Ping (golf)
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| Genre | Golf |
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| Founded | 1959 |
| Founder | Karsten Solheim |
| Headquarters | Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
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Key people
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John A. Solheim, Chairman and CEO |
| Products | Golf products |
| Website | www.pinggolf.com |
PING is an American manufacturer of golf equipment, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Ping was founded by Karsten Solheim, following a career as engineer at the General Electric company. In 1959, he started making putters in his garage in Redwood City, California. In 1967, he resigned his job at General Electric to develop the PING company.
Solheim began PING golf as a garage business. His frustration during the game of golf resulted from his difficulty putting with the putters of the era. The engineer from General Electric invented a new putter in his garage known as the "PING 1A".
The name "PING" came from the sound that Solheim heard as the metal struck the ball. The 1A and other PING putters to come would revolutionize the putter market with newly found "heel-toe" weighting.
The success Solheim found in 1959 with the invention of the 1A would set PING on a road to be one of the great innovators in the rich history of golf technology. The PING 1A's sales and hype would peak as Sports Illustrated named the PING 1A the "musical" putter for the sweet sound emitted.
In 1961, the Solheims moved from Redwood City, California to Phoenix, Arizona where the company would find a permanent home. Despite the increasing sales of the PING putter, Solheim continued to create his putters single-handedly in his garage after departing General Electric.
In the same year, he invented his first set of irons which he named "69", which he considered to be a good round of golf. Solheim continued to experiment with the effects of good heel-toe weighting in his irons and also milled a cavity into the steel back of the irons for added forgiveness.
The first PGA Tour victory while using a PING club came in 1962 at the Cajun Classic Open Invitational by John Barnum. Sales of the PING putters rose as the popularity steadily increased. The Golf World Cup of 1965 brought even greater sales of the garage-made PING putters as many of the top players used the PING putters during the televised event in Japan.
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Wikipedia