PING celebrates 50th anniversary!
Published: Last updated:
1959 saw several notable birthdays – for a start, Steve McFadden who plays Eastenders hardman Phil Mitchell was born, as was Simon Cowell and Bryan Adams. But if you’re a golfer, then another birth will impress you more than this wonderful triumvirate, in the shape of PING.
Yep, 50 years ago today, Karsten Solheim filed the application for his first putter patent – the 1A. And half a century later the company has developed into one of the biggest names in golf, catering for professionals to hackers, and everyone in between.
The story began in the Californian garage of Karsten and wife Louise Solheim, where the engineer set out to design a wand that would improve his game by applying what he called “the simplest laws of physics and mechanics”.
Two years later, the couple moved to Phoenix and Karsten started to manufacture flatsticks in the evening and in 1967 he got his big break – Julius Boros used the PING Anser to win the 1967 Phoenix Open. The putter would go onto become the most popular in the history of golf!
INFORMATION: For further details on the PING story, or on any of their products, please visit www.pingeurope.com
