This week: The story of Karsten Solheim, a loud little putter, and the golf empire that changed Phoenix forever.
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Karsten Manufacturing Corporation
Before Scottsdale was swarming with Tour vans and Troon polos, before the Valley became a snowbird golf mecca, one man was in a Phoenix garage trying to fix his putting stroke.
Karsten Solheim wasn’t a golf lifer.
He wasn’t raised in country clubs or coached by short-game gurus. He was a late-blooming engineer who found golf frustrating enough to reinvent it. Armed with a workbench, some steel, and too much brainpower, he started tinkering with putters in his garage in California.
One of his early prototypes made a distinct ping sound at impact, which stuck as a name and a calling card for a brand that would grow into one of the most iconic in golf.
1959: The First “PING” in the System
Solheim’s first creation, the PING 1A putter, didn’t look like much. It was flat, boxy, and… let’s be real, weird. But it worked. The genius lay in how it redistributed weight—heel-toe weighting, which made off-center hits more forgiving. Revolutionary at the time. Still standard today.
He started selling the 1A out of his garage. Golfers wrote in for one. Then Sports Illustrated wrote about it. Orders blew up. The engineer with a garage dream realized he had something serious on his hands.
Enter Arizona: The Move That Changed Everything
In 1961, Karsten transferred with GE to Phoenix. It was perfect for sunshine, cheaper land, and year-round golf. But instead of putting his clubs away, he brought his vision. Arizona gave him the space to go from garage project to full-fledged manufacturer.
And let’s be honest: Arizona might’ve just stayed a winter golf getaway without Karsten Solheim. But with PING building its legacy in the desert, the region started gaining credibility, not just as a place to play golf, but as a place to build it.
The Phoenix Open Moment
Every startup has a breakout. For PING, it came at the 1967 Phoenix Open.
A stoic Tour veteran, Julius Boros rolled into town with a new putter in his bag: the PING Anser. He won the tournament, and the golf world took notice. A funky-looking flatstick from a backyard tinkerer just won a big-time Tour event. That single win put PING on the map and pushed Karsten to go all-in.
That same year, he officially founded Karsten Manufacturing and moved into a 2,200-square-foot Phoenix facility.
Innovation Lives in the Desert
From the Anser forward, PING didn’t slow down. A few quick milestones:
1970s: PING pioneers perimeter-weighted irons with the Eye series.
1972: Launches the Color Code fitting system for custom clubs based on lie angle and body type.
1982: Opens PING’s current HQ on 50 acres in North Phoenix.
1990s–2000s: PING Eye2 becomes one of the most-played irons in history.
Today, every club is engineered and assembled at their Phoenix facility.
When you swing a PING G430 driver or roll an Anser putter today, that DNA traces back to the original tools and values Karsten brought to Phoenix 60+ years ago.
Yes, You Can Tour It and You Should
PING’s Phoenix HQ isn’t just a factory, it’s a pilgrimage for golf nerds. The free walking tour spans a mile through the process: casting, painting, shaping, testing, and packaging. You’ll see how custom specs are dialed in, how putters are balanced, how clubs go from concept to Tour bags.
Fun fact: Every PING club is hand-assembled.
Even more fun fact: Employees get lifetime jobs; some have worked there for over 40 years.
Bring ID. Wear closed-toe shoes. You’ll leave a smarter golfer.
Arizona Golf Doesn’t Exist Without PING
PING didn’t just build clubs in Phoenix; it built the culture.
ASU Karsten Golf Course (RIP)? Funded by the Solheim family.
Junior Golf? PING powers the PING Junior Masters Series.
Adaptive Golf? In 2024, they sponsored Arizona’s first Adaptive Open.
Amateur Events? PING is the club sponsor of the AGA’s majors, supporting state champs and one-day grinders.
They’re not just here to sell clubs. They’re here to grow golf at every level.
Local Legends, Global Reach
Tour pros like Tony Finau, Sahith Theegala, and Viktor Hovland trust PING gear on the biggest stages. But walk around Papago, Dobson Ranch, or Mountain Shadows, and you’ll see the same gear in plenty of amateur hands, too.
That’s the thing about PING; it doesn’t matter if you’re on tour or playing skins with the crew after work. If you want something built right, they’ve got your back.
So What’s the Legacy?
Karsten Solheim took an imperfect putter stroke and turned it into a billion-dollar, Phoenix-based company that changed the game. He showed that:
Great ideas can come from garages.
Golf equipment should be customized.
Arizona is where the future of golf is built.
Want more local golf legends and behind-the-scenes drops?
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