Morton Golf and PING go way Back
Morton Golf Sales Founder Ken Morton Sr. was one of PING’s First Customers
In 1911 Karsten Solheim founded Karsten Manufacturing which evolved into the more iconic and world-renowned PING. When Solheim first founded PING in 1959, he was creating putters himself out of his garage in Redwood City, California. He would then take his product and try to sell it to local course super shops, one of his first customers was Ken Morton and the Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop.
Ken Morton shared the story of how PING and Haggin Oaks began business together and even claimed that “The Ping Golf Company goes back with us since its inception.” Solheim originally created a putter that pinged when you hit the ball. It was named the PING1A, as a reference to the sound it made. Solheim simply showed up at Haggin Oaks one day and pitched his PING1A to Tom LoPresti, Ken Morton’s business partner. Tom and Solheim were testing out the putter but Tom was unsure about it, so he had Ken come give his opinion on the putter. The business partners were still unsure about it but they decided to give it a shot and put in a sizeable order. To everyone’s surprise, the putters flew off the shelves. And that was the precursor to Ping beginning to then get into the golf club business. Haggin Oaks and Morton Golf have been with them since the beginning.
PING Today
Over time, PING has maintained its family company by holding on to its family culture. They’re now in their third and fourth generations of golf equipment manufacturing. Morton Golf is also a family-run organization with a similar culture to PING, as the two companies have evolved side by side over the years. Ken Morton’s youngest son, Tom Morton, is on their national advisory board. Karsten Solheim and Ken Morton embarked on their entrepreneurial endeavors together and have both grown wildly successful over the years. To this day Morton Golf is still one of PING’s largest distributors with products in the Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop and online at Morton Golf Sales
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