It’s a Groove Thing… TaylorMade Granted Interesting Patent on Variable Groove / Scoreline Width
Have you ever thought… “boy, I wish my grooves were narrow in the center of my club face and wider at the heel and toe?” Don’t worry… neither have I (which explains why we are not the ones designing golf clubs).
Fortunately, the engineers over at TaylorMade have been studying the effects of variable width grooves and yesterday they were granted an interesting patent. The patent is USPN 7285057 titled “Variable Scoreline Golf Club Groove Configuration” and describes the invention as:
A golf club head having a toe portion, a heal portion and a club front intended striking face with a plurality of substantially parallel grooves formed in the face and extending horizontally between the toe portion and the heel portion. Each groove has a groove width such that the groove width increases from a center portion of the face towards the toe portion and the heel portion.
Ahh, so simple. The following figures illustrate the concept nicely.
/images/22847-21779/20071023_2.jpg” width=700 border=0>So, does the future hold a set of clubs in which each club has a different degree of groove width variation to help produce the expected (desired) spin for that particular club? Sounds interesting!
David Dawsey – Monitoring Golf Club Groove Patents