Welcome again, my pals, to the present that by no means ends. It’s time for one more version of MyGolfSpy’s Historical past’s Mysteries.
We’re so glad you could possibly attend. Come inside, come inside.
In Historical past’s Mysteries, we take a deep dive into the folks, merchandise, corporations and occasions which might be woven into the material of the sport we love. At present’s story focuses not on a product, however on a course of launched in 1972 that lies on the very basis of the fashionable golf tools enterprise.
Please be part of us as we look at the genesis, introduction and evolution of PING’s coloration coding system. Its introduction in 1972 can actually be thought of the delivery of contemporary membership becoming and yet one more of Karsten Solheim’s contributions to golf as we all know it.
Historical past’s Mysteries: The delivery of PING’s coloration code system
At present, {custom} membership becoming might be about 90 p.c science and 10 p.c artistry. You stroll right into a hitting bay and the launch monitor will inform you rattling close to every little thing you must know in seconds. You get carry and complete distances and the elements behind these numbers. Ball velocity? Test. Angle of assault? Test. Face angle and membership path to focus on? Test.
Wish to examine completely different shafts or clubheads? Your fitter has a full array of instruments and choices to just do that.
Nevertheless, for those who flip the clock again a couple of a long time, becoming was nearly totally an artwork kind. Extra precisely, it was educated guesswork.
“It was only a professional watching you hit a couple of pictures and telling you that you simply want this or that,” Rob Griffin, PING’s Firm Historian, tells MyGolfSpy. “There weren’t loads of choices again then.”
At present, it’s all about choices. You possibly can onerous step or delicate step a whole lot of various shafts, and AI apps can suit you for mannequin, size, lie and flex in just some swings. Again within the day, nonetheless, you didn’t even have lie angle choices.
“There was no standardized lie angle,” says Griffin. “There was simply what completely different producers thought of customary, they usually didn’t provide the power to vary it.”
As is the case in so many different areas, it was PING founder Karsten Solheim who discovered a greater means.
The engineer’s thoughts at work
As we’ve written on this house earlier than, if Karsten Solheim isn’t in your Mount Rushmore of Golf Tools, you must reevaluate your decision-making course of.
“Karsten realized early on that the best way the membership hit the bottom and the lie angle affected the place the ball went,” explains Griffin. “I’m positive there have been individuals who understood that earlier than, however there wasn’t loads of {custom} becoming occurring. On a regular basis shoppers actually weren’t getting it.”
A typical becoming again then was basically a professional handing you a membership to hit. If it was too upright for you, you’d are inclined to hit it left. Too flat and also you’d hit it proper. Most golfers didn’t actually perceive the trigger and impact. You’d simply hold attempting golf equipment till you discovered one you could possibly hit straight.
Solheim based PING in 1959 however was nonetheless figuring out of his storage into the mid-’60s. By then, nonetheless, he had developed a status amongst Tour professionals as a little bit of a “membership whisperer.” It was not unusual for Tour gamers, when on the town for the Phoenix Open, to cease by his home and have him measure and regulate their golf equipment.
“He’d ask the participant which iron they hit finest and had probably the most confidence in,” says Griffin. “In the event that they mentioned the 6-iron, Karsten would bend all of the golf equipment to have the identical lie angle as their 6-iron.
“Johnny Miller is one who would come out to the home. Karsten would regulate his set and he’d exit and win the subsequent couple of tournaments.”
Sowing the seeds of dot
These weren’t essentially PING gamers who visited Karsten. He’d work on anybody’s golf equipment. Nevertheless, each Karsten and Tour golfers realized a yearly go to to test loft and lie wasn’t sufficient. As was Karsten’s means, as soon as he recognized an issue, he’d work on it till he discovered an answer.
“He didn’t have a Mitchell machine or something,” says Griffin, because the Mitchell SteelClub® machine wouldn’t be launched for one more 20 years. “He developed his personal factor known as The Gage.”
