AN AIRLINE TEE

Abstract

An airline Tee is related to an attractive modern, aerodynamic design of the Golf Tee with reduced friction between ball and Tee. An airline Tee comprising a cone shaped body 2 with an enlarged head 1; an anchored end 5; a curved indent 3 on the side of the body and multiple ridges 1a and 1b on the head as a design revamp to form a runway kind of structure to give the passenger (ball) a steady seat and allow the passenger (ball) to travel further with ease. This unique design helps to place a shot more accurately and gives the ball extra yardage as compared to the traditional Tee.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to the field of Golf Tee with small design revamp. More specifically the new and improved features for a Golf Tee that include a guided runway mechanism on its upper portion for aligning the spin of the Golf ball after it leaves the Tee upon Golf club impact and a guiding mechanism formed on the Tee's supporting head to reduce friction between the ball and the Tee upon Golf club impact. The present invention is also related to systems and methods of achieving better directional control and farther distance traveled by the Golf ball upon Tee off by a golfer.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Golf Tees are well known instruments used in Golf. They are usually made from wood, plastic, rubber and/or metal. Generally, they are formed from a single piece of material and have a very small upper concaved surface for supporting the ball and a very thin tapered shank pinpointed at the base for penetrating the ground in the Tee box. The overwhelming majority of golfers use Golf Tees during their Tee off. As it is well-known, a Golf Tee is placed in the ground or other underlying surface, and the ball rests atop the Tee; because the ball resides above the ground, there is more margin for error in striking the ball with a Golf club, and often greater distance can be achieved when a Tee is used. A golfer is permitted to use a Tee on the first shot of every hole.

A conventional Golf Tee includes a main body in the form of a shank to allow for insertion into the ground, and a head formed on an end of the main body opposite that inserted into the ground. A distal end surface of the Golf Tee (i.e., the head) is concavely formed such that a Golf ball may be balanced on the head when the shank is inserted into the ground. Golf Tees are used to elevate a Golf ball above ground level from about ⅛ to about 3 inches. In general, conventional Golf Tees are rigid and configured to resist movement of the club head through the ball. Because of the high resistance presented by a conventional Tee to ball, a significant amount of swing energy from the club is transmitted first to the ball, and then from the ball to the Tee, which, in many cases, dislodges the Tee from the ground in a direction opposite to the direction of the swing of the club and also flight of the ball. This recoil from the ball to the Tee, which uproots the Tee from the ground and throws it back, indicates the energy lost by the Golf ball at the time of leaving the Tee and starting the flight. Reducing this loss in energy results in conserving energy on the ball and translates into longer flight distance. Conventional Golf Tees alter or affect the flight of the ball on certain types of hits, for example, when the Golf club hears downward on the ball to cause the ball to become distorted by the extreme compression or downward thrust at the time of club impact. There are practically no prior art illustration on design of Golf Tees head or supporting head. The Inventor has designed a new and improved features for a Golf Tee that include a guided rails on its upper portion of Tees head with the objective of conserving energy on the ball and aiding to align the spin.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The objective of the invention is to provide a Golf Tee called as an airline Tee comprising a cone shaped body with an enlarged head; an anchored end; a curved indent on the side of the body and multiple ridges on the head as a design revamp to form a runway kind of structure to give the passenger (ball) a steady seat and allow the passenger (ball) to travel further with ease.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an airline Tee having an attractive modern, aerodynamic design with reduced friction between ball and Tee.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with reduced dissipation of energy from ball to the Tee by means of mechanism for reduction in friction/coefficient of friction, between the hall and the Tee, thereby retaining more energy on die ball resulting in longer flight distance of the ball.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with a runway to reduce resistance acting upon the ball by the Tee and to retain more energy as the reverse spin added to the ball on being struck is accentuated.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with Lift-off phenomenon as pressurised air is passing through a concentrated and tight space which will cause the ball to jump off from the seat by creating an infinitesimally thin air cushion under the ball just before being struck by the club through constructed runway and a curved indent on the Tee.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with a runway constructed in a ramp shape to reduce dragging of the ball by acquiring more amount of air between Tee and a Golf ball.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an airline Tee which give better directional control to the Golf ball by way of aligning spin on the ball with the direction of the flight upon impact by the driver/club/iron.

