Golf is enjoyed by people of all ages throughout the world. It is played and enjoyed by both athletic types and non-athletic types of people. It is one of the few athletic activities that can be played and enjoyed by people with handicaps, such as a missing limb, a bad back, sight problems, and the like. The game is very challenging and requires mental concentration as well as athletic ability. Fortunately it does not require the athletic ability of a good or better athlete to play a decent round of golf. Through lessons and practice almost anyone can learn to play to a level that makes the game enjoyable and challenging. One of the greatest aspects of golf is that the golfer is playing against him or her self. A good golfer concentrates on his or her game, not the game or score of others he or she is playing with or against. This is a lesson that all great golf pros know.
There are typically four aspects to the game: the driving, the short game, getting out of trouble, and putting. Each aspect has its own challenges and requires practice to master, if ever mastered.
Putting appears deceptively simple. It seems like anybody could grab a putter, i.e., the putting golf club, and putt or hit the golf ball to have the ball roll to the cup or hole and roll in it. Unfortunately putting is not simple and requires practice, more practice and even more practice. There is an old golf adage: golfers drive for show and putt for money. Great golf pros are great putters. They know the speed or condition of the putting green surface and their caddie, a professional just as much as the pro golfer, has read and recorded the green slope[s] from many different directions. This information is imparted to the pro by the caddie. It is very common to see the golf pro conferring with his or her caddie when the pro has to putt. The caddie frequently refers to a notebook that they prepare prior to the tournament regarding their readings of the putting green. These readings refer to the slope of the green surface or grass and the slope[s] of the green between the golf ball and the cup or hole.
Most golfers cannot afford a full time caddie who reads the course for them before they begin a round of golf or who is familiar with the course from caddying on and playing on the course. At those golf courses and clubs that still make available experienced caddies, the golfer can learn about a putting green from the experienced caddie during a round of golf.
There are three conditions that must be taken into account when putting: (1) the rolling speed of the golf ball on the putting surface, (2) the slope[s] of the putting surface between the golf ball and the hole, and (3) the condition of the putting surface, such as, type and condition of the surface. For purposes of this patent, a course means a golf course or any practice facility, a ball means a golf ball, a putting surface means the putting green or practice surface, a cup or hole means the hole in the green which the golfer is attempting to get his or her ball into, a putter is the golf club that the golfer uses to hit a ball on the green in an attempt to roll the ball to and into the cup or hole, ‘to putt’ or ‘putting’ or ‘putt’ means to hit the ball on the green with the putter in an attempt to have the ball roll to and into the cup or hole, and ‘to sink a putt’ or ‘sinking a putt’ means to putt the ball and to successfully have the ball roll to and in the cup or hole. The direct putting path is the line of sight straight line between the hole and the ball. As most golfers know, a putt attempted along the direct putting path will in most instances, except for short putts, miss the hole for reasons set forth below. A short putt is normally a putt made three feet or less from the cup. The slope means a portion of the surface of a green that deviates from being parallel to the true level, true horizon or true level of the Earth (collectively “true level” herein). As used herein, putting green means putting surface. Most putting surfaces are closely cropped grass. However, synthetic putting surfaces, such as Astroturf® synthetic turf, packed oiled sand surfaces, dead grass surfaces, rug surfaces, exist.
A spirit level is used to determine when an object, normally a surface of the object is parallel to true level or perpendicular to it. Some spirit levels are the arc of a circle and have a scale to give readings, in degrees, of the slope of the object to true level. To take, or to determine, or to measure a slope means to determine the angle of the surface of the green to the true horizon or true level of the Earth. The angle can be measure in degrees or it can be measured as an aiming point for the indicated putting path. Some slopes or breaks are perpendicular to the direct putting path; however most slopes or breaks intersect the direct putting path at angles other than 90 degrees. The actual putting path is the line, normally curved, between the ball and hole that will sink a putt when the ball is correctly hit or putted. The indicated putting path is the putting path indicated by the training device of the present invention. When the ball is properly putted, it will track the indicated putting path to sink a putt. The indicated putting path is determined by the measured slope and is the line of sight straight line between the ball and an aiming point on the training device.
