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Patent Law

: Golf Patents

Having Trouble Reading Your Putts? If So, This Invention May Be Just What You Need

By David Dawsey PE Esq

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Recently a golf related patent application published with the title ?Handheld Device for Determining Golf Ball Trajectory for Putt or Chip Shot and Method Therefore;? namely US Pub. No. 20080102989. I am willing to read anything that has a shot at improving my putting, so I jumped right in to see if I felt this invention could help my game. The basic invention looks like this:

The patent application describes the invention as:

A handheld device for determining trajectory of a golf ball from its current position to a hole for a putt or chip shot includes a generally planar base member and a pair of elongated members each having a first end thereof secured to and extending outwardly from a peripheral edge of the base member in a V-shaped arrangement. A concave portion is formed in a bottom of the V-shaped arrangement for operable alignment with the golf ball when the pair of elongated members are positioned in a vertical plane. The user squats or kneels behind the golf ball in line with the hole and positions the device so that the golf ball is aligned with the concave portion and is disposed intermediate the pair of elongated members in order to determine the condition of the green and desired ball trajectory.

So how does it work? Well, the following paragraphs explain the concept with respect to the drawings below.

[0032] Now in reference to FIGS. 4-6, to use the device 10, the user 1 squats or kneels at a first predetermined distance 60 behind the golf ball 4 and in alignment with the hole 6. It has been determined that such first predetermined distance 60 being between about 10 feet and about 15 feet is advantageous for using the device 10 which is constructed to the above described embodiments of the invention. It has been further determined that the use of the device 10 is most advantageous when the current position of the ball 4 is greater than 20 feet from the hole 6. Then, the user 1 positions the pair of elongated members 20 in a vertical plane. Next, the user 1 positions a dominant eye at between about 1 inch and about 3 inches above the device 10 and aligns the concave portion 30 with the periphery of the golf ball 4 thus positioning such golf ball 4 internal to the pair of elongated members 20. The user 1 than uses a space 32 formed internal to the pair of elongated members 20 to determine the condition of a green 2 which is shown, for example only, in FIG. 6 as slopping from left to right by a line 2a. After determining the direction of the slope 2a, the user 1 selects the trajectory 7 of the golf ball 4 which based on the example of FIG. 6 would include putting the golf ball to the left of the straight line 8 in order to take advantage of the slope 2a thus directing the golf ball 4 toward the hole 6.