Coming Soon – Rife Drivers?
Posted May 15, 2009 by GolfSpy X
Have You Seen the New Rife Drivers?
Well, neither have I…. but a recently published patent application may indicate that Rife Putters is looking to branch out. Today Mr. Rife had a patent application publish that may give us an idea of what he has been thinking about; namely, the soles of metal woods.
The patent application publishes as US Pub. No. 20090124410 titled “Sole Configuration for Metal Wood Golf Club.” The application describes the invention as:
A metal wood type golf club head including a club head body and means for attachment to a golf shaft, the club head body including a frontal ball striking face having a center of percussion thereon, a rear face, a heel, toe, and top crown, and a rigid, non-deformable bottom sole having a forward section and at least one additional rear section.
The forward section provides a friction surface and is defined by a bounce angle extending downwardly from said frontal ball striking face to prevent the leading edge of the club head from digging into the turf or ground during the execution of a golf shot. The rear section of the bottom sole is a reduced friction surface and is recessed upwardly into the club head.
Want to see more patents…go to Golf-Patents.com
Patent Drawings
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May 15th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I wonder what the mills are on the face. I’m a little skeptical on the technology as I would be affraid the concave piece at the bottom would promote the ball to be in contact with the face less than maybe it needs to be. Interesting…I’ll demo one when it comes out.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
“The rear section of the bottom sole is a reduced friction surface and is recessed upwardly into the club head.” This is confusing to me… Reduced friction surface? Are people still making contact with turf with their drivers, even though the ball is being teed up 2 1/2″ to 3″ high? A reduced friction surface would make more sense on a putter to me.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Oh… I get it. These are fairway woods, NOT drivers as the title insinuates. At least I hope they are fairway woods.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Dave Dawsey’s site – Golf Patents can keep you ahead of the OEM curve if you’re looking to have your golfing friends ask – “how the hell did you know that”. In addition no other site really provided as much info in the Acushnet/Cally ball battles. Nice guy who actually answers emails.
As to the Rife driver patent – big mistake – stick to what makes you money. The driver market is already overcrowded and if Nickent is finding it an uphill battle then Rife is not going to find it any easier to crack it.
rob
May 16th, 2009 at 8:30 am
You got that right!
May 16th, 2009 at 2:14 am
Looks like a MAC Burrows
May 16th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I agree with Rob. The driver market is brutally competitive, and I just couldn’t see Rife making a driver that would break through. Callaway can barely get their FT series off the shelf for goodness sake.
May 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I would have to see a prototype to give afair estimate about the club, but the drawings don’t give me anything to make it think it would be bounds better than any other driver.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
The more I look at the drawings, the more it looks like the scooped area at the bottom of the club could actually dig into the ground, which is pretty much the opposite of what the design is supposed to do. Does anyone else think this could be an issue?
May 16th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Well if they have some tech thats anything like their putters who knows we might see something inovating once again! Tim
May 17th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I thought the idea of drivers and fairway woods was to lower the CG as much as possible?These designs remind me of those walmart brand ” power sphere” drivers, but if they are the same quality as the putters Rife makes I might try one.