The year 1959 was very good in several ways. America was a booming, growing nation. Jobs were available, families grew, cities were established. This author was born.
And Karsten Solheim decided to go into the golf club business. Golf would never be the same.
As promised in my first post, many golf legends need de-bunked but not Solheim. He was a humble man who rose to the top of the golfing industry because he believed in God, family, integrity and some simple engineering principles. We need more men like him today.
Karsten Solheim was born in Norway and made his way to the United States with his family in the early 1900's. The family settled in the Seattle area and one of his first jobs was installing quality leather heels on shoes at the family business.
Despite never having graduated high school, Karsten showed an ability for engineering and problem solving. He worked several jobs after marrying his wife, Louise, including selling cookware door-to-door. His focus changed when he hooked up with the General Electric Corporation. While with GE he helped invent several innovations like antenna's for television sets and jet aircraft engines.
GE sent Karsten to Ithaca, NY, which is where our story really begins. While at the upstate New York plant he was invited to play golf. A good athlete, he could hit the ball pretty good but really struggled on the greens. Like all golfers do, he blamed his poor putting on the putter and began to examine the design of putters.
He determined that instead of all the weight being evenly distributed, the weight should be moved to the perimeter of the club. This would prevent twisting and keep the ball more on line to the hole. Prototypes were made and on the weekends Karsten and his family would travel to golf shops and tour events trying to convince pro's to sell them to their members and use them in tour events.
Breakthrough came in 1967 when Julius Boros won the Phoenix Open using a Ping Answer. Despite their awkward looks, the putters took off based on their performance. Virtually every star player from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods have used a Ping at one time in their career.
Solheim then moved on to irons and his first to catch on was the K-1, which is ranked by Ralph Maltby's Playability Factor as one of the most playable irons ever. Karsten also designed the Eye 2 iron, which up until a few years ago was the number one selling iron in golf history.
Among the innovations Solheim pioneered were:
1. The use of investment casting-This enabled him to use extreme perimeter weighting for playability and forgiveness.
2. Custom Fitting-Every set was made to your specs with correct length, lie angle, and grip size.
3.Lob Wedge-Ping was the first to develop the lob wedge and its Eye 2 version is still popular among tour players.
4.U-Grooves- Karsten implemented the U-shaped grooves to increase spin and prevent flier lies.
5.Stand Carry Bags-These lightweight bags allowed golfers to walk and carry their clubs without setting the bag on wet ground.
6.Solheim Cup-Always a strong supporter of women's golf, Solheim and his wife funded the start of a Ryder Cup like competition for women professionals.
7. Exotic Metals-Ping was the first company to use metals like beryllium copper and nickel to produce iron heads. He also suggested the use of titanium to produce metal woods in an article published by Scientific American in 1986.
8. Designs that stood the test of time- Look at the design of most popular putter and you will see that Karsten had thought up that design 20 years ago. Virtually every popular iron set has the same characteristics of the Eye 2. Unfortunately patents have an expiration date.
While Karsten Solheim was a genius, his greatest achievements may be those which few people know. In the future we will visit the personal side of the man who made golf just a little easier to play.