An important object of the present invention is to eliminate the different undesirable spins that might be imparted to a Teed-up Golf ball by a poorly executed Golf swing, such absence of undesirable spin on the Golf ball eliminating the hooking and slicing of the Golf ball and resulting in longer straight drives off the Tee.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the detailed description below. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING:

FIG. 1 illustrates a Golf ball seated on a conventional Tee

FIG. 2 illustrates a Golf ball seated on an airline Tee of present invention

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an airline Tee of present invention

FIG. 4 is a sectional top view of an airline Tee of present invention

FIG. 5 is a sectional front view of an airline Tee of present invention

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the variation of an airline Tee of present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

The preferred embodiment of present invention is described with the aid of the drawings. Several variations of present invention are possible and therefore the description of the embodiments should not be construed to limit the scope of this invention in any manner. The following detailed description illustrates the invention by way of example, not by way of limitation of the principles of the invention. This description will clearly enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and describes several embodiments, adaptations, variations, alternatives and uses of the invention, including what we presently believe is the best mode of carrying out the invention.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and should not be interpreted in an idealized and/or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The words “conical” and “conically” shall mean shaped somewhat like a cone.

The Tee must firmly, yet lightly, support the ball until hit by the players club, the Tee must be so constructed that it will guide the ball without any manner of interfere with the swing or carry through of the club in making the stroke.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate a Golf ball seated on a conventional Golf Tee and on an airline Tee of present invention respectively for describing a design revamp in the upper portion of the Tee.

The principle embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee comprising of an enlarged head 1 on the top of the Tee providing a steady seat for a Golf ball; a body 2 longitudinally extending downward from the head 1 to an anchored end 5; a curved indent 3 on the side of the body 2 for building the air-pressure; two ridges 1a and 1b on the head 1 thus forming a runway 1c in between them and integrally extended up to about a centre of curved indent 3 from head 1 as shown in FIG. 3.

The body of the Tee is constructed in a traditional sense. Tapering down like a cone from the seat on the top. For example, height of the Tee can be kept about 3 inch by following the standard. The runway between two ridges on top of the seat has been constructed to allow passage of air with the strike of the club. The curved indent on the side of the Tee allows the air-pressure to be built before entering the runway. The pressurised air passing through a concentrated and tight space causes the ball to jump off the seat by creating an infinitesimally thin air cushion under the ball just before being struck by the club. This phenomenon is called Lift-off. ‘take off’, ‘be launched’, ‘blast off’, ‘leave the ground’, ‘become airborne’, ‘take to the air’ are the alternate wordings used for Lift-off phenomenon explained above.

One of the embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with a cross section of concave shaped polygon having depth approximately in the range of between one-fourth of an inch and two-fives of an inch; length approximately in the range of between three-eighths of an inch and 1 inch; width approximately in the range of between one-fourth of an inch and one-eighth of an inch named as a runway 1c.

Generally, a strip of hard ground along which aircraft take off and land is known as runway, here Golf ball is taken as a passenger to be seated on a steady seat (Enlarged head 1 according to invention) and a small design revamp called runway 1c is constructed between two grooves 1a and 1b to allow the passenger (Golf ball) to travel further with ease. ‘ridges’, ‘grooves’, ‘furrow’, ‘channel’, ‘trench’, ‘trough’, ‘canal’, ‘rabbet’, ‘gouge’, ‘hollow’, ‘indentation’ are the interchangeable words used for a long, narrow cut or depression in a hard material hereafter. Normal mathematical conversion rules can be applied to get dimensions in inch. For Example, Table below states converted measurements in inch as well as millimetre.

