Wilson cruz dating12/3/2023 ![]() ![]() “He wanted the weight around the perimeter.” “Karsten’s thing was that he viewed the golf club as being like a tennis racket,” PING company historian Rob Griffin tells MyGolfSpy. The result? The first perimeter-weighted iron. Karsten drilled and milled out a pair of linear cavities: a shorter, smaller one close to the sole and a wider, longer one higher up. Karsten explained his ideas for a golf club and Woolley generously supplied Karsten with enough unfinished forged club heads to make 100 sets of irons. He had become friendly with Ted Woolley, owner of Golfcraft, which at the time was one of the largest golf club manufacturers in the world (and would eventually be acquired by Acushnet). ![]() By 1961, he was thinking about how perimeter weighting would work with irons. Karsten Solheim started making putters in his garage in 1959 with the crazy idea that a perimeter-weighted putter wouldn’t twist as much if you didn’t hit the center of the face. But the PING Eye 2 DNA actually traces back to 1961 and Karsten’s first iron set, the PING 69. It followed the original Eye, which was launched in 1978, and the PING Karsten irons, which were launched in 1969. The PING Eye 2 was officially released in the fall of 1982. History’s Mysteries: The PING Eye 2 Back Story That’s when the PING Eye 2 story really begins. So let’s fire up the Hot Tub Time Machine and set a course for 1961. The fact that it became the top-selling iron in golf history, not to mention a legendary icon, is simply the result of a perfect storm. The PING Eye 2 was simply the culmination of two decades worth of research, development and good old-fashioned innovative engineering. What’s more, those grooves were such a competitive advantage that both the USGA and the PGA TOUR banned the Eye 2 for spinning the ball too much.įriends, none of that conventional wisdom is true. Further, the pundits say Karsten revolutionized iron spin when he invented square, or U-shaped, grooves. Karsten Solheim, many say, cracked the forgiveness code when the PING Eye 2 hit the streets in 1982. This week, our traipse back in time delves into the real story of the best-selling iron in golf history, the PING Eye 2.Ĭonventional wisdom says the PING Eye 2 was a revolutionary breakthrough in golf club design. Welcome back, fellow Golf Spies, to another edition of History’s Mysteries. ![]()
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