Patents that Changed the Face of Golf
For some industries, patents are crucial for protecting and cementing inventions in history. The likes of Calloway boast a portfolio of over 1,200 patents — the most of any golf company. Historically, patents have played a vital role in the developments seen in today’s golf game. More spin and longer distance are all thanks to developments in golf balls over the past century.
Patents, by definition, serve to protect inventions, but they also help document them. The only problem is that most early patents have no art or information. The lack of knowledge and available artwork is why we want to look at some of the earliest patents in golf, from the first golf club patent to African-American pioneers.
An Improved Golf Club
We have all seen the advertisements in golf boasting “anti-slice,” “max distance,” or “increased velocity.” These terms have become ubiquitous in golf advertising. In 1891, Francis “Frank” Archibald Fairlie was the first to receive a patent for a golf club — filed as “Improvements in Metal Headed Golf Clubs.” Frank’s Anti-Shank club featured a hosel shape to prevent shanking the golf ball and proved popular among contemporaries.
Nearly no documentation of this invention is available — like most patents in the late 1800s. However, the design did not go unnoticed in golf patents. Frank filed for the patent on April 18, 1891, and was granted the patent in November 1891. Over 80 years later, Jerry Barber filed a patent for “a golf club iron in which the hosel connects to the club head at one side of the top line of the head rather than along the side and base.”
Barber’s description of prior inventions (Fairlie’s Anti-Shank Club) notes:
the present invention relates to golf club irons and in particular to irons in which the risk of shanking is essentially eliminated and the hitting area of the club face is substantially increased.
Golf Club Patent Art Work. Inventor Jerry Barber.
The Metal One
The likes of Calloway, TaylorMade, and other club manufacturers need to pay their dues to the concept of the first metal driver developed in 1923.
Issued to Lewis L. Scott in 1925, the first metal driver to increase distance and reliability in the hitting face. Scott’s invention aimed:
to provide a metal headed golf driver with a very large striking face and yet keep the weight down to practical limits, which weight for the entire club varies from 12 to 14 ounces.
Over 25 Taylor Made Golf Company patents have cited Scott's invention.
Metal Driver Patent. Inventor Lewis Scott.
The First Golf Tees
The following important set of patents come from the likes of Scottish golfers and American dentists. Historically, the tee was where one played, and the ball was tee’d on the ground. Old Tom Morris created the first distinct teeing areas at St. Andrews in 1875 relating to the R&A Rules:
The ball must be teed not nearer the hole than eight nor farther than twelve club lengths, except where special ground has been marked by the Conservator of the Links, which shall be considered the ‘teeing ground,’ and the balls shall be teed within, and not in advance of, such marks.
Rules for the Game of Golf as it is played by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews over the Links.
For centuries, golfers mounded damp sand to elevate the ball of the tee box. In the modern era of golf, players began searching for a reusable form of teeing up the ball.
In 1889, William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas patented the world’s first reusable golf tee. Their invention featured a small rubber slab with vertical rubber tubes to hold the ball.
The first United States patent for a reusable golf tee came from Dr. George F. Grant, an African-American dentist, and inventor from Boston. Grant’s tee invention was much closer to today’s golf tees. The concept was a peg with a rubber top that was pushed into the ground.Grant’s tee did not find commercial success, but his successors would develop the concave approach to holding the ball on the tee.