	Wordings	Ratio	Inch	mm
	one-fourth	1/4	0.25	6.35
	two-fifth	2/5	0.4	10.16
	three-eighths	3/8	0.375	9.525
	one-eighths	1/8	0.125	3.175

One of the embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee to create concentrated air passage for positioning a Golf ball on alternate areas of friction while striking encounter with the Golf club. As constructed runway greatly reduces the resistance acting upon the ball by the Tee and the ball retains more energy, the reverse spin added to the ball on being struck is accentuated, helping the ball travel further. Since the ball is seated on alternate areas of friction, interspaced with air pockets, the runway helps place a shot more accurately. In effect, the Airline Tee gains the ball extra yardage as compared to the traditional Tee.

One of the embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee wherein an indent is curved inwards to the body of the Tee and has the internal angle greater than 180° and diameter approximately in the range of between three-eighths of an inch and 1 inch. A ‘concave polygon’ is defined as a polygon with one or more interior angles greater than 180° . An indent here performs dual functionality of generating an extra air pressure to Golf ball before striking encounter and holding and forcibly urging the Tee into the ground. Another embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee of a conical shape to be stuck into the ground up to an engrossed mark. For Example, a golfer can use said indent as a press point by his thumb to insert the Tee into the ground so that the slightly wider part of a Tee body departed by an engrossed mark (in FIG. 3 shown by 4) remains open on the ground while the lower portion is being inserted into soil.

One of the embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with a runway integrally extended up to about a centre point of an indent. Length of a runway is variable according the required amount of air-pressure. Such kind of specific arrangement gives an aerodynamic design that allows the air in front of the club head to be forced into the runway between the channels on head before impact of Golf club, thereby creating pockets of higher air pressure between the Golf ball and the Tee. Thus friction between the Golf ball and Tee is reduced and thereby energy on the Golf ball is retained.

One of the embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with a runway constructed in a ramp shape to reduce dragging of the ball by acquiring more amount of air between Tee and a Golf ball. Referring to FIG. 4, an airline Tee of present invention has a beak line 6 which is a merged surface of the runway 1c and indent 3 and has similar length as width of the runway 1c. Beak line is designed in such a way that one of the very important phenomenon called ‘drag’ in aerodynamic physics is reduced in a considerable amount. ‘Drag’ is defined as the part or surface of the plane (a Golf ball according to present invention) providing resistance and slowing down the plane. For example, if height of a Golf Tee is kept three inches from an anchored end 5, then height of beak line is kept less than three inches (approx. 2.5 inch) from an anchored end 5. This ramp kind of shape of a runway 1c is used to acquire more amount of air between Tee and a Golf ball by means of reduction in dragging force. One of the embodiment of the invention is to design an airline Tee with considering all the four important characteristics of aerodynamics such as weight, lift, thrust and drag gives the name ‘airline Tee’ a perfect meaning. ‘Weight’ refers to the force of gravity pulling the plane (a Golf ball) down. ‘Lift’ is what one needs to counter the plane (ball)'s weight. High pressure at one side of Tee through a Golf club and low pressure at indent 3 due to its special design generates a force to pull up the Golf ball during striking encounter with a Golf club. ‘Thrust’ is the forward momentum needed to travel. Here this thrust on a ball is generated by a Golf club striking. Proper technique to hold a Golf club and applied force also helps in generating lift. And finally, ‘drag’ is the part or surface of the plane providing resistance and slowing down the speed of a Golf ball can be reduced by keeping different heights of openings of a runway to gather more amount of air between a Tee and a ball.

All the reference names such as ‘airline’, ‘runway’, ‘seat’ etc. given to various parts of a Golf Tee of the present invention are given in a way that will satisfy all the important aspect of aerodynamics. The unique design of an airline Tee is a blend of the traditional Tee to give the passenger (ball) a steady seat with enlarged head 1 and a small design revamp runway 1c to allow the passenger to travel further with ease. The Airline won't take away from a players' instinct or change the way the game is played; it will simply make the game more competitive and therefore more enjoyable. The Tee is made with a high density polymer (HDPE), LDPE, NYLON, any other mouldable plastic materials of different specifications making it a tough, reliable & long-lasting choice for passenger transportation. Different Tees of different height within the range specified as per Golf rules can be made to suit hitting by different clubs. Width of the groove can be altered to manage the number of runways and control the flow of air under the ball.

