Golf is enjoyed by a wide variety of players, players of different genders and players of dramatically different ages and/or skill levels. Golf club designers have successfully advanced the technology incorporated in golf clubs in response to the constant demand of golfers for improved performance. In one aspect, golfers tend to be sensitive to the “feel” of a golf club. The “feel” of a golf club comprises the combination of various component parts of the club and various features associated with the club that produce the sensations experienced by the player when a ball is swung at and/or struck. Club weight, weight distribution, swing weight, aerodynamics, swing speed, and the like all may affect the “feel” of the club as it swings and strikes a ball. “Feel” also has been found to be related to the sound produced when a club head strikes a ball to send the ball in motion. If a club head makes an unpleasant, undesirable, or surprising sound at impact, a user may flinch, give up on his/her swing, decelerate the swing, lose his/her grip, and/or not completely follow-through on the swing, thereby affecting distance, direction, and/or other performance aspects of the swing and the resulting ball motion. User anticipation of this unpleasant, undesirable, or surprising sound can affect a swing even before the ball is hit.
Also, the performance of a golf club can vary based on several factors, including weight distribution about the club head, which affects the location of the center of gravity of the golf club head. When the center of gravity is positioned behind the point of engagement on the contact surface, the golf ball follows a generally straight route. When the center of gravity is spaced to a side of the point of engagement, however, the golf ball may fly in an unintended direction and/or may follow a route that curves left or right, including ball flights that often are referred to as “pulls,” “pushes,” “draws,” “fades,” “hooks,” or “slices.” Similarly, when the center of gravity is spaced above or below the point of engagement, the flight of the golf ball may exhibit more boring or climbing trajectories, respectively.
Weight distribution about the club head can also affect moment of inertia associated with the club head. Thus, altering the moment of inertia can affect how the golf club performs including how the golf club head design impacts heel and toe mishits. Similarly, other factors such as point of impact and launch angle can also affect how the ball travels once it has been struck.
Club designers are often looking for new ways to distribute or redistribute weight associated with a golf club and/or golf club head. For instance, club designers are often looking to distribute weight to provide more forgiveness in a club head, improved accuracy, a desired ball spin and ball flight and the like. Club designers also seek to optimize the center of gravity location of the club head. In pursuit of such designs, club designers also face a challenge of maintaining a club head having a traditional aesthetic look desired by most golfers. Club designers further face the challenge of providing a club head having desirable sound characteristics upon ball impact. While certain golf club and golf club head designs according to the prior art provide a number of advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a golf club and golf club head having a reduced weight characteristic and improved weight distribution throughout the club head to enhance club performance. The present invention is provided to overcome certain of the limitations and drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available.