Torch, Winter 1992

One day during the Depression, one fellow put a sign up, "Ladies heels 15 cents." So I put a sign up "Ladies heels 15 cents," too. The first customer who came in asked, "Is that as good as it used to be?" I said yes. The next customer asked the very same thing. All of a sudden it dawned on me that people are not interested in price, they are interested in quality. Then I raised the price to 35 cents and put my quality leather on the counter. If somebody would say the shoemaker down the street had better prices, I would say, "He has the same labor I' ve got, but I use prime leather. There is a difference in quality." From then on, my business grew as a shoemaker and I just applied that to everything that we do in the golf business. We calibrate every club individually to make sure it is right. Every club matches, so whatever iron you hit, the ball will go the same direction. We calibrate them very carefully and see that the weights are balanced so they can perform. Then of course the theory of perimeter weighting, putting the weight all around the rim, has taken over the market. Every manufacturer today is making perimeter weighted heads...otherwise they wouldn ' t be in business. TORCH: What is the scope of your business now? What are the different product lines that you offer? Karsten: The Ping name has gotten very popular around the world, for clothing, bags, visors, all kinds of things. The name Ping gets spread all over. We don ' t have to sell our clubs. All we stress is the quality. We have 1,900 employees altogether. They seem to be very happy. When we have tours through the plant, the one remark people make is that our people seem so happy. They have never seen people like that. TORCH: What makes them happy in their jobs? Karsten: First of all, we don ' t have them working on piecework. They are not paid for how many clubs they can make. We want them to make quality clubs. They are paid by the hour. We have a bonus four times a year as part of the profit. That helps. We also have an engineering company in which we do machine work on airplane parts and other things. We have our own foundry. We do as much as possible ourselves: painting and foundry work and heat treating of our metals. We use 17/4 stainless steel which is the toughest metal you can get. It works perfect for golf clubs because it doesn ' t rust, it doesn ' t have to be painted or chrome plated, and it is durable. Louise: Approximately 1,200 of the employees are in the golf clubs department. We didn ' t start out with the intention of having a huge, worldwide organization. We have a plant in England and salesmen every place where golf is played...which is quite a few countries. Karsten: Sixty-six of them. Louise: We didn ' t really plan it that way. It happened! We tried to take advantage when opportunities came. Karsten 's favorite scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths." He put that in his first letter to me when we first started going together. Now after 55years, I can see that that really is his motto, the key to the direction that his life has taken. He recognized that a lot of things that happened were not really his making but the Lord led the way. TORCH: Are there specific attitudes that we can have or things we can do to allow the Lord to direct us? Karsten: People shouldn't worry about the future . We have enough problems today. Let's take care of them. Some people can spend hours planning how much money they are going to make. But you ' ve got to worry about whether you are making a good product. I think people just have to have faith. TORCH: Do you still take an active role in designing new products? Karsten: Yes. For example, we are coming out with a new generation of irons. I make the first prototype. I actually do all the grinding, shaping, and everything else. Then my engineers input it on a computer to come out with perfect copies of the master that I made. We can also machine the parts with the computer so the clubs come out almost like they were polished. The beautiful part is, to make a left-handed club all I have to do is have them reverse the program! This process makes the mold for the heads. My first engineering job was building ships during the war. Then I worked for Ryan Aircraft Company on the Fireball Fighter plane for the Navy. After three years there, I worked for Convair (now General Dynamics) as a project engineer. They had twelve engineers working with me in building up a guidance system for the tracking of satellites. It took me two years to complete it. It was installed in Florida. It ran for twenty years and tracked over 600 flights. In that kind of work, you have to make it exactly right. So I was used to building quality merchandise. That background helped me a lot with the aerodynamics of the golf club. For example, my woods are bigger woods than others on the market...not because I was trying to make a bigger club, but I wanted one that was streamlined. In the early days they used to have airplanes with the landing gear fixed. They put a cowling around it so it streamlined the airflow over the tire. I streamlined the shape of the woods so they could hit a golf ball easier, and it has worked all these years for me. TORCH: Mrs. Solheim, are you still actively involved with the company? Karsten: Yes, she is my memory. She remembers people and dates and a lot of other things. Louise: When people have problems and want directions, I help them. Karsten: Our office is open to all employees. We don ' t have any shelter. If I' m not there, they will talk to her or she will deliver the message to me. This has turned out to be a unique business. I don ' t think there is anything else in the world like it. Four guys or four ladies are out on the golf course playing for four hours. When one of the persons has bought a new set of clubs, the others ask to try them. They find out that those clubs are better than theirs and naturally they want some. I don ' t know of another business where the customer is a captive sales force . Everybody wants to play better. I don ' t put pressure on people to buy things. I just explain that they will feel better and score better. That's all!