Is Your Putter’s Face Perfectly Flat? Does it Have Precision Ground Grooves?

DeLaCruz Golf Designs hopes not; after all, they have filed a patent application covering a putter design with a precision ground face and precision ground grooves. The application states that conventional face milling leaves many small imperfections in the metal surface that can affect the angle at which a golf ball bounces off of the putter. The patent application published this week as US Pub. No. 20090291773 titled “Precision Ground Putter Face,” which contains the following drawings and description:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Golf putter design that focuses on the hitting surface of the putter is an established art. There are several patents in the art which cover the feature of precision grinding, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,693,478, 5,688,186, and 7,166,039. None of these patents disclose a surface that is surface ground to a perfectly flat surface combined with a set of precision-ground grooves in the putter’s sweet spot.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The present invention is a precision grinding system that produces a putter face with no imperfections. This face grinding is substantially better than milling the surface to achieve flatness. Milling leaves many small imperfections in the metal surface that can affect the angle at which a golf ball bounces off of the putter.

[0005] The face is first ground smooth and flat, and then an oval pattern of horizontal grooves is ground into the putter’s sweet spot. The grooves are triangular and the sides are sloped at an angle of 120 degrees to the surface.

[0006] The grooves are set at an even interval across the pattern. The width and depth of the grooves can range between 0.003 and 0.005 inches, each groove the same width and depth as the others.

[0007] The grooves convey a gripping quality to the hitting zone that produces a smooth over spin roll when the golf ball is struck. Starting with a precision ground surface, the intervals between the grooves are also smooth-surfaced.

Well, at least I now have another excuse for my putting…. those small milling imperfections must be negatively influencing my putting!

Dave Dawsey  – Watching Golf Putter Patents

PS – check out additional putter patents HERE

PPS – click HERE to read a post about their SlotLine putter