US Patent 7192365 Golf club head with pixellated substrate

A golf club head has a face insert that is supported from beneath by a substrate composed of a plurality of elongate rod elements arranged in a parallel closely packed array. Because the face insert is made of a single material, the resiliency of the face insert itself does not vary across the front surface of the face insert; however, the effective resiliency of the face insert may be varied by varying the resiliency of the substrate. This is accomplished by selecting different materials and/or different overall lengths for the rod elements that comprise the substrate. Use of a substrate comprising a plurality of rod elements permits the effective resiliency of the face insert to be varied without varying the face material.