DAY ONE

We began our day at 7am with a short shuttle ride to Ping’s manufacturing plant, called ‘Dolphin’. Dolphin is located around 20 minutes from their warehouse and distribution centre. This plant is where the actual iron casting occurs; incidentally Ping is the only golf company left casting irons in this manner in the USA, something they are extremely proud of and with no intention of changing. Dolphin is where we witnessed the steps in the club making process from the initial wax mould through to the club head’s heat treatment process.

Iron head casting begins with the creation of a ‘tool’ which replicates the exterior of a finished club head. This tool is then used to create thousands of wax moulds which look just like the finished iron head. This is done by a machine which injects hot wax into the tool and after the wax cools down, bingo, you have a wax replica of an iron head. Each wax mould is joined to a frame to create a ‘tree’, from where the moulds are made for the steel to be poured into. Each ’tree’ is dipped into a ceramic mixture which puts a solid coating around the inner wax replica. Trees are dipped around 7 to 8 times in the ceramic sands, which get progressively coarser to form a strong layer around the wax mould inside. The mould is finished when trees are placed in what can only be described as an enormous oven with heat of 3000F; this melts the wax completely out of the mould to make room for metal. (I must comment that these ovens are hottest thing I have ever experienced).

The iron head starts to take shape when Liquid metal from melting bins is poured into the empty moulds. Considerable cooling time occurs before its time to remove the multiple ceramic layers and sand from around the irons. A vibrating machine basically jack hammers the ceramic structure away from the iron heads inside. Around 90% of the ceramic material is removed with the leftovers removed later. The holding trees are then removed by a metallic saw and each iron is now individual for the first time. After some small human handling machine’s further cut and grind away excess material to get the heads to nearly their final shape. The next step, ‘heat treatment’ is clearly what sets Ping apart when making stainless steel golf clubs.

HEAT TREATMENT

Irons are placed in metallic baskets and inserted into large ovens called ‘vacuum furnaces’. These ovens take the heads up to 1900 degrees Fahrenheit. The purpose of this is to combine the different metals into a more consistent face structure which eliminates ‘hot spots and dead spots’ but most importantly, helps to allow irons to be adjusted up to 6 degrees when being lie angled. This is clearly one of the most important steps and exclusive to Ping’s club making process. Human checking for correct head weights or club imperfections occurs with any failing clubs melted down to go through the process again. At this point of the day we left Dolphin to venture over to the distribution and testing site.

MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION SITE

One of the amazing steps that follow is the ‘rock tumbling’ process. Hundreds of iron heads are placed into large hoppers that contain thousands of small rocks and shaken vigorously. This removes any remaining grinding marks and helps to create Ping’s unique non-glare appearance.

At this stage (and we missed this unfortunately), iron heads go through some final finishing and polishing before final cleaning and any paint fil in applied. (The moulds are so perfect that the Ping logo is etched in the iron head and paint is simply filled in the void with a brush, wiped clean and left to dry).

Final quality control is completed and the heads are ready to become golf clubs.

Matching the clubs to a specific customer order now begins. A tray of irons with similar head and shaft weights is generated. Serial numbers are inscribed onto the hosels, color code is painted on the neck and cosmetic badges are glued into the cavity. Using a high strength epoxy, shafts are fitted to the hosel and cut to length. Grips are then fitted with the help of laser alignment aid which perfectly fits straight every time. The lie angle adjustment is then carried out. Irons are clamped and bent with a hit from a mallet. It’s amazing to think after nearly 50 years a rubber mallet is still how Ping bends their irons. With the use of Ping’s specially manufactured loft and lie testing unit the lie is correctly matched to the length precisely every time. Digital swing weighting now allows Ping to know exactly what weight the ‘Ping’ badges in the cavity need to be to balance perfectly. Some small final cleaning is carried out and the club is ready for sending to the shops.

It’s impressive to see how many people are a part of getting the club to the final product, not to mention that every single employee has the authority to scrap irons if they spot problems any step of the way. This concluded our iron manufacturing tour and it was time to meet ‘The Ping Man’.

THE PING MAN

What is the Ping Man? He’s the perfect golfer. He has the ability to swing a driver at 80 MPH or even 200 MPH. Bear in mind Tiger’s club head speed is around the 130 MPH mark. The Ping Man is their chief club tester, and allows testing of clubs to any conditions. He can be set to strike the ball in hundreds of different positions over the club face and at any club head speed to set. One thing Ping hammers home is they won’t release a new product unless it outperforms in testing they previous product. The G5 driver may be available for another 5 years if Ping can’t create a product that sells of similar price and performs better. We watched him hit half a dozens drivers at 110MPH speed and I guarantee every shot was identical to the last in flight, distance and trajectory. The Ping Man is the coolest golf instrument you will ever see.

THE PUTTING LAB

The putting lab, which is located in the Ping WRX section, is an impressive tool. Tour pros regularly visit this to help with their putting. A 40ft by 6ft granite slab is located inside secured deep into the ground independently from the building to avoid any earth movement. This creates the most perfectly flat surface imaginable. Cameras with shutter speeds of thousand of shots per second measure all facets of your stroke. Push, pull, de-loft, increase loft, forward spin, back spin, skid and lift can all be measured by this camera and linked computer which helps the individual to work on his particular problem. Little did we know that unfortunately we had just missed Australian tour pro Mark Hensby by 5 minutes who had been working on his stroke all morning in the lab.

