The present invention relates to a golf tee comprising an anchoring portion, a middle portion and a bowled formed portion for supporting a golf ball.
The tees usually used today on golf-links around the world are manufactured by wood or plastic having a point formed portion intended to be pressed down into the ground and a rigid middle portion which ends in a bowl formation for supporting a golf ball.
This type of tee has many drawbacks consisting in that the tee loosen easily from the teeing off place during driving off and is spread around so that it litters, it destroys lawn-movers and you have to search for it. Further the tee breaks sometimes during driving off and has to be replaced by a new one, small pieces are spread without being visible and are then lying in the way for lawn-movers and said small pieces are difficult to find and to remove when you cannot see them. Owing to that the tee is rigid it flys easily its way, breaks easily and does not yield but can sqeeze between the club and the ball and thus jeopardize the driving off so that the ball path is deteriorated.
Further this type of tee is difficult to press down on the teeing off place, which causes that several attempts must be carried out until a real hole has been provided where the tee can be anchored without being loose and extending oblique in the hole. This moment causes that the player wasts unnecessary time and becomes irritated before the tee is anchorded in place.
From e.g. US -A-4 440 473 is known a tee for golf balls which is resilent and practically unbreakable, said tee consists of a length of wire closely coiled to form a cone of diminishing diameter tapering to a cylindrical portion which terminates in a point with the largest diameter turns of wire and those at the point joined together and from e.g US -A- 2 839 304 is known a tee for golf balls which also is resilent, said tee consists of a middle part of a spring arrangement, which is connecting together an upper part for supporting the golf ball and a base part including a tapered end adapted for insertion into the ground.
The object of the present invention is to provide a tee of the type described in the beginning, by which the drawbacks mentioned above are eliminated. The features which are significative for the invention are stated in the following claims.
Thanks to the invention a new type of tee is provided having a fold- and deformation area, by which the tee can be fold aside and/or be deformated by a club hit during a driving off and then, during the folding and/or deformation decrease the stress on the tee and thus get it to more often remain at the teeing off place and further minimize the risk that the tee will be hit off. Having a fold- and deformation area the time is extended to attack the tee by the clubhit. Now the exposure effect is reduced and so the damages of the tee and the risk that it flyes away as well. Finally the tee can be made so that it easily can be anchored at the driving off place, since its anchoring portion in cross section can be starformed, which prevents that the ground around the same expands during the pressing down. Of course it can also be formed normally, that is conical or the like.
The invention will now be described further in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings, on which
The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 2 and 3 has a folding zone 5 provided with slits 7 above each other and extending in the cross-direction of the tee 1, and the thinwall tube formation of said tee 1 having upwards diverging walls. The tube formation can be conically formed. The folding zone 5 can extend all the way up to the top to easier be able to be deformed without being easily broken. In this case the tee will become very flexible and is bend and stretched out when being hit as a concertina or network 12 in the same way as illustrated in Fig. 8. During a pressure from above the disc elements 11 are pressed against each other and decrease the tipping effect of the folding zone 5. The folding zone 5 now functions best during driving off, but it is yet rather rigid during the pressing down movement of the tee into the ground.
The embodiment according to Fig. 4 illustrates a tee 1 having elongated slits 8, extending in their longitudinal direction, said slits are intended to avoid gathering of material in the folding zone 5 when bending the same during hit of a club blade. By the conicity of the cavity ot the tee 1 also its manufacturing can be simplified and the tool for its manufacturing be made cheaper. The slits 8 can extend all the way up to top of the tee. It can in this case take up deformations without being broken easy.
Fig. 5 illustrates an embodiment reminding about that illustrated in Fig. 2, but here the transverse slits 7 are differently placed in the folding zone 5.
The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 6 has a folding zone 5 consisting of a bellow-formed, thin-walled tube formation 9. During driving off the bellow can be folded and/or stretched like a concertina.
Tees having tubular folding- and deformation zones give better possibilities for a person to press them down into the ground where the driving off shall take place. The breaking point in this case is situated outside the point of balance during substantially upright position i.e. a vertical location of the tee. The trend that the tee tilts when a ball is lying on its upper portion is reduced also by these types of tees. They have also easier to take up deformations without break. The folding zone 5 of the tee can extend right up to the ball according to Fig. 7 and 8. The folding zone 5 itself can accordingly be thread-, strip-, tube-, oval-, edged- or ribformed in oblique, straight, bent or similar extensions above the tip or anchoring portion 2 of the tee.