Golf grip with snap-in weightable cap portion

Abstract

In a novel approach to golf club counter-weighting, directed to grip design for original golf club manufacture as well as for after-market grip replacement and user-weighting, quick and easy manual snap-in installation and threaded-tool-assisted removal of a weightable cap portion of the grip are accomplished by special shaping of an annular cap-to-grip interface configuration featuring a tongue-and-groove cross-sectional pattern that utilizes stretching of grip material per its elastic properties to implement the snap-in concept.

1 . A golf grip having a well-known appearance and structural attributes including a tubular-shaped body of resilient material, shaped internally to be bonded securely to an installed shaft in a known manner, the grip's topside, above the shaft, being traversed by a through-opening sized and shaped to serve as a passageway enabling downward snap-in installation of a weighting device in accordance with a novel user-weighting system of the present invention, said grip comprising:
 a cap of relatively rigid material, constituting a separable portion of the grip, serving at least to enclose the grip's through-opening and thus render said grip with a finished appearance simulating that of known golf grips;   a weighting device, including at least said cap as key primary component thereof, made and arranged to provide a designated amount of swingweight to be readily installed into a compatible golf club grip;   a grip facet, constituting an edge-wall surface of the grip's through-opening, configured with a novel first cross-sectional shape designed to serve as the grip's interface facet for user-weighting purposes; and   a cap facet, constituting a peripheral surface of said cap, configured with a novel second cross-sectional shape designed to serve as said cap's interface facet for user-weighting purposes: to engage, complement and co-operate with said grip facet's novel first cross-sectional shape in a novel tongue-and-groove manner that enables manual snap-in installation and tool-assisted removal of said weighting device by a user.   
     
     
         2 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 1  wherein said cap is configured topside with a central threaded for enabling removal of said weighting device from the grip using a threaded tool. 
     
     
         3 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 2  wherein said cap is configured underside with an externally-threaded downward extension for enabling threaded attachment of a component of said weighting device. 
     
     
         4 . The golf grip as defined in claim  2  wherein said cap is configured underside with an internally-threaded opening for enabling threaded attachment of a component of said weighting device. 
     
     
         5 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 2  wherein said cap is threadedly attached to a component of said weighting device. 
     
     
         6 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 5  wherein the component is located beneath said cap. 
     
     
         7 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 5  wherein at least a component of the weighting device extends into the shaft. 
     
     
         8 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 1  wherein, in a first embodiment of the invention, the cross-sectional shape of said grip facet starts from said grip's topside, forming downwardly a flared entry ramp having an entry area exceeding the said cap's peripheral area and decreasing downwardly then transitioning leftward forming, in the resilient material around the edge-wall region of the grip opening, a groove shape configured in said grip facet, engaged in a tongue-and-groove manner by a complementary tongue shape formed peripherally around said cap in said cap facet, enabling manual snap-in insertion and tool-assisted removal of said cap utilizing stretching allowed by elastic properties of the surrounding resilient grip material when stressed by the relatively rigid material of said cap. 
     
     
         9 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 8  wherein the groove is located at said grip facet's lower end, beneath which a region of the resilient grip material interfacing the shaft's top end surface serves as a shaft-stop upon installation of the shaft into said grip and as a spacer to prevent direct contact between the shaft and said cap. 
     
     
         10 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 8  wherein said cap is configured with a peripheral flange portion extending outwardly and forming a portion of said cap facet, sized and shaped to provide a tongue shape to engage the groove of said first facet in a tongue-and-groove manner enabling snap-in installation. 
     
     
         11 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 10  wherein:
 the flange portion of said cap is formed integrally with said cap as an outwardly-extending portion thereof. 
 
     
     
         12 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 10  wherein:
 the flange portion is located in a bottom; and 
 said cap is peripherally shaped in cross-section to provide said cap facet configured to interface and interact with said grip facet in the grip opening edge-wall and to occupy otherwise empty grip opening space up to a topside surface substantially flush with surrounding surface of resilient grip material. 
 
     
     
         13 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 10  wherein:
 the flange portion of said cap is located between a lower portion and an upper portion of said cap; 
 the upper portion of said cap is shaped to interface the grip opening and fill space above the flange portion up to a topside surface of said cap made substantially flush with surrounding surface of resilient grip material. 
 
     
     
         14 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 13  wherein said cap is configured with a central threaded opening extending axially fully through said cap for dual purposes of (a) providing top-side entry for engagement of a threaded-tool to assist removal of the cap portion from said grip and (2) providing bottom-side entry for threaded engagement with a threaded upward extension of a weighing device thusly coupled beneath said cap. 
     
     
         15 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 1  wherein said grip is made to have a designated region including said grip facet surrounding the grip through-opening wherein the resilient material is made to have a modulus of elasticity greater than that of the resilient material located elsewhere in said grip. 
     
     
         16 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 1  wherein, in a second embodiment of the invention, said grip facet and said cap facet are made to be substantially alike in cross-sectional shape, and to be mutually engaged in an intimate common cross-sectional interface shape extending over at least a great majority of area of each facet when said weighting device is installed in working location in said grip, the common cross-sectional interface facet shape comprising a series of curves including at least one engaged tongue-and-groove type gacet pair, sized and shaped to enable snap-in installation of said weighting device. 
     
     
         17 . The golf grip as defined in  claim 16  wherein the common cross-sectional interface facet shape comprises a tandem series of two engaged tongue-and-groove type pairs, sized and shaped to enable snap-in installation of said weighting device.