Ping Redwood City Model IVA is an exceptionally rare redwood city. Few were made.  The Earliest 

The earliest request Karsten received for a PING 4A putter is dated May 31, 1960. According to company records, in 1959 Karsten received requests for the twenty-two 2A's, three 3A's, one 5A, and one 5B. The 1A with just over 400 orders was overwhelmingly the main putter produced in 1959. (see And the Putter Went Ping p 47-49).  These numbers are best viewed as approximations. PING today does not know if there were any other orders that year. It is not known how many Redwood City 1A and 4A putters were made in 1960, before Karsten left for Arizona, but production of both grew. The 4A putter, however, never approached the sales of the 1A and today and is one of the rarest Ping putters in existence.

This example has its original 35" shaft and black Golf Pride "Informer" grip. It shows little wear and remains in outstanding original condition, top to bottom.

The shaft has a double bend near the head.  This is a meaningful element of this club. According to John Solheim, Karsten crafted the shaft bend on every single Redwood City putter that has one. That was a job that not only had to be done with great skill, so the club would set up to the ball exactly as Karsten specified but also required a balancing act of heating the shaft enough to bend it but not too much to scar or ruin it. Of course, Karsten worked on the vast majority of the PING redwood city putters, as the only clubmaking help Karsten had was his son John, who was in 8th and 9th grade when in Redwood City, and his son Allan, who helped primarily by making and installing the leather-wrapped grips and only did so until he graduated from high school in 1959 when he left for Marine Reserve boot camp.

So, while Karsten did work on the vast majority of the Redwood City putters that remain, collectors now know that the shaft bend was hand-crafted by the greatest clubmaking genius the game has ever seen. It was Karsten whose rise in the second half of the 20th century reinvented the wheel for all other clubmakers.

For more see And The Putter Went Ping chapter 2.