Torch, Winter 1992

.. TORCH: How did your company start? Karsten: The first time I ever played golf, I borrowed a set of clubs. I discovered I couldn't hit the ball. So I practiced putting because we lived near a putting green. When I would swing the club one way, the ball would go another way. I tried to grip it better, but I found out that didn ' t help. I got to thinking about that putter. You know people don't play tennis with a ping pong paddle, because no one would be able to find the sweet spot. That's why they put strings in tennis rackets, to get the weight on the periphery. So if you mishit the ball, you have a chance of getting close. A putter is a very small object compared to a tennis racket. I thought if I put some lead on the toe and on the heel it would help. I discovered it made a big difference. As time went on, I kept using the first putter I made. We moved from Ithaca, New York to Syracuse and then to Palo Alto, California. One day I was playing at the Stanford University with a pro from Palo Alto Country Club. He said, "You putt awfully good." I said "You should have seen me before I made this putter." He said I ought to get in the business of making putters. So I went to the office, made a quick drawing, and took it to a friend of mine who was a welder. He called me up about four o 'clock in the afternoon and said he had it welded. I took it home that night and drilled a hole for a shaft. I turned around and hit a ball, and it said "Ping! " That's how I got started with the name. I had no choice. The next morning I went to the pro shop to show him this putter that I had made and the people by the clubhouse said, "Listen to that ping! " So I made some of those putters. Now I didn ' t want to make a putter that I would have to sell. I wanted to make one that people wanted to buy because they liked it. I displayed my putters at nine pro shops. Six months later nine out of the ten putters were still on the shelf. I thought I had better make some other models because people didn ' t like that model. I made four more models of that noisy putter and one of them was in the shape of a mallet rather than just a blade putter. Gloria Armstrong [a pro golfer] was practicing on the putting green. She was going to try one of the long putters where you put one end on your shoulder. I said, "As long as you are going to try a putter like that, try this putter here!" She putted with it in the tournament. She and her partner were seven strokes behind Bob Golby and his partner. Bob told me that Gloria said to her partner, "Let me putt. " They picked up the seven strokes and won the tournament. That got me started. TORCH: Mrs. Solheim, how did you get involved? Louise: Karsten would leave things for me to do when he went to work. Either I had to mail putters or pick up supplies. Our three older children were through school but the youngest son, John, was starting high school and he helped his father after school. They worked in the garage in the afternoons and evenings. The business grew that way. Karsten decided to go into it full-time after eight years, and resigned from General Electric. Our son Allan also left GE to help. John has never done any thing except help us with it. He is a tremendous asset. Our oldest son, Louis, had been working with IBM, and then spent two years working at Moody Bible Institute. He joined Ping in 1975. TORCH: Do you have any other children in tile business? Louise: We have a daughter who works part time, three grandchildren working, and also the husband of one of our granddaughters. TORCH: What roles do each of your children play in the company? Louise: Actually, Karsten has given them all responsibilities as general managers because he wants them acquainted with every part of the operation. However, Allan is more into of your children have followed in your footsteps in believing in Christ. How does that affect how your company operates? Karsten: We work together better that way because we understand each other. It really makes for a happy family . We feel very happy that this is a family operation. Of course, we have been this way for many years. I have seen a lot of other companies where the sons don ' t follow the fathers . I never asked any of our children to join the company. So I am thankful they did. It is something that doesn ' t happen every day. Louise: The three sons are all directors in the company. I am executive vice president. We try to sit down together once a month and go over things that are pressing. That way we can iron out any differences. TORCH: How did you make decisions about the company's growth? For example, wliat was your approach to marketing the clubs? Karsten: It didn ' t work that way. When the pros started using our putters, others would ask for them. Aii we had to do was fill their requests. For example, there was a tournament in Japan in which four or five of the most prominent golfers in Japan were using my putter. The Japanese people called us and wanted to get some of those putters. That The Solheim men: Karsten, second from left, with sons John, Allan, and Louis. production and personnel, Louis is more into the computer work, and John is more into sales. He also helps Karsten with design. TORCH: I understand that all business has grown ever since, so that they are one of our biggest accounts. I learned the importance of quality when I was a teenager working in my father's shoemaking business. There were three shoe repair shops on the same corner.