US 5,935,020 · Granted 1999-08-10
The Patent That Engineered the Modern Golf Driver
This is a recipe for building the perfect driver golf club head by carefully controlling its weight distribution, size, and where the shaft connects. By tweaking these measurements within precise ranges, manufacturers can make clubs that fly straighter and farther while being more forgiving on off-center hits.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a hollow-bodied driver head where the maximum overall dimensions, the center-of-gravity location, the striking face dimensions, and the shaft attachment position are all held within specific value ranges. What's protected here is the precise combination of these controlled parameters working together—a competitor can't just copy the geometry and tolerances that make this driver perform the way it does.
Why it matters
Golf club design was largely empirical before patents like this locked down the engineered relationships between head geometry and performance. By protecting the specific ranges of dimensions and weight distribution, this patent gave manufacturers a competitive edge in making clubs that were easier to hit accurately and produced longer drives. The driver is golf's most important club, so controlling its design parameters was valuable intellectual property in a competitive equipment market.
Real-world use
Every time a golfer picks up a modern driver at a golf shop, they're holding club head geometry that was shaped by patents protecting the exact weight distribution and face size that make it perform.
Original USPTO abstract
A driver type, hollow-bodied golf club head in which multiple parameters are controlled to be within defined ranges of values to enhance the performance and playability of the club. The parameters which are controlled include the club head's maximum dimensions, the position of the center-of-gravity, the size of striking face, and the position of the shaft attachment point.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,935,020
- Filing date
- 1998-09-16
- Grant date
- 1999-08-10
- Assignee
- Tom Stites & Associates, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- STITES; JOHN T., TAYLOR; MICHAEL G.
- CPC class
- A63B53/04
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