Golf ball and method of making same
AssigneeLisco, Inc.
InventorsMichael J. Sullivan, John L. Nealon, Mark Binette
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a multi-layer golf ball having a soft outer cover. The golf ball has a thermoplastic inner cover layer which preferably has a Shore D hardness of at least 65, and an outer cover with a Shore D hardness of 55 or less, and more preferably 48 or less. In a particularly preferred form of the invention, the outer cover comprises at least 75% of a soft ionomeric neutralized copolymer formed from a polyolefin, an unsaturated carboxylic acid, and a monomer of the acrylate ester class. The golf ball of the invention has exceptionally soft feel and high spin rates on short shots of 80 yards or less and, particularly, 40 yards or less, while maintaining good distance and average spin on full shots.
Claims38
A golf ball, comprising:
- a solid core;
- a thermoplastic inner cover layer having a Shore D hardness of at least 65 formed over the core, and
- an outer cover layer formed over the inner cover layer, the outer cover layer comprising an ionomeric resin, more than 75 wt % of the ionomeric resin consisting of one or more copolymers, each of which is formed from (a) an olefin having 2 to 8 carbon atoms, (b) an unsaturated monomer of the acrylate ester class having from 1 to 21 carbon atoms, and (c) an acid which includes at least one member selected from the group consisting of .alpha., .beta.-ethylenically unsaturated mono- or dicarboxylic acids with a portion of the acids being neutralized with cations, the outer cover layer having a Shore D hardness of no more than 50 and a flex modulus of 1,000 to 10,000 psi, the golf ball having a PGA compression of 100 or less and a coefficient of restitution of at least 0.770.
A golf ball, comprising:
- a core,
- a thermoplastic inner cover layer having a Shore D hardness of at least 65 formed over said core, and
- an outer cover layer formed over said inner cover layer, said outer cover layer having a Shore D hardness of no more than 48, the golf ball having a PGA compression of 90 or less and a coefficient of restitution of at least 0.780.
A golf ball comprising:
- a solid, non-wound core having a PGA compression of 55-65 and a coefficient of restitution of 0.760 or greater,
- a thermoplastic inner cover layer formed over the core, the inner cover layer having a Shore D hardness of at least 65, the core with the inner cover layer formed thereon having a PGA compression of 80 or less and a coefficient of restitution of 0.790 or greater, and
- an outer cover layer formed over the inner cover layer, the outer cover layer having a Shore D hardness of no more than 50, the golf ball having a coefficient of restitution of at least 0.780.
A method of making a golf ball having a core, an inner cover layer and an outer cover layer, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining a golf ball core,
- forming a thermoplastic inner cover layer having a Shore D hardness of at least 65 over the core, and
- forming an outer cover layer over the inner cover layer, the outer cover layer having a Shore D hardness of no more than about 48, the golf ball having a PGA compression of 100 or less and a coefficient of restitution of at least 0.770.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.