Foldable golf bag umbrella-like cover

Abstract

A foldable umbrella-like cover for covering the open top of a golf club bag and golf clubs extending out of the bag, includes a vertically elongated tube that is centrally positioned within the bag, along with the golf clubs, and is releasably clamped to the wall of the bag. A vertically slidable, elongated rod extends into the tube. A ring-like collar is attached to the lower end of the rod, and the upper end of the rod is provided with a manual grip for sliding the rod into and out of the tube. A number of umbrella ribs are connected, at their inner ends, to the collar so that such inner ends may be moved, with the collar, for retracting the ribs into the tube, for closing the umbrella, or alternatively, extending the ribs outwardly of the tube for opening the umbrella. A flexible cloth-like umbrella cover is secured to the ribs and moves into and out of the tube with the ribs. The ribs are formed of curved plastic strips which resiliently flatten when moved into the tube, but resiliently return to their curved shape when extended outwardly of the tube. The rod slidably extends through a central opening in a disk-like cover plate which is fixedly located a short distance above the upper end of the tube to provide an annular slot between the tube end and the plate. The ribs, along with the umbrella cover, are guided radially outwardly and upwardly through the annular slot for initially extending the umbrella upwardly and outwardly when the rod is pulled upwardly and then are reversely bent into a downwardly extending position over the clubs when the rod is further pulled upwardly. The ribs are retracted when the rod is pushed downwardly for closing the umbrella.