By Bob Sherwin (PHOTOS COURTESY PING GOLF) As a youngster in Seattle in the golden age of flight, Karsten Solheim marveled at Charles Lindbergh’s courage and Amelia Earhart’s audaciousness. It was a captivating time for America’s youth, and Solheim — son of an immigrant family from Bergen, Norway — was romanced by it. One day, he told everyone, he would be an aeronautical engineer. He was part right. Despite becoming intricately involved in jet propulsion and flight telemetry, Karsten Solheim would make his name not as the designer of the next generation of flying machines, but rather as the developer of a much simpler, yet no less ingeniously designed piece of equipment … a putter. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Karsten Manufacturing Corp. — a company better known by the sound made by its most famous product … PING. The original PING putter, designed and developed in Solheim’s backyard workshop in the late 1950s, became the gold standard for golf-club design and has been replicated in part by nearly every putter made since. That’s the part most golfers do know — what many do not know is that Solheim’s career, his company and his legacy all had their roots in a tiny little fishing community just north of downtown Seattle. That’s right — the PING story all started in Ballard. READ MORE IN DECEMBER’S CASCADE GOLFER – AT PUETZ GOLF STORES NOW!