The Gage is a kind of Karsten innovations that’s misplaced to historical past. PING used it to measure and regulate loft and lie for years and it was offered within the PING product catalog.
“Tour gamers would purchase one and hold it within the trunk of their automotive,” Griffin says. “They might then regulate their golf equipment themselves after they have been out on the highway.”
PING launched its first mass-produced investment-cast irons in 1969. As Karsten knew the right lie angle was crucial to a correct match, the brand new Ok-1 irons needed to be malleable sufficient to bend with out breaking.
“We discovered to warmth deal with the heads to make them simpler to regulate,” says Griffin. “With out that warmth therapy, we couldn’t bend them. They’d simply snap.”
The unique Ok-1 irons may very well be bent from 4 levels flat to 3 levels upright. That set the stage for Karsten’s subsequent step: creating a repeatable and scalable strategy to match extra golfers to the appropriate lie angle.
Membership becoming for the plenty
Karsten actually wasn’t the one individual in golf who knew that lie angle affected ball flight. He was, nonetheless, the one one who noticed that on a regular basis golfers would profit from having the right lie angle. Furthermore, he was the one with the mandatory creativity and engineering experience to develop a scalable answer.
And thus, in 1972, the PING coloration code “dot” system was born. Karsten primarily based the system on two key standards: the golfer’s top and fingertip-to-floor measurement (immediately it’s wrist-to-floor). PING additionally eradicated “customary” units from PING’s providing. From that second on, each PING Ok-1 iron set could be custom-built to a golfer’s particular lie angle, denoted by the colour of the dot. This may be accomplished at no further cost.
“At first, Karsten would match folks simply by their ball flight,” explains Griffin. “However he quickly developed this little custom-fitting device that regarded like a soccer.”
The device, which was truly a hand-held sliding chart, would slide left or proper, relying on which means your pictures have been flying and by how a lot you have been lacking the goal. The additional you’d slide the device left or proper, you’d discover the colour that corresponded to your lie angle.
“It modified the golf world as a result of it democratized becoming,” says PING VP of Becoming and Efficiency Marty Jertson. “It’s a staple, foundational piece that put us on the map. Any good iron or wedge becoming nonetheless begins with lie angle.”
In June 1972, PING ran an advert in Golf World that includes its new {custom} color-coded golf equipment. PING would come with “clip and return” playing cards in magazines. You’d write in your top and different measurements and PING would ship again beneficial specs.
The primary spherical of adverts generated greater than 14,000 responses. This system proved so profitable that PING continued it nicely into the ’90s.
“I’m a pink dot, what are you?”
As essential as these little coloured dots have been to becoming, don’t underestimate how highly effective a branding device they turned. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than PING customers recognized themselves as a “pink dot man”, an “orange dot man” or no matter.
For the primary time, a daily Joe might present you his coloured dot and say, “These golf equipment have been constructed for me.” It’s the type of model id OEMs pay hundreds of thousands for immediately.
“Karsten made it simple for shoppers to know the significance of lie angle,” says Griffin. “He created and delivered a easy, logical story with an apparent profit to golfers that was simple to know and that nobody else was telling.”
The colour code chart Karsten created continues to be central to PING fittings immediately. If you happen to ever go to the PING Proving Grounds in Phoenix, the very first thing they do is take top and wrist-to-floor measurements and reference the chart to get you began.
“We’ve higher, extra nuanced, extra nitty-gritty numerical, launch-monitor pushed instruments to get you even additional into the becoming pyramid,” says Jertson. “However we nonetheless begin each becoming with the colour code chart.
“If you happen to’ve by no means picked up a membership earlier than, you could possibly 100% use the chart as a place to begin for size and lie.”
Days of future previous: Coloration codes immediately
At present, PING’s coloration code system isn’t only a becoming device. In accordance with Jertson, hitting the complete coloration palette is an R&D mandate.
