US 5,518,243 · Granted 1996-05-21
The Adjustable Golf Club That Lets You Tune Your Swing
Imagine a golf club head where you can move weights around inside it to match how you actually swing. This patent describes a system of holes in the club head where you drop in metal balls to shift where the club's heaviest point sits — making it easier to hit straighter shots based on your personal swing style.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a wood-type golf club head with a cavity system on the back that holds removable spherical weights. What's protected here is the specific arrangement of apertures (holes) in a weight distributor that let golfers insert or remove these weights to adjust where the club's center of mass ends up. The cavity and weight system sit low and behind the striking face, and the whole thing is designed to look like one solid club head from the front while remaining easy to adjust from the back.
Why it matters
This patent carves out exclusive territory in a growing market for customizable golf equipment. Rather than forcing golfers to buy multiple clubs for different swing types, this design lets a single club adapt to individual playing styles by redistributing weight. For manufacturers like Zubi Golf, this became a way to differentiate their products and justify premium pricing in a competitive market where performance margins are tiny but matter enormously to serious players.
Real-world use
When a golfer opens the back of a club head and sees a grid of small holes with metal balls sitting in them, that's this patent in action — they're fine-tuning the club's sweet spot without buying a whole new set.
Original USPTO abstract
A wood type golf club having a weight system on the club head including a cavity, weights and a weight distributor therein. The weight distributor includes an array of apertures designed to receive spherical weights positioned in apertures to adjust the center of the mass of the club head in accordance with particular swing characteristics of a golfer using the golf club. The cavity and the weight distributor are located at the lower back of the club head and substantially behind the ball striking face and when attached are oriented in a manner as to give the appearance of a one piece club head and maximize the weight distribution affect relative for the ball striking face. The weight distributor is a one piece unit which provides easy mounting and dismounting of the weight system.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,518,243
- Filing date
- 1995-09-01
- Grant date
- 1996-05-21
- Assignee
- Zubi Golf Company
- Inventor(s)
- REDMAN; JOHN T.
- CPC class
- A63B53/04
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