One of the biggest, and most recognisable names in golf equipment, the Ping story began humbly. Karsten Solheim was a mechanical engineer who found his putting was handicapping his game. He started to experiment with different designs and, in 1959, came up with the 1A model. The putter came up with its own brand name - when Solheim hit the ball it "Pinged" off the club face.
Still operating from his garage Karsten Solheim began to manufacture putters for customers and, as the 1960's wore on, orders began to grow. Televised golf, with the top players using Ping putters, and a first Ping tour victory in 1962 captured the public's imagination and Ping gradually established a name as the best in putter design.
That reputation was to grow even more spectacularly when Ping introduced the classic Anser putter. Solheim jotted a sketch down of a new putter in January 196.: That rough sketch became the most successful putter golf has ever known. The Ping Anser (so called becuase the word "Answer" was too long for the clubhead) propelled Ping to the front ranks of equipment manufacturers as position confirmed by the Anser weilding John Archer clinching the 1969 Masters. By the end of 1970's Ping had become the number one choice of putter for golf professionals
Ping Irons And Ping Man
As Ping developed and enhanced its reputation as the world's leading putter brand Karsten Solheim began to bring his design principles to bear on Ping irons and became the first designer to experiment with cavity backed clubs to enhance fogiveness. The attention to detail that marked all of Ping's research and development was confirmed by the introduction of Ping Man - a robotic golfer that perfectly captured the vagaries of the human swing - in the late 1970's.
In the 1980's Ping established itself as the number one brand for all golf clubs when the Ping Eye2 Iron became the best selling club of all time. In 1986 Bob Tway won the US PGA thanks to holed bunker shot using the Eye 2 Ping wedge and, two years later, Ping putters were the choice of all four major winners.