In
1961, shortly after Karsten had moved to Arizona from California,
Karsten came out with Ping 69 T (thin) putter. This fine
example has its original 35" shaft with double angled neck, original Tuned Balnamic shaft band, and original Pro Only grip. There is also a taped-on collection label on the shaft. The
inside of the back cavity is marked with Ping's Scottsdale address.
This all original putter shows very little, if any, use—just a small nick in the shaft band. Overall, this Scottsdale 69T is about as clean as they come.
When Karsten moved to Paradise Valley, a suburb of Phoenix in 1960, he
set up a Post Office box in Scottsdale in order to differentiate his
business address from another putter maker operating in Phoenix—John
Reuter, Jr., the maker of the Bulls-Eye line. Karsten marked all of his
clubs with the Scottsdale address so anybody who saw another golfer
using a PING putter would know where to write to place an order. In late
1966, Karsten moved from his garage to a small 2200-square-foot building in
Phoenix. That is when Karsten started making his putters with the Phoenix address.