Golf tee placement and practice apparatus and system

Abstract

A golf tee apparatus and placement system may include a replaceable resilient flexible golf tee mechanically secured to an anchor to reduce the risk that the tee will move during play. And, like the legendary multi-function “Swiss Army Knife” the golf tee apparatus and placement system may further include a protective carrying sleeve and cover that does triple duty by also functioning as a high leverage tool and handle to ease placing tees on a grassy area.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 098,581, filed Sep. 19, 2008 and entitled “GOLF TEE PLACEMENT AND PRACTICE APPARATUS AND SYSTEM,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Technical Field[0003]The present disclosure relates generally to golfing practice and more particularly to the reliable and accurate placement and storage of durable reusable golf tees.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Conventional golf tees lack endurance and tend to move when one hits a golf ball and comes in contact with the tee forcing the need to pick the tee up, replace the tee and reset the height. Newer tee designs are more complex and more expensive than conventional wooden tees, but on impact the tee may tilt or pivot from the head in order to absorb the impact and not fly away or break. Despite these efforts there remains a need for a golf t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]A golf tee placement system, for reliably positioning golf balls over a grassy area such as a golf teeing area or a driving range may be summarized as including a golf tee apparatus; and an elongate hollow cover sleeve tool, having a body with two opposing ends, including: a first end with means for gripping said anchor head tee support; and a second end with means for gripping said collar, said first end being sized and shaped so that when in use placing or removing a golf tee the cover sleeve tool can pass downward over said collar, without interference, to engage and gripingly engage said anchor head tee support from above; the body of said cover sleeve tool being adapted for a use as a handle to manually screw or unscrew said golf tee apparatus into or out of the soil of said grassy area. Said cover sleeve tool may be of a length and breadth sufficient to house and encase at least the entire anchor shaft, auger blade and anchor base tip during transport, for protecting a user from the risk of injury and exposure to residual soil.

[0017]A golf tee placement system, for reliably positioning golf balls over a grassy area may be summarized as including a golf tee apparatus; and a hollow cover sleeve for a use alternately as: a handle and tool to manually screw or unscrew said golf tee apparatus into or out of the soil of said grassy area; and a protective cover inside which said golf tee apparatus is transported or stored. The edges of said collar may both be offset and inset from the edges of said anchor head tee support so as to permit the cover sleeve tool to be applied from above with said cover sleeve tool griping the edges of the anchor head tee support thereby permitting a user to screw the golf tee apparatus into the soil. The anchor head tee support may include any non-circular curvilinear plate adapted to prevent slippage between the cover sleeve tool and said anchor head tee support.

Problems solved by technology

Conventional golf tees lack endurance and tend to move when one hits a golf ball and comes in contact with the tee forcing the need to pick the tee up, replace the tee and reset the height.

Newer tee designs are more complex and more expensive than conventional wooden tees, but on impact the tee may tilt or pivot from the head in order to absorb the impact and not fly away or break.

Disadvantageously, the tool serves no other purpose and is relatively cumbersome.

Disadvantageously, there is provided no base member or other reliable indicator that the correct height setting has been achieved, which deficiency causes the user to take the time needed to visually verify (e.g., by bending low to ground level and looking into the grass) that the depth setting is accurate—or leads to inconsistency in setting tee height.

However, the tool of McGuire includes a relatively thin tool shaft and sharp stabilizing tip 76 that creates a risk of injury or damage to clothing if placed in a user's pocket.

Disadvantageously, like that of Voinovich the placement tool serves no other purpose.

Disadvantageously, by engaging the placement tool to the tee through the narrow bore of the flexible riser—all of these approaches employ variants on a tool design that suffer from a relatively small surface area for connection between the placement tool and the tee during the screwing or pressing action needed for placement.

This small surface area increases the likelihood of tool slippage and wear while also resulting in a sharp slender tool shaft—without any substantive counter benefit.

Given that Lipidarov purports to teach a high-endurance flexible cylinder design—the use of cylinder 20 to screw the tee into the ground would be an unsatisfactory point at which to grasp the tee particularly for use in dry harder ground.

Similarly many users would find it unacceptable to grasp the smooth or even sharp edges of supporting disc 22 with their finger tips thus exposed to discomfort and their fingernails exposed to the soil against which that disc is to be firmly positioned.

This design makes it difficult to place or remove the tee because there is no rigid handle-like surface, placement tool, or other external means for golf tee manipulation.

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