1. Field of the Invention
An adjustable alignment golf putter including an adjustable visual alignment indicia to correct or compensate for a golfer's visual misalignment of the putter face to the desired target line or intended line between the optimum contact point on the putter face and the cup.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous golf putters designs have been developed in an effort to improve a golfer's putting accuracy. Such designs include curved-shafted putters, putters with shaft offsets and mallet-like putters.
Regardless, eye predominance commonly causes golfers to misalign putts. Thus, a putter that allows a golfer to align the putt to the virtual line between the golf ball and cup with the putter face perpendicular to the line the golfer could stroke the golf ball along the actual line between the golf ball and cup.
Of course, other sources of visual misalignment such as convergence and triangulation can contribute to a golfer misaligning a putt.
To allow for such alignment some putters include indicia placed on the top of the putter head to be viewed by the golfer when in the putting stance. These indicia generally comprise one or more straight or curved lines set at different angles on the club.
Some putters of the prior art take the golfer's sighting error from eye predominance into consideration and provide for a one-time adjustment of the putter for all putts. The one-time sighting adjustment made to these clubs may be helpful for long putts, but such an adjustment does not provide a golfer with maximum alignment efficiency for shorter putts and may actually compound the putting error in distances shorter than, for instance, ten feet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,199,873 show a sighting stripe comprising as an anodized aluminum color on its upper surface and etched on the lower surface coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive to form a tight bond on the club head. The forward end of the stripe is rounded and the side edges are parallel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,883 relates to a device attachable to a golf club comprising a plate with a removable sight rod secured to the top of the putter blade. The device includes a plurality of recesses in the plate spaced in degrees of angle for setting the angle of the rod to any desired position by a spring-urged ball in the pivotal portion of the sight rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,366 shows a sight corrected golf club comprising golf head and a module having an alignment indicia thereon. The golf head is configured to receive the module which is preferably secured to the golf head at the time the golf club is sold to an ultimate purchaser.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,970 discloses a mallet-type putter comprising an upper surface with an indicia in the form of a first long line, a second short line, and a series of even shorter lines extending from the end of the short line and sweeping rearward in a curved arc to become parallel with the first long line. In order to compensate for a golfer's sighting error resulting from eye predominance, the long line is arranged to align putts that are ten feet or longer in distance from the golf ball to the putting cup. The short line and an array of shorter lines are arranged to align putts that are shorter than ten feet in distance from the golf ball to the putting cup.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,268 relates to the head of a mallet-type putter similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,970.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,949,028 shows a golf putter having visual indicia comprises a D-shape with the back line linear portion parallel to the clubface and the arc portion facing forward toward the clubface with a linear alignment line disposed within the arc and back line such that the alignment line is angled a slight amount away from perpendicular to the back line such that the golfer falsely perceives the alignment line to be perpendicular to the clubface.
Additional examples of the prior art can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,688,798; 6,471,600; 6,506,125; 6,679,782 and 6,793,588.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds