Apparatus and process used by a golfer to apply custom indicia for improving consistency in positioning their hands when gripping a golf club.

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The manner in which golfers place their hands on the grip of a golf club plays a pivotal role in shotmaking. Inconsistencies in the manner of gripping a club can lead to a myriad of issues—directional problems due to an open or closed clubface at impact, ineffective transfer of power affecting distance, disruptions in wrist action leading to rhythm and timing issues, reduced shot consistency, loss of feel for the clubface and golf swing, and an overall impact on a golfer's confidence and mental game. Even subtle variations in hand placement can profoundly affect performance and can make it more difficult to diagnose other problems in the golf swing.

Maintaining a consistent grip can be improved by regular practice and an awareness of the importance of the grip. While the amount of time invested in practicing is up to the discretion of each golfer, all golfers can benefit from a way to improve consistency in how they place their hands on the grip of a golf club before making a shot.

There are a number of instances of prior art designed to assist golfers with the manner and consistency of gripping the golf club.

Conformity with the Rules of Golf:

Many instances of prior art use specialized golf gloves or other training aids that contain features to assist with the positioning of the hands on the club but do not conform with the rules of golf. These may be useful as training aids but would not be eligible for use in competition.

An improvement over such prior art would be a way for golfers to improve the consistency of their grip when practicing, playing a friendly round, or competing in a competition at any level. The use of specialized or modified golf gloves in competition would require that they conform with the rules of golf set forth by the USGA and the R&A.

USGA Rule 4.3.a(5) (Gloves and Gripping Agents) states that a player is allowed to use “a plain glove that meets the requirements in the Equipment Rules” and does not give “an unfair advantage with hand position or grip pressure”.

This rule is clarified in Rule 4.3 (Part 6.2: Devices and Other Equipment, Gloves) of the Equipment Rules by the USGA and the R&A, which states that a “‘plain’ glove must not incorporate . . . features, other than visual aids, designed to assist the player in placing his hands in a consistent and/or specific position on the grip” (emphasis added).

A method for improving consistency in the manner of gripping a golf club could therefore be used competition if it's limited to visual aids (“Indicia”).

A number of instances of prior art used Indicia on the player's glove, the golf club's grip, and (in some cases) an extra glove worn on the golfer's normally ungloved hand. These would conform with the rules of golf and therefore could be used in competition.

The prior art includes Indicia of various forms that are preprinted on a golf glove (and in some cases with corresponding Indicia on the grip of a golf club) to ensure the player uses a proper “textbook” grip. For example, the some Indicia indicated points of contact, such as where the hands contact the grip or where the thumb contacts the adjacent finger. Other examples use Indicia that point to some part of the player's anatomy (e.g., the trailing shoulder), or highlight which knuckles should be visible to the golfer on the gloved hand. These instances of prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,353 A (Goldwitz, February/1993), U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,795 A (Landis et al, July/1997), U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,686 B1 (Liu, August/2001), U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,535 B1 (Landis, April/2002), U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,166 B1 (Landis, February/2003), U.S. Pat. No. 8,545,339 B1 (Edwards, October/2013), US 2007/0243940 A1 (McCree et.al., October/2007), US 2009/0217441 A1 (McCree et.al., November/2009), US 2011/0263346 A1 (Wise et.al., October/2011), US 2014/0038736 A1 (Pepe, et.al., February/2014), and US 2023/0134158 A1 (Ernst et al, May/2023).

Other prior art use two golf gloves—one for each hand—with similar types of Indicia to be sure that both hands are properly aligned on the grip of the club using a proper “textbook” grip. These include U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,065 A (Feuerhake, January/1998), U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,828 A—(Sinton, November/1998), US 2003/0208834 A1 (Park, November/2003), US 2008/0109936 A1 (Lumpiesz, May/2008).

All of the aforementioned prior art assume that the golfer wants to use a proper “textbook” grip or is interested in learning how to do so. While I encourage all golfers to work on improving the fundamentals of their game—including their grip—there are a number of reasons why many golfers don't use a proper “textbook” grip. First of all, the definition of a proper “textbook” grip has changed over time and may even vary from instructor to instructor. Differences in anatomy (e.g., hand size) would make some of the preprinted Indicia off for some golfers. In other cases, physical limitations may impact the player's ability to make a “textbook” grip or golf swing.

In many more cases, golfers have learned and become accustomed to a grip preference and swing that differs from the “textbook” instruction, but which works for them and meets their needs. These players may be reluctant to alter their grip since the changes may feel uncomfortable and would require corresponding adjustments to their setup and swing to accommodate the new grip. Many players may not be willing to invest the time and effort necessary to make these adjustments.

An improvement would be Indicia that helps golfers improve their consistency in placing their hands on the grip of a golf club regardless of how they prefer or are accustomed to doing so.

Other instances of prior art have addressed this by providing specially marked golf gloves with Indicia simply indicating whether the player's grip is neutral, strong, or weak rather than dictating a proper “textbook” grip. These instances of prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 3,278,944 A (Gowers, October/1966) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,547 A (Minnick, October/1990).

This prior art assumes that the golfer will always use a specially made golf glove that includes the specific type of Indicia that they are accustomed to using. A specialized glove with the desired Indicia may not always be readily available as the golf gloves carried by most golf course pro shops and sporting goods stores do not have any Indicia whatsoever.

An improvement would be for golfers to be able to apply said Indicia themselves in a consistent position using any commercially available golf glove.

There are examples of prior art where a golfer adds Indicia to a commercially available golf glove. US 2017/0014707 A1 (Albers, January/2017) uses a flat plastic template with cutouts (i.e. stencil) that is placed over the glove and a tubular plastic template with cutouts (stencil) that is placed over the club grip. The user uses a permanent marker to shade in the cutouts on the glove and grip to indicate the placement of the hands in a proper “textbook” grip.

US 2018/0184736 A1 (Levindofske, July/2018) is focused on the part of the glove that contacts the club. The glove is inserted into the cavity of a housing that has two cutouts used for adding markings for where the club should go.

Both of these instances of prior art assume that the player will be using a proper “textbook” grip. As stated previously, an improvement would be Indicia that assist a golfer in improving consistency regardless of the method of gripping a golf club that the golfer prefers or is accustomed to.

Inconsistency in golf shots can also be the caused by improper placement of the traditionally ungloved (lower) hand, not just by the gloved hand. Some of the previously mentioned prior art address this by adding a second golf glove to be worn on the ungloved hand that includes Indicia specific to the placement of that hand. Such two-glove devices include U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,065 A (Feuerhake, January/1998), U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,828 A—(Sinton, November/1998), US 2003/0208834 A1 (Park, November/2003), US 2008/0109936 A1 (Lumpiesz, May/2008), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,126 A (Harvanek, August/1996).

One of the reasons that the lower hand is traditionally ungloved is to give a golfer a better “feel” for the clubface and the golf swing, making it easier to strike the golf ball with precision. For this reason many golfers would be reluctant to wear a glove on that hand. Further, this would also require the purchase of a specially designed second golf glove that may not be readily available.

An improvement would be for a golfer to apply Indicia directly on the skin of the traditionally ungloved hand that can be used to evaluate the placement of that hand on the grip of the club.

The method of evaluating the position of the hands in the grip (whether a neutral, strong or weak grip) in some of the prior art uses long-established means instruction. For instance, some use Indicia that point to a part of the golfer's body, such as their right eye or their left shoulder. Others use Indicia focused on the age-old technique of evaluating how many knuckles are visible on the gloved hand. It may be difficult to evaluate this type in Indicia with precision since slight differences may be hard to detect.

Also, some of these Indicia are not in a golfer's normal line-of-sight when setting up for a golf shot, so it's easy to forget to check them when gripping the club.

The human eye can easily detect whether or not straight lines are aligned in parallel. Using Indicia that run parallel to the shaft of the golf club would be an improvement in a means for evaluating the alignment of the golfer's grip on the club. The indicia would also serve as a reminder to check the grip before taking a golf shot since the Indicia and shaft of the club are directly in the golfer's line-of-sight.

This approach is used in U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,874 A (Elkins, Jr., November/1974), which uses a pre-marked glove with a straight line (or lines) pointing down the thumb at a marking on the top of the shaft or on the club's grip to ensure the thumb is directly on top of and pointing down the shaft. It's also used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,126 A (Harvanek, August/1996), which is a two-glove system which combines the “visible knuckle” principle with arrows on the thumbs of the two gloves which point down the shaft of the club.

Both of these approaches would require the use of a pre-marked glove (or gloves) that may not be readily available to golfers. Furthermore, both are designed to promote a proper “textbook” grip rather than allowing golfers to use the manner of gripping the club that they prefer or are accustomed to.

Only the latter of the two discussed here provide indicia to address the lower (traditionally ungloved) hand, and its use of the second glove would reduce the golfer's feel for the clubface and the swing.

Based on the aforementioned review of prior art, a process for helping golfers improve the consistency in which they place their hands on the grip of a golf club could be improved by meeting all of the following criteria:

One or more embodiments of this disclosure meet all of these criteria by providing a method and tools enabling a golfer to apply their own custom indicia to any commercially available golf glove. By using the golfer's own particular setup and golf grip as the basis for applying the Indicia, the Indicia is customized to specifically work with grip that the player prefers or is accustomed to using.

One or more embodiments of this disclosure further improves the consistent positioning of the ungloved hand when gripping a golf club without reducing feel by using a method and tools for applying Indicia directly on the ungloved hand.

This embodiment is composed of an apparatus used to apply indicia to a golf glove (through) and an apparatus used to apply indicia directly to a golfer's ungloved hand (through). The remaining figures illustrate how to use the apparatuses to apply alignment indicia to a golfer's glove (through) and to the golfer's ungloved hand (through). They also show how golfers use the indicia to check the position of their hands when gripping a golf club (,,,,, and, and).andshow examples of other embodiments.

All of the components in this embodiment are manufactured by 3D printing using a polyactic acid (PLA) filament. Following is a detailed description of the components of the apparatuses.

Glove Indicia Applicator ():andshow two perspectives of a Glove Indicia Applicator () in this embodiment. The Glove Indicia Applicator sets the position and alignment of indicia applied to a golf glove.is a view of the top of the Glove Indicia Applicator as seen when being placed on a golf glove. It's been inverted into highlight the features on the underside of the Glove Indicia Applicator, which is the side that physically touches the glove.

The back end of the Glove Indicia Applicator features a Cuff Hook () with the open end of the hook facing downward.

There are two Indicia Application Apertures () running from the back to the front of the Glove Indicia Applicator that are used to apply the Indicia to the golf glove. The two Indicia Application Apertures are separated by a Divider (). The Divider is triangular in shape to provide room for inserting a permanent marker that's used in this embodiment as the pigment medium for creating the Indicia.

The Elastic Material 1 () that connects the Glove Indicia Applicator to the Shaft Attachment (seebelow) in this embodiment is comprised of two size #19 (3.5″× 1/16″) rubber bands.

The two rubber bands are attached to the Glove Indicia Applicator by being squeezed through the openings in two Elastic Material Attachments located towards the front end, with one on the right side () and the other on the left side (). The opening is narrow (0.7 mm), which is wide enough to allow a rubber band with a 1/16″ width (1.6 mm) to be squeezed into it while providing enough resistance to prevent the rubber band from being inadvertently pulled out. The opening in each Elastic Material Attachment points laterally away from the side of the Glove Indicia Applicator to further prevent the rubber band from being disconnecting inadvertently.

shows the assembled apparatus for applying indicia to a golf glove. The Glove Indicia Applicator is attached to the two rubber bands, one of which is connected to the Shaft Attachment (, below).

In this embodiment, the overall size of the Glove Indicia Applicator is 92.1 mm long, 28 mm wide, and 7.0 mm tall. The size may differ in other embodiments.

Shaft Attachment ():andshow two perspectives of this embodiment of the Shaft Attachment (). The Shaft Attachment is secured to the shaft of a golf club just below the grip of the golf club and is connected to the main body of the Glove Indicia Applicator using Elastic Material 1 (—the two size #19 rubber bands discussed above).

is a perspective from the side of the Shaft Attachment. The Shaft Attachment has been inverted into highlight features on the underside.

The main body of the Shaft Attachment () is an oval-shaped cross section of a hollow cylinder. There's a Club Opening () on the left side which allows the shaft of a golf club to be inserted into the cylindrical Shaft Attachment. The inner diameter of the Shaft Attachment (16 mm) is sized so that the shaft of a golf club will fit inside it just below the grip of the club, but is slightly narrower than the diameter of the club's grip. This, together with the two vertical Grip Stops () and the pulling of the rubber bands (), holds the Shaft Attachment against the end of the grip on the shaft of the golf club.

For reference purposes, the flat side of the Shaft Attachment is the underside. Elastic Material Attachment 2 (—with the wider opening) is located along with the Club Opening () on the left side of the Shaft Attachment. Elastic Material Attachment 1 (—with the narrow opening) is on the right side.