Adjustable golf putter head having teeth

Abstract

In a golf club head assembly a body member has a top-forward angled front face, the face comprising a plurality of generally forward-facing teeth. The golf club head assembly further comprises a loft angle adjustment mechanism attached to the body member for adjusting a loft angle of the face. The mechanism includes a hosel element releasably attached to a bar rotatably mounted to an upper side of the body member parallel to the face. The bar is rotatably journaled or mounted in a pair of bar supports attached to the body member. Set screws reside in threaded holes in the bar supports, the set screws operable to releasably lock the bar in a selected orientation relative to the body member, where the selected orientation of the bar corresponds to and determines the loft angle of the front face. The forward angle of the front face, the angles of the teeth, and loft angle of the face are jointly chosen to impart a pure rolling motion onto a struck golf ball.

1 . A golf club head assembly, comprising:
 a body member having a top-forward angled front face, the face comprising a plurality of generally forward-facing teeth; and   a loft angle adjustment mechanism attached to said body member for adjusting a loft angle of said face, said loft angle adjustment mechanism being configured to set the loft angle to a value of Arcsin(q) adjusted by a deviation of the front face of the body member from a perfectly horizontal stroke, where in an expression I=qmr 2 , q is a dimensionless number related to mass distribution within a golf ball, I is moment of inertia of the ball, m is the mass of the ball, and r is the radius of the ball.   
     
     
         2 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein one or more of the plurality of teeth are positioned on the face to contact a golf ball above a center of mass of the ball. 
     
     
         3 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 2 , wherein the teeth each comprise a top forward face surface having an angle B 1  from a horizontal plane and a bottom forward face surface having an angle B 2  from the horizontal plane, wherein B 1  and B 2  are chosen such that a net vertical force exerted on the ball from the teeth is approximately zero when the teeth strike a ball. 
     
     
         4 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 3 , wherein the following solution equation is satisfied:
   Sin(2 B 1)Cos( B 1)=Sin(2 B 2)Cos( B 2)5.   
     
     
         5 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 5 , wherein the pair (B 1 , B 2 ) is one of the following: (90°, 0°), (60°, 13.2°), (45°, 45°), (30°, 40.6°), and (15°, 57.7°). 
     
     
         6 . A golf club head assembly comprising:
 a body member having a top-forward angled front face, the face comprising a plurality of generally forward-facing teeth; and   a loft angle adjustment mechanism attached to said body member for adjusting a loft angle of said face,   the loft angle adjustment mechanism including a hosel element releasably attached to a bar rotatably mounted to an upper side of said body member parallel to the face,   the loft angle adjustment mechanism further including at least one set screw operable to releasably lock the bar in a selected orientation relative to said body member, where the selected orientation of the bar corresponds to and determines the loft angle of the front face.   
     
     
         7 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 6 , wherein the bar is rotatably journaled in a pair of bar supports attached to the body member. 
     
     
         8 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 7 , wherein said at least one set screw is one of a plurality of set screws residing in threaded holes in the bar supports. 
     
     
         9 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 7 , wherein the bar has circular cross-sections at toe and heel ends and a polygon cross-section in between the toe and heel ends. 
     
     
         10 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 9 , wherein a bottom end of the hosel element is formed with a hole having a polygonal shape geometically similar to the polygon cross-section of the bar so that said hosel element is slidable on the bar in a toe-heel direction and is rotatably fixed to the bar. 
     
     
         11 . A golf club head assembly comprising:
 a body member having a top-forward angled front face, the face comprising a plurality of generally forward-facing teeth; and   a loft angle adjustment mechanism attached to said body member for adjusting a loft angle of said face,   the loft angle adjustment mechanism including a hosel element releasably attached to a bar rotatably mounted to an upper side of said body member parallel to the face,   wherein the hosel element is provided with a set screw disposed in a threaded hole in said hosel element, for releasably locking the hosel element to the bar.   
     
     
         12 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 10 , wherein the polygon cross-section is a hexagon cross-section. 
     
     
         13 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 6 , wherein the hosel element consists of a lower section attachable to the bar and an upper section into which a shaft is insertable, the lower section and the upper section being rotatably connected to one another in order to adjust a lie angle of a respective golf club. 
     
     
         14 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 13 , wherein the lower section and the upper section of the hosel element are releasably locked together at a desired relative angle by a threaded bolt inserted in a threaded hole residing in an overlapping portion of the lower section and the upper section. 
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A golf club head assembly comprising:
 a body member having a top-forward angled front face, the face comprising a plurality of generally forward-facing teeth; and   a loft angle adjustment mechanism attached to said body member for adjusting a loft angle of said face,   the loft angle adjustment mechanism including a hosel element releasably attached to a bar rotatably mounted to an upper side of said body member parallel to the face,   wherein the bar is formed with a longitudinal slit, a set screw being provided for releasably locking the hosel to the bar.   
     
     
         17 . The golf club head assembly according to  claim 7 , wherein the bar is provided at one end with an external screw thread inserted into an internally threaded opening in the body member.