“We’re not going to make an iron we are able to’t regulate to these specs,” he explains. “We’d provide you with one thing that may give us extra ball velocity or do one thing actually unique. But when it received’t match these lie angles, we are able to’t cross it to the shopper.”
At present, PING’s coloration code chart runs from 5 levels upright to 4 levels flat. As you’d think about, that creates some metallurgical challenges. The iron must be robust and sturdy whereas remaining delicate sufficient to bend as much as 10 levels. These are two issues that struggle one another.
“It’s the structural engineering of the hosel and the geometry of the notches,” says Jertson. “How we clamp them for bending, the supplies of the clamp, what stress we use, all of it issues.
“Then there’s how we warmth deal with the alloys to have the ability to management the bending and the metallurgical properties that permit us to realize that.”
The subsequent step, in fact, is to take the colour code system into the digital world. Most on-line club-fitting apps will ask on your top and wrist-to-floor measurements. That alone will match at the least 75 p.c of golfers into appropriate membership specs. Synthetic intelligence, nonetheless, is opening up much more alternatives.
“We’ve constructed a complete suite of wonderful becoming instruments,” says Jertson. “A few of them ingest launch monitor information and may get you to the closest good spin price and preferrred distance gapping.
“We’re nonetheless dedicated to the membership coloration code charts. That’s nonetheless our basis however immediately now we have the know-how and the precision to offer the fashionable golfer what they should assist them play their finest.”
What would Karsten assume?
It’s no exaggeration to say Karsten Solheim began {custom} becoming as we all know it immediately. That’s to not say we wouldn’t be the place we at the moment are with out his contributions, however he was actually there at Floor Zero.
Karsten made positive that little football-looking system acquired out to professional retailers. PING aggressively marketed the significance of lie angle becoming in its journal adverts whereas providing golfers one thing they by no means had entry to earlier than: an precise {custom} becoming. It actually wasn’t the identical as immediately’s {custom} becoming, however for 1972, it was a significant leap ahead.
As with each dialog I’ve with Griffin, I needed to ask: What would Kasten need to say concerning the degree of becoming in 2025?
“I believe he’d say there’s by no means sufficient information. You understand, we have been the primary golf producer to have a high-speed digital camera within the mid-‘80s. He wished to measure issues and see what was occurring. We might measure spin price and see what was occurring to the shaft at affect, the way it was bending, the way it oscillated.”
And what would Karsten do if he acquired his palms on a Trackman?
“My guess is inside half an hour he’d design a greater one.”
Historical past’s Mysteries: PING and a color-coded postscript
It’s additionally no exaggeration to say Karsten Solheim taught the golf business how you can construct a contemporary golf membership. Nobody was paying a lot consideration to lie angle in 1972, and definitely nobody was attempting to deliver {custom} becoming to the plenty. He had the thoughts of an engineer however let’s not neglect that he additionally had a great little bit of salesman in him.
“Quite a lot of us don’t absolutely admire Karsten’s advertising skill and his skill to clarify issues in an advert or an image,” says Griffin. “That’s his present: explaining very technical issues and really scientific concepts in a means that almost all of us can grasp.”
Becoming is the subsequent frontier within the golf business. It’s the one place the place you’ll be able to truly obtain substantive efficiency features. Many OEMs are leveraging AI to make the method quicker however Jertson, echoing Karsten’s ideas, says there’s by no means sufficient information.
“We are able to do an incredible job becoming you for the swing you may have that day. However how significantly better of a job might we do if we added your tendencies and on-course play into the becoming course of? We’ve constructed some nice instruments to do this.
“The extra information you may have, the extra you’ll be able to paint an image on a steady, clear foundation.”
“Karsten all the time mentioned his No. 1 purpose was to make the sport simpler for folks to play,” provides Griffin. “I by no means heard him speak about what number of golf equipment we offered or something like that. He simply wished to make the sport extra pleasant for folks.
“As he would say, you need the membership to suit the golfer, not the opposite means round.”
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