Offered here are the Crown Jewels of the classic golf club market - a complete set of all 12 of Karsten Solheim's Redwood City putters. The legend has been retold countless times - in his spare time, Karsten Solheim began making putters in his garage in Redwood City, California in 1959. Then in the early 1960s, Karsten moved to Scottsdale, Arizona and focused his attention on being a clubmaker. Soon thereafter, the PING golf company was born.

While in his garage at Redwood City, Karsten famously created 12 different putters. How rare are they? The PING 50th Anniversary Fact Book & Collector Guide by Kenneth Uselton states that the "Ping Redwood City Putters are nearly extinct." In fact, when PING itself attempted to re-acquire all 12 Redwood City putters in the 1990s, after 5 years they had only secured one putter. One complete set of 12 did trade hands in 1996 to a New York collector for $110,000. Finally, in 1998, Karsten Manufacturing Corporation was also able to find another complete set of 12, which it purchased for the same price, $110,000. A copy of those checks will accompany this lot as part of the provenance.

This collection contains all 12 original PING Redwood City putters that were produced by Karsten Solheim in his garage in approximately 1959. This includes the following model numbers: IA, AI, AX, I, II, IIA, IIIA, IVA, IA5, B5, B5-C, and "No Model." While all Redwood City putters are exceedingly rare, only four or five B5-C putters exist.