sole and maintains a minimum displacement of the flange from the striking face of 1 mm. 
     
     
         24 . A method of manufacturing a golf club head, comprising the steps of:
 coupling a striking face, a soleplate, and a crown to a skirt;   coupling an adjustable flange to the skirt; and   coupling a hosel to the flange.