Nearly 50 years ago in 1959, Karsten Solheim founded his family owned company, PING, out of his garage. He did what just about every passionate golfer has thought of doing; making their golf clubs better!

Specifically Karsten was very frustrated with his putting. I think all golfers can relate to this. I know I can! Now Karsten was not a golf pro nor did he work in research and design for a golf manufacturer. He honed his skills from his education as a mechanical engineer and through his employment through the aerospace and computer industries. These skills are what provided Karsten the foundation to design and grow one of the best golf manufacturing companies in the world!

Being frustrated at his putting game he began to tinker with designing a better putter and eventually he came up with the idea to make the putter ‘ping’ when striking the golf ball. This ‘pinging’ sound is why he gave the club the name of PING.

Besides the attraction of the ‘pinging’ sound, the putter attracted a lot of attention because of its heel-to-toe weighting design. In fact one of the worlds premier sports magazines, Sports Illustrated, commented on the new Ping 1A putter as the ‘musical putter’ from the sweet sound it gave when striking the ball.

Within 2 years of introducing the Ping putter, Karsten designed and built his first set of irons based on the same strict engineering principles and tight manufacturing tolerances he had put in place from his putter to continue quality. These same principles and tolerances are still heavily enforced today.

To keep in line with naming his clubs in a simple but effective way he named his new irons 69. He believed that a score of 69 was a good round of golf. The 69 irons were further modified on the heel-to-toe weightings and a cavity of placed in the pack of the club face to help improve shots.

In 1966, the United States Golf Association decided that nearly all PING putters were to be banned from tournament play. The biggest reason was PING’s superior quality was seen as an unfair advantage to the players whom used them. However, there was one PING putter that would be allowed for tournament play. The Anser putter would revolutionize the putter in golf. It was the first putter to have a cavity in back and a low center of gravity. This provided a superior feel to all golfers. It was these characteristics that has lead the Anser putter to more tournament wins than any other.

Today, Karsten’s PING Golf company he built from out of his garage is a huge corporation that produces a full line of premier golf clubs and golf equipment. Although Karsten passed away in 2000 the company still operates as family owned. Many golf professionals frequently use PING golf clubs in tournaments. If you are looking to purchase any PING golf clubs you can rest assured that PING produces unmatched quality that would make anyone smarter for buying them.

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