A ball striking device, such as a golf club head, has a face with a striking surface configured for striking a ball and a channel extending across a portion of the sole. The channel may be recessed from adjacent surfaces of the sole and have a depth of recession from the adjacent surfaces of the sole. The channel may have a cross-sectional profile that is asymmetric with a front wall and a rear wall where the front wall is longer than the rear wall. The channel may also have a center thickness that is different than a thickness at the heel and toe sides.

Embodiments of golf club heads with energy storage characteristics are presented herein. In some embodiments, a golf club head comprises a hollow body comprising a strikeface, a heel region, a toe region opposite the heel region, a sole, a top rail and an inflection point. The inflection point provides increase bending of the strikeface thereby providing performance enhancement over clubs without an inflection point.

A golf club head and golf club having large head dimensions, and large face characteristics, as well as unique mass property attributes driven by relationships not often considered in conventional club head design, to achieve a resistance to squaring the club head during a golf swing that is comfortable to the novice golfer, while increasing stability during off-center impacts and obtaining preferred launch characteristics. This is achieved in part via establishing a club head configuration and associated weight distribution to yield a center of gravity location that results in a preferred magnitude of Delta1 and Delta2 values, CG angle, moments of inertia, and associated ratios, relationships, and club head mass property characteristics influenced by these variables to achieve improved performance.

Embodiments of golf club heads with energy storage characteristics are presented herein. In some embodiments, a golf club head comprises a hollow body comprising a strikeface, a heel region, a toe region opposite the heel region, a sole, a top rail and an inflection point. The inflection point provides increase bending of the strikeface thereby providing performance enhancement over clubs without an inflection point.

Some embodiments include club heads having reinforced club head faces. In one example, the club head comprises a variable face thickness with thickened and thinned regions. The face includes a thinned perimeter region positioned near a perimeter of the face, and a thickened central region positioned over a geometric center of the face. The club head further comprises a 360 undercut that extends along the entire perimeter of the face. The combination of the thinned perimeter region, thickened central region, and 360 undercut reinforces the club head while permitting the face to bend. Other embodiments of related club heads and methods are also disclosed.

A multi-material golf club head having an improved performance is disclosed. More specifically, the present invention relates to a multi-material golf club head having a metallic frontal portion and a lightweight aft portion with an addition of an internal ribbon support member. The lightweight aft portion could be formed of a multi-layered sandwich material with at least one layer having low damping properties. The lightweight aft portion may be formed out of a lightweight crown sub-shell and a lightweight sole sub-shell, both of which combine to receive a weighting system.

Embodiments of golf club heads and methods to manufacture golf club heads are generally described herein. In one example, a golf club head may include a first body portion being hollow to define an interior cavity, a first body portion recess on a back wall portion below a horizontal midplane of the first body portion, and a second body portion removably coupled to the first body portion in the first body portion recess. The golf club head may include at least one fastener configured to fasten the second body portion to the first body portion, and a face portion having a back surface opposite the front surface and associated with a total back surface area. The back surface may include first back surface region associated with a first back surface area and coupled to a front portion of the first body portion. The face portion may include a second back surface region exposed to the interior cavity and associated with a second back surface area. The total back surface area may be equal to a sum of the first back surface area and the second back surface area, and the first back surface area may be less than 30% of the total back surface area. Other examples and embodiments may be described and claimed.

A golf club with a multi-material face is disclosed herein. More specifically, the golf club head in accordance with the present invention has a multi-material striking face portion that is made out of a backing layer having a frontal pocket, made out of titanium, and an insert, made out of a composite material, adapted to be inserted into the frontal pocket. The frontal pocket and the insert could have complementary dovetail shaped undercut features to create a mechanical bond between these two components.

Embodiments of golf club heads, golf clubs, and methods to manufacture golf club heads and golf clubs are described herein. In one example, a golf club head includes a body portion having an interior cavity, a back opening portion, a back cover portion covering the back opening portion, a filler material at least partially filling the interior cavity, a first mass portion coupled to the back cover portion, and a second mass portion coupled to the back cover portion. The body portion may be made from a first material having a first density, and the back cover portion may be made from second material having a second density different from the first density. The diameter of the second mass portion may be greater than a diameter of the first mass portion. Other examples and embodiments may be described and claimed.

Embodiments of golf club heads and methods to manufacture golf club heads are generally described herein. In one example, a set of golf club heads includes a plurality of golf club heads with ach golf club head having a distinct loft angle ranging from 19.5° to 47°. Each golf club head produces a loudness as a result of striking a golf ball at a predetermined golf club head speed. The loudness is in sone units and is based on a sound pressure measurement performed at a predetermined sampling rate and taken for a fixed duration of time with a microphone placed directly above the golf ball at a fixed vertical distance. For a golf club head speed of 80 mph, the loudness of each golf club head ranges from 82.58 to 92.76 sones and is inversely related to loft angle. For a golf club head speed of 85 mph, the loudness of each golf club head ranges from 86.85 to 97.07 sones and is inversely related to loft angle. For a golf club head speed of 90 mph, the loudness of each of golf club head ranges from 92.90 to 101.82 sones and is inversely related to loft angle. Other examples and embodiments may be described and claimed.