US 5,803,831 · Granted 1998-09-08
The Soft Golf Ball Patent That Changed Short-Game Physics
A golf ball with a softer outer shell that grips the club better on short shots while still flying far on long drives. The trick is using a special rubbery plastic on the outside that's much softer than traditional golf ball covers, giving players more control and spin on shots under 80 yards.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a multi-layer golf ball where the outer cover is made from a soft ionomeric copolymer with a Shore D hardness of 55 or less (preferably 48 or less), paired with a firmer inner cover layer of at least 65 Shore D hardness. What's protected here is the specific combination of these two materials and their hardness ratio, which creates both the soft feel and the high spin performance on short shots while preserving distance on full swings.
Why it matters
This patent addresses a long-standing trade-off in golf ball design: softer covers improve feel and spin control on short shots, but they typically reduce distance on full drives. By layering a soft outer cover over a firmer inner core, the patent claims to solve this problem mechanically. For manufacturers like Lisco, controlling this dual-performance design meant capturing market share among serious golfers willing to pay premium prices for balls that perform differently at different distances.
Real-world use
When a golfer hits a delicate 40-yard approach shot, the soft outer cover grabs the club face to create backspin; on the same ball, a full 300-yard drive benefits from the firmer inner layer's energy return.
Original USPTO abstract
Disclosed herein is a multi-layer golf ball having a soft outer cover. The golf ball has a thermoplastic inner cover layer which preferably has a Shore D hardness of at least 65, and an outer cover with a Shore D hardness of 55 or less, and more preferably 48 or less. In a particularly preferred form of the invention, the outer cover comprises at least 75% of a soft ionomeric neutralized copolymer formed from a polyolefin, an unsaturated carboxylic acid, and a monomer of the acrylate ester class. The golf ball of the invention has exceptionally soft feel and high spin rates on short shots of 80 yards or less and, particularly, 40 yards or less, while maintaining good distance and average spin on full shots.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,803,831
- Filing date
- 1996-04-10
- Grant date
- 1998-09-08
- Assignee
- Lisco Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- SULLIVAN; MICHAEL J., NEALON; JOHN L., BINETTE; MARK
- CPC class
- C08L23/08
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