This led to the second coolest experience of the trip, the putter vault.

THE PUTTER VAULT

We thought the Ping Man was cool but we hadn’t been into the Putter Vault yet. This highly secured room holds a replica putter of every win a Ping putter has on any tour around the world. This tradition has been upheld since the company’s inception in the 1960’s. The exact model, length and specifications are dipped into gold, the players name; event won and year are inscribed into the face and placed in the vault. This room now holds over 2500 putters and is worth a priceless amount of money. An experience I will never forget. This concluded a long first day of our visit. (Rumour has it House of Golf Bondi Junction Franchisee Robert Whitlock has his own putter in the vault, resulting from his win in the Malaysian Open some years back.

DAY TWO

We started back at the main factory for breakfast followed by a two hour seminar around what’s happening on the PGA tour with Ping’s tour representative. This was a fun discussion where we were able to ask important questions like who hits it the furthest?, Who drinks the most?, Who scores the best? (If you know what I mean!) Very interesting to note how many tour guys are still using previous models, for instance it’s taken Ping 8 years to get Nick O’Hern out of his Si3 driver to now finally using the Rapture.

At 11am we had a one hour meeting with Ping’s board of directors including CEO John Solheim himself. This was a fascinating hour where no question was off limits, plenty of questions about Karsten Solheim and the companies past cam up as well as questions about where they feel the future of golf is heading. Clearly an experience none of us in the room will forget quickly. This led to the number one coolest experience of the trip.

KARSTEN SOLHIEM’S OFFICE

If you’re not golf tragic like most of us on this visit, Karsten Shoheim is the man who created the Ping brand. His company name was generated because when everybody heard his original putter model, the ‘1-A’ they described it as a ‘Ping’ sound,; that’s how the Ping brand started. Karsten, a talented engineer at the time penned an idea for a putter that was far better balanced than the blade putters everybody was using in that era as he was frustrated with his own putting. He proceeded to make that design real in his own garage and the ‘1-A’ was born. Word started getting around about this ‘crazy’ or ‘ugly’ looking putter some guy was making out of his garage and soon many good players and tour pros were visiting that exact garage.

The ‘1-A’ putter was the foundation of the Ping Company and I guess the rest is now history. Behind a locked door in the corner of the building is his office. The best way to describe his office is a captured moment in time or even walking like into a time machine. Since the last day Karsten worked inside his office has been left untouched as a symbol of respect. We were extremely lucky for this experience as some guys who have worked for Ping for 15 years have NEVER been in that office. Ping employees were in that office like excited school children just like the rest of us. Photos with ex-presidents, letters from golden age movie stars even a thank you letter from astronaut Neil Armstrong litter the walls. For the rest of the day we continually reminded by Ping staff how rarely that experience is handed out and how lucky we all were.

For that John Solheim and I’m sure I speak for the whole group we thank you.

The remainder of the visit really now structured around how to fit Ping golf clubs correctly. We were taken through an iron, wood and putter fitting followed by a game of golf at the Legacy Golf Club in Arizona. There is no doubt that anyone who attended this trip will be the most experienced Ping club fitters around Australia - you can bet on that.

I would like to personally thank everyone who was apart of the process that took me and other House of Golf representatives on this trip. To date I haven’t experienced anything more rewarding and informative in my 14 years working in the golf industry.

Thanks to all the Ping staff in the USA whose hospitality was second to none and to Paul Roser (CEO) and staff at Ping Australia for affording us this opportunity, it will not be forgotten.

INTERESTING FACTS

• Ping is one of only two family owned businesses in golf.
• Ping strives to be the oldest family owned company in golf.
• Ping keep moulds of every single club/putter they ever produce so lost clubs and old favorites can always be replaced.
• Ping actually started in Redwood City California in 1959 before Karsten moved house to Phoenix Arizona in 1961, where the company is still located.
• Ping’s first set cavity of irons the ‘69’ were made in 1961.
• Ping’s first putter win on tour was in 1962 by John Barrum.
• Ping’s first major win was 1969.
• Ping’s color code fitting system is created in 1972.
• The ‘Gold putter vault’ is created in 1974.
• The first ‘Ping Man’ is created in 1976.
• The ‘Eye 2’ iron is created in 1982 and becomes the best selling iron in golf.
• In 1988 Ronald Reagan honors Karsten Solheim with award of export excellence.
• A set of ‘Eye 2’ irons are placed in a USGA 100 time capsule in 1989.
• 1995 John Solheim is named President of Karsten manufacturing.
• Ping WRX is established in 1999 to give golfers greater shaft and custom options.
• 2001 Karsten Solheim inducted into the golf hall of fame.
• Ping putters surpass 2000 wins on tour during 2002 season.
• 2006 Rapture driver is released.

PARTICIPANTS

Michael Button - Flinders Street Melbourne, VIC
Jason Daly - Ringwood, VIC
Jeremy Markovic - Geelong, VIC
Shane Revell - Bundall, QLD
Norm Hobbs - Burleigh Junction, QLD
Mark Robertson - Narrabeen, NSW

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