Throughout the remainder of the holiday season, we will provide a look back at some of the best content from our writers at Global Golf Post Plus. This article originally published on March 10. Enjoy.
As it is with most great works of art, Karsten Solheim’s inspiration for the Ping Anser couldn’t wait to be diagrammed neatly on a clean sheet of paper.
The January 1966 sketch, a blueprint for what would become one of golf’s most copied and influential clubs, came on the dust jacket of a 78-rpm record. The Norwegian-born engineer who worked on jet fighters and missile guidance systems after World War II had a vision of a putter with a distinct offset hosel that allowed an unfettered view of the face, all while giving players the feeling they were pulling through the ball rather than pushing it. The cavity-back head featured perimeter weighting, a low center of gravity and lines parallel to the face to aid golfers in keeping the face square.
Nobody in golf had seen anything like it. Some initially laughed it off, referring to it as a “p...