Golf club head having a shielded stress reducing feature

摘要

A hollow golf club incorporating a stress reducing feature having a shield serving to lessen the visual impact of the stress reducing feature, reduce the likelihood of debris from entering the stress reducing feature, and reduce the likelihood of damage to the stress reducing feature, while adding rigidity to a portion of the stress reducing feature and still allowing the stress reducing feature to selectively increase the deflection of the face.

主权项

1. A hollow golf club head (400) comprising:
(i) a face (500) positioned at a front portion (402) of the golf club head (400) where the golf club head (400) impacts a golf ball, opposite arear portion (404) of the golf club head (400), wherein the face (400) includes an engineered impact point (EIP), a top edge height (TEH), and a lower edge height (LEH); (ii) a sole (700) positioned at a bottom portion of the golf club head (400); (iii) a crown (600) positioned at a top portion of the golf club head (400); (iv) a bore having a center that defines a shaft axis (SA) which intersects with a horizontal ground plane (GP) to define an origin point, wherein the bore is located at a heel side (406) of the golf club head (400), and wherein a toe side (408) of the golf club head (400) is located opposite of the heel side (406); (v) a center of gravity (CG) located:
(a) vertically toward the crown (600) of the golf club head (400) from the origin point a distance Ycg;(b) horizontally from the origin point toward the toe side (408) of the golf club head (400) a distance Xcg that is generally parallel to the face (500) and the ground plane (GP); and(c) a distance Zcg from the origin toward the rear portion (404) in a direction generally orthogonal to the vertical direction used to measure Ycg and generally orthogonal to the horizontal direction used to measure Xcg; (vi) a stress reducing feature (SRF) (1000) including a sole located SRF (SSRF) (1300) located at least partially on the sole (700), wherein the sole located SRF (1300) has a SSRF length (1310) between a SSRF toe-most point (1312) and a SSRF heel-most point (1316), a SSRF leading edge (1320) having a SSRF leading edge offset (1322), a SSRF width (1340), and a SSRF depth (1350), wherein the maximum SSRF width (1340) is at least ten percent of the Zcg distance and the maximum SSRF depth (1350) is at least ten percent of the Ycg distance, wherein the sole located SRF (1300) includes a SSRF leading edge wall (1326) having a SSRF leading edge wall thickness wherein a portion of the SSRF leading edge wall thickness is less than sixty percent of a maximum face thickness (530), and wherein the sole located SRF (1300) is partially covered by a SSRF shield (1800) having a SSRF shield width (1810), wherein at least a portion of the SSRF shield width (1810) is at least ten percent of the Zcg distance; wherein a SSRF shield thickness reduces throughout the SSRF shield width.