Ping's founder Karsten Solheim on his early Shafts

[lagpressure]

I’ve always been a big proponent of golfers at all levels working into very firm shafts. Interesting quote here about Karsten:

Back in the early 1970s when PING golf company moved to the front of the golf industry through the introduction of their original Ping Eye model irons, the standard shaft installed in every set of Eye irons was a 125 gram X flex steel shaft.

Ping’s founder Karsten Solheim used these shafts in his irons because he believed a heavier and stiffer shaft would help all golfers hit the ball straighter. Literally millions of sets of PING irons with X flex heavier weight steel shafts were sold throughout the 1970s and you know what? Literally millions of golfers liked their new PING irons more than their previous irons.

[lecoeurdevie]

He sure moved away from that by the time those ZZ Lites came around in the Eye2+ & Zings. Those shafts were terrible and just about impossible to get out because of those goddamn ball bearings they used instead of epoxy. Interesting idea but there’s a special room in the Eighth Level of Hell for old Karsten just for that & making the hardest clubs to bend ever. Grrrrrrrrrrrr