Someone Has Been Brainstorming! Bertha 2016-2025?
A patent issued this week to Callaway Golf and suggests that they have been doing some serious brainstorming regarding the future of adjustability. The drawings below come from the patent and an associated provisional application. Interestingly, the application was filed with a nonpublication request, presumably to keep competitor’s prying eyes at bay until a patent issued.
The patent is actually directed to this first drawing, but the interesting designs are found in the other drawings and disclosure.
Do you think any of these designs will make it into an actual product?
With respect to the drawing above, the patent explains:
In yet another embodiment, shown in FIGS. 14 and 15, the center of gravity of the golf club head 10 can be adjusted along all three axes. The golf club head 10 includes an aft body 200 having a crown 202, a sole 204, a crown recess 210, and a sole recess 220, a pivoting track 230 with pivot protrusions 232, 234 that fit securely within the crown and sole recesses 210, 220 and that can move from the heel side 206 to the toe side 208 of the aft body 200, and a slidable weight 240 engaged with the pivoting track 230 that can move around the aft body in a front-to-rear direction, and that can also move from the crown 202 to the sole 204. The slidable weight 240 may be engaged with the pivoting track 230 by any means known to a person skilled in the art, but in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 14-15, the slidable weight 240 encircles the pivoting track 230 and is releasably fixed to the pivoting track 230 with a fastener 245. 
With respect to the drawing above, the patent explains:
Another embodiment is shown in FIGS. 16 and 17. In this configuration, the golf club head 10 includes a channel 20 with a slidable weight 40 as described in any of the other embodiments disclosed herein, and also includes a deep pocket 250 sized to receive a large cartridge 260 having an internal track 265 and a separate, slidable weight 270 that fits within the internal track 265 and can be affixed to any location within the internal track 265 with a fastener 275. The internal track 265 preferably extends around the entire inner surface of the cartridge 260, such that the slidable weight 270 can be moved to any location on the cartridge 260. The cartridge 260 preferably has a shape that is symmetrical around a horizontal X axis, such that the cartridge 260 can be removed from the deep pocket 250, flipped upside down, and reinserted into the deep pocket 250. This configuration allows the golf club head 10 center of gravity to be adjusted along a vertical Z axis. In some embodiments, the cartridge 260 is composed of a single material, but in a preferred embodiment, one half 262 of the cartridge 260 is composed of a high density material such as tungsten, while the other half 264 of the cartridge 260 is composed of a lighter-density material than the high density material to allow for more dramatic adjustments to the vertical center of gravity location.
With respect to the drawing above, the patent explains:
In another embodiment, shown in FIG. 13, a golf club head 10 includes a channel 20 that is sized to receive a first slidable weight 150, which itself includes a secondary slidable weight 160. In this embodiment, the first slidable weight 150 moves from heel 16 to toe 18 along the channel 20 in the sole 14, while the secondary slidable weight 160 moves from the rear edge 152 to the front-most edge 154 of the first slidable weight 150 within a channel 156 disposed in the first slidable weight 150. This configuration allows the golf club head 10 center of gravity to be moved along both the X and Y axes, while at the same time adjusting the golf club head 10 bias.
With respect to the two drawing above, the patent explains:
A third embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 3-4. This embodiment is similar to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 28-29 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/033,218, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein, in that the slidable weight 40 is adjustable in a direction perpendicular to the face 15 of the golf club head 10, but in this embodiment the channel 20 extends from the sole 14 onto the crown 12 via the rear side 16 of the golf club head 10, thus permitting the slidable weight 40 to be moved from the sole 14 to the crown 12 and vice versa. This configuration allows a user to create high/low and forward/rearward center of gravity locations for the golf club head 10. This embodiment also incorporates two secondary channels 25, 27 that extend along the rear side 16 of the golf club head 10 on opposite sides of the central channel 20 so that secondary slidable weights 40 can be used to create draw and fade bias on the heel 16 and toe 18 sides. 
The pivoting track design has my interest, but the realist in me says (a) the symmetrical nature of the required rear edge would lead to a rather unusual shape, (b) designing a weight that can smoothly pass around the rear of the club head to transition from the sole to the crown would be a challenge, (c) the pivoting track and mounting system is likely to eat up majority of the discretionary weight, and (d) durability and sound will present interesting obstacles. Other than that, pull it off and it would be unlike anything on the market.
Dave Dawsey – The Golf Patent Lawyer
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