Durable golf tee construction
A durable golf tee construction to prevent the loss of or damage to golf tees, allowing golf players to play many rounds of golf using only one golf tee. Breakable but connected tee prevents the tee to be damaged upon striking; a string connected two tees allowing the easy location of tee, and thus preventing loss of tee.
The present invention relates generally to design and construction of durable and reusable golf tees. The main advantage of present invention helps to reduce the loss of or damages to the golf tee, and therefore, has great environmental value.
Golf tees traditionally are simply a wood stick with a widened seat on top for the ball to be placed. Although tees are relatively inexpensive and golfers usually carry a package of them in the golf bags, golfers sometimes run into problems when these one-time-use tees are used up in a game.
Present invention provides a durable golf tee that allows golf players to carry only ONE tee of present invention and do not need to worry about buying a bunch of tees again and again.
Because golfers need not repeatedly buy those one-time golf tees, present invention also has high environmental value in reducing wasted material.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONPresent invention has a unique construction of a paired-up tees, wherein a first tee has a separable ball seat portion, so that the tee will not be damaged by golf swings.
Furthermore, a string is utilized to connect the first separable tee to a second tee, so that even when the first tee is hit up in the air, the string along with the second tee actually pull back and stop the first tee from flying out and disappear into any long grassy area on or around the tee-off box in the golf course.
The string used to connect the separable first tee and the second tee also helps to create a line for golfers to visualize and provides a good guidance for improving golf games.
The ball seat of the first tee is separable from, but connected to the center ring and base by a combination of a wire and spring, creating the desired structure to withstand hitting and quick restoration to original shape.
Present invention has great advantage over prior art application 2003/0181262 (“262 Application”, Hyung Choon Lee, filing date Sep. 17, 2002) in that:
(1) said 262 Application uses a clevis pin (8) to connect the ball seat to the base; often times these hard pins tend to break.
(2) said 262 Application has a flush outside circumference at the juncture of the body (1) and the projecting portion (11*). This “flush” junction lacks the advantage of present invention's extended outer circumferential edge that provides convenience for ease of handling. (*Note: 262 Application's notation of elements projecting portion 10 and ring hole 11 could be wrong; the two notation should be swapped.)
(3) said tee of 262 Application could become lost in the grass, just like other regular tees, lacking the string/second tee pulling of present invention, which ensures golfers will always be able to locate the tee.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate the preferred embodiment of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A brief description of the drawings is as follows:
Present invention uses the prevalent rubber or plastic material as the main ingredient for the production of the tee. These materials include, but are not limited to, PE, PVC, PU, etc., and help to enhance the durability of present invention. These are common art materials and need no disclosure herein.
Center ring portion 50 has a upright protruding 51 that is sized to snugly receive the opening of the inner hollowed out space of the ball seat 80, easily aligning the ball seat 80 to the center ring portion 50 and the base 20, as shown in the assembled view of
To enhance the connectivity of the wire 83 to the top of spring 86 and the center ring portion 50, an upper end-clamp 839 and a lower end-clamp 831 are used to secure said wire 83 in place, so that the upper end of wire 83 will pull and compress said spring 86 towards the base, at time of impact from a golf swing.
Alternatively, lower end of wire 83 can be connected, through a hole in the center ring portion 50, and directly to the base 20, allowing different manufacturing arrangement to be made.
Claims
1. A durable golf tee construction, comprising:
- a. A first golf tee having a base, a center ring portion, and a separable but connected ball seat;
- b. A second golf tee; and,
- c. A string connecting said first and second tee.
2. The golf tee of claim 1, wherein said separable ball seat of the first golf tee has a hollowed out inner space to receive a spring and a wire slidably stringing through the coaxial core of said string, with one end of the wire connected to said center ring portion and the other end of the wire fixed to one end of said spring, so that said ball seat may be temporarily separated from said center ring portion, but remain connected, and so that said spring, in its compressed state, will exert force on said ball seat to resume its original state of being connected to said center ring portion.
3. The golf tee of claim 2, wherein said center ring portion has a protruding sized to fit the diameter of the hollowed out inner space of said ball seat so that the ball seat will be easily aligned with the center ring portion and base after temporarily separated from said center ring portion after being struck upon by golf clubs.
4. The golf tee of claim 3, wherein said wire inside the hollowed inner space of said ball seat has an upper end-clamp and a lower end-clamp, respectively for connecting to said spring and said center ring portion.
5. The golf tee of claim 4, wherein said lower end-clamp can be optionally connected, through a hole in the center ring portion, to said base.
6. The golf tee of claim 3, wherein said center ring portion has extended outer circumferential edge for easy human maneuvering.
7. The golf tee of claim 3, wherein said base is made of metal.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 6, 2005
Publication Date: Oct 12, 2006
Inventor: Hsien Ming Lee (Whittier, CA)
Application Number: 10/907,580
International Classification: A63B 57/00 (20060101);