One of the embodiment of the invention is to provide an airline Tee with plurality of ridges with variations in number and size of the same and thus forming multiple number of runways in between them. For example, if number of ridges are two then number of runway is one as shown in FIG. 3. And if number of ridges are three then number of runway will be two. In generalized form, if number of ridges are n then number of runway is (n-1). As number of runways are increased width of the ridges and runways will be reduced to be accommodate with standard sized head of the Tee. Thus size of the ridges is the function of number of ridges.

One of the embodiment of the invention is the Golf Tee of this which is a single member formed of suitable material such as high density polymer, rubber, wood, high density polyethylene, metal, nylon, LDPE. The Tee includes numerous structural features designed to effectively minimize and control a number of variables that can adversely affect a golfer's skill and enjoyment level. The Tee provides a means for obtaining a truly consistent Tee height, with respect to the ground into which the Tee is inserted, each and every time the ball is Teed up. Further, the Tee provides a means for enabling the upper portion of the Tee with rails or groove like structures to enable proper hold of Golf ball onto it.

The present invention discloses a Golf Tee which securely holds Golf ball and secondarily allow Golf ball to be guided on a runway made up from parallel rails or groove. This invention can be manufactured with various heights of top structure so that the Golf ball is always seated at a consistent and known height. One of the embodiment of the present invention to provide Golf Tees which cause less friction to the ball when leaving the Tee, enabling it to be hit farther than the conventional Golf Tee.

The height, width or colour of each Golf Tee modified is not instrumental to its utility features. These parameters vary depending on the market in which it is sold. Another aspect of the invention is the provision of a Tee which in addition to the above and other advantageous features, is simple and efficient in use, and may be manufactured and sold at a low cost.

The foregoing description has been limited to a specific embodiment of this invention. It will be apparent, however, that variations and modifications may be made to the invention, with the attainment of some or all of its advantages. Therefore, it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An airline Tee comprising:

a) an enlarged head 1 on the top of the Tee providing a steady seat for a Golf ball;

b) a body 2 longitudinally extending downward from the head 1 to an anchored end 5;

c) a curved indent 3 on the side of the body 2 for building the air-pressure;

d) ridges on the head 1 thus forming runway in between them and integrally extended up to about a centre of curved indent 3 from head 1.

e) beak line 6 kept lower in height compared to ring of head 1 reducing dragging of the ball by acquiring more amount of air between Tee and a Golf ball.

2. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein an enlarged head 1 is a concave shaped polygon with diameter approximately in the range of between three-eighths of an inch and 1 inch.

3. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein a body 2 is a conical section tapered downwardly to be stuck into the ground up to an engrossed mark 4 is about three inches in height.

4. An airline Tee as claimed in claim wherein runway and an indent 3 are tapered to create concentrated air passage for positioning a Golf ball on alternate areas of friction while striking encounter with the Golf club.

5. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein runway is a cross section of concave shaped polygon having depth approximately in the range of between one-fourth of an inch and two-fives of an inch; length approximately in the range of between three-eighths of an inch and 1 inch; width approximately in the range of between one-fourth of an inch and one-eighth of an inch.

6. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein an indent 3 is curved inwards to the body 2 and has the internal angle greater than 180° and diameter approximately in the range of between three-eighths of an inch and 1 inch.

7. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein runway is integrally extended up to about a centre point of an indent 3 thus giving extra air pressure to Golf ball before striking encounter with the Golf club.

8. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein an indent 3 is able to he engaged by the thumb of a normal adult hand for holding and forcibly urging the Tee into the ground.

9. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein beak line 6 is a merged surface of the runway and indent 3 and has similar length as width of the runway approximately in the range of between one-fourth of an inch and one-eighth of an inch.

10. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1 is formed from a material selected from a group comprising of: high density polymer, rubber, wood, high density polyethylene, metal, and nylon.

11. An airline Tee as claimed in claim 1, wherein number and size of ridges have variable characteristics.