1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to gauges and fixtures used for the adjustment of various tools and equipment, particularly those used in various sports. More particularly, the present invention is a fixture that securely and immovably clamps the head of a golf club therein to permit the hosel of the head to be bent as required to adjust the loft, lie, and/or face angle of the club head relative to the shaft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Golf has become an increasingly popular pastime for a large number of individuals, and many people play the game professionally as tournament players or as club or teaching professionals. The game is a very serious hobby, if not a profession, for a large number of people, and most of these serious players desire to gain every technical advantage possible with their equipment.
It has long been known that relatively fine adjustments in the angle of the club head as it strikes the ball during play will produce relatively large effects in the flight path of the ball. Accordingly, golf clubs are conventionally configured with different loft angles for the club faces, different shaft or hosel angles and junctures with the club heads, different club head masses, etc., in order to optimize the swing and flight path of the ball for individual golfers. Yet, in many (perhaps most) instances, the finite differences between clubs, e.g., the difference in loft angles between a four iron and a five iron, may be too large for the discerning player who requires a club having characteristics between two such clubs. This may be even more true of other club characteristics, such as the lie angle between the longitudinal axis of the club head and the club shaft, which must vary with the length of the club shaft and the height and stance of the golfer.
As a result of the above considerations, a number of different devices have been developed for bending the hosel or shaft attachment of a golf club head, to produce clubs with finely tuned characteristics suited to the individual using those clubs. These devices generally include some form of vise or clamp to grip the club head, and may include an integral bending tool and/or gauge to measure the angle or bend in at least one axis or plane. Alternatively, the bending tool and gauge may be provided as separate devices.
Such devices generally have only a single clamp or vise and fail to secure the club head adequately to hold the head stationary while the bending force is applied to the hosel. Many such devices require a series of chocks or shims, which fit between the club head and the jaw of the clamp in order to hold the club head securely. The vast number of different club head configurations requires a correspondingly large number of differently shaped chocks or shims in order to secure virtually any club head in the device.
Such devices also do not provide for securing, adjusting, and checking the hosel angle of a left-hand golf club head. While left-handed clubs are a relatively small percentage of the golf clubs manufactured and sold throughout the U.S. and world, they nevertheless exist, and the lack of suitable fixtures or devices for making and measuring fine adjustments in such clubs puts the left-handed golfer at a serious disadvantage.
Thus, a golf club hosel bending fixture solving the aforementioned problems is desired.