A golfer putts to the aiming point and because of the slope of the green and gravity the ball will normally roll along a curved path, the actual putting path. Because of the slope, the face of the putter must be square or perpendicular to the indicated putting path and gravity, the ball rolling along the indicated putting path will curve into the actual putting path which may have the ball curve away from the aiming point before the ball reaches the aiming point. No putt can be made if the golfer does not correctly hit the ball, i.e. impart the right amount of energy to the ball to roll to the cup, and address the putter face squarely to the aim point so the ball rolls, at least initially, towards the aiming point. The indicated putting path is normally a curved path between the ball and cup. To correctly putt, the face of the putter at impact must be square, i.e. perpendicular to the straight line intersecting the ball and the aim point
In most courses the hole is changed daily before the course is open to the public. In most courses the speed of each green, i.e. stimp rating, is taken daily and the stimp readings are available at the golf shop or pro shop. Where weather conditions can change dramatically during the course of the day, e.g. dewy or misty mornings and hot dry afternoons, the stimp readings may be taken two or three times a day. To successfully putt, a golfer must learn to adjust their putting or hitting of the golf ball to accommodate different green conditions which are indicative of different stimp readings. Every golfer has putted a ball to hard for the green conditions (a fast green-normally quiet dry) and has had the ball fly off the green and similarly every golfer has putted a ball too softly for the green conditions (a slow green-normally wet or moist grass, or dew) and had ball roll to only half as far as he she wanted or required to sink a putt.
Although stimp readings are normally available for green conditions, readings on the lay of a green are not available. Greens are normally laid out and maintained with immaculate care. Some greens are as flat as a pancake and horizontal. If the ball is putted directly towards the hole on such greens, i.e. along the direct putting path, the ball will normally roll to and in the cup without deviation, assuming the ball was hit with the right amount of energy. However, most greens are sloped. Thus on a sloped green, even if the green is flat, gravity will effect the ball as it rolls placing a downhill force on the ball and the path of the ball will curve downhill. When putting on such greens, the golfer must compensate for the slope. Thus the putting path is a curved path on such greens. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the golfer's point of view, skill and experience, many greens have several slopes running in different directions. Thus as the hole is moved day to day and the ball most always lies in a new position on the green during each round, the golfer must learn to read the slope[s] of a green and adjust his or her putting to accommodate for the slope. As a rule, when putting at distances of less than twenty five feet, the golfer will only have a single slope to contend with. With longer putting distances, and even with shorter putting distances on some greens, the golfer may have contend with two or more slopes between the ball and the hold. These are very difficult putts and a lot of luck is required to make the putt.
Most golfers after a little experience will attempt to read green slope[s]. Normally if the putt is a long one the golfer will walk the length of the distance between the ball or around the path, but observing golf etiquette-no walking on the path between the hole and another player's ball, and view the putting path both from the ball and the cup. The golfer will frequently squat down and attempt to read, or at least observe, the slope[s] of the green along the putting path. This can be difficult when the light is even, especially when the sun is overhead or the sky is clouded over, because shadowing is minimal. It is normally easier to read the slope[s] when the sun is low and the sun rays effect shadowing on the surface of green. As mentioned above, the professional caddie will have mapped out the slopes of the green before a tournament and an experience caddie at the courses that have them available, a rarity today, will have mentally mapped the slopes of the greens from experience on the course. However for the great majority of golfers in this world, the use of such caddie's is a rarity and the golfers must learn to read the slopes on their own. It even takes golfers who play the same course week end and week out at least six months to memorize the breaks on the course greens.
The object of the present invention is to provide a golfer with a device that can measure the slope of a particular area of a green. The training device can be used to confirm a golfer's slope reading of a particular area of the green.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a means for a golfer to read an indicated slope of a particular area of the green and then confirm the reading by measuring the slope with the device of the present invention.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device that can give the golfer an aim point for putting to give the indicated putting path so the golfer learns to determine the aim point upon determining the slope. Most golfers will not determine slope in degrees. Most golfers will develop an intuition about the slope and correlate the aim point to the slope. With experience, the golfer will correlate the speed or slowness of the surface and the conditions of the putting surface into his or her determination of the aim point.
A still further object of the present invention is provide a means for a golfer to read the slope of a particular area of the green, to determine the indicated putting path based on the slope reading, and then confirm the slope reading by measuring the slope and confirm the indicated putting path by attempting the putt along the indicated putting path.
A golfer can meet the present objectives by employing the device on a practice putting green to learn how to read green slopes, and/or to determine the indicated putting path, and then confirming slope readings with the device and/or confirming the indicated putting path by putting. A golfer can also use the device during a game assuming his or her partners don't object.