ULTRA RARE!!!
PING KARSTEN
LATE 1950'S
PATENT PENDING
REDWOOD CITY NO-MODEL
PUTTER WITH LARGE 3
Own a piece of history from a putter master who changed the world of golf and revolutionized the putter design. This putter is one of the first Redwood City Putters made by Karsten. The large 3 signifies the early weight/displacement measurement Karsten used when first experimenting with this putter head design. Later models had the smaller stamped numbers signifying the heads displacement in water. From discussions with Pongman, the man Ping turns to with hard to answer questions wrt older ping items, Karsten would place the head into a container and it would overflow, the overflow would fill another container with markings of 1, 2, 3 and possibly higher. Where the water level stopped was the marking on the bottom of the putter, thus the large 3. Pongman states he has one or two with large numbers on them, I have another. These are the first I know of and I've been collecting these putters for over 10 years, and Pongman states these are quite unique and rare. Given that this is most likely one of the first of the Redwood City putters made, I've set the Buy it Now price accordingly. Last rare No Model sold, went for over $5,000, so the Buy it Now price is not unreasonable. The Redwood City Croquet putters, if you can find one, fetch over $15,000. It's been quite a while since I've seen one offered, they do appear though.
Up for auction is a used 1959 Patent Pending Ping Redwood City No Model putter. Putter is 36 inches in length with steel shaft and a hand wrapped leather grip, original. Club head and shaft show their age and bag wear. But for a putter that's over 50 years old, it is in outstanding shape. Bottom stampings are very crisp and clean. Karsten did not receive his patent for the 1A until 1962, so his Redwood City and some of his first Scottsdale 1A/2A do not have patent numbers on them.
The Redwood City putters were cast in Karsten's garage in Redwood City, CA - hence the name Redwood City putter. After casting they were hand filed and milled, and then shafted in the kitchen/garage. Since they were cast and not milled like today's putters, you'll notice cast pits where there may have been a bubble in the mold and it was too deep to file/mill out without impacting total weight of the putter head. The leather grip was hand wrapped by Karsten or his son. This truely is a handmade putter. There is no machining or mass producing. The first models were 'No Model', then the MOD I and finally, the MOD 1A. The no model is the only one of the 1A series that is center shafted. The other two have their shafts more towards the heel of the putter.
The history of ping putters from Ping website:
It was there that Karsten, a General Electric mechanical engineer, invented the PING 1-A putter. He applied his theory of heel-toe balance with the idea of reducing the twisting of the putter head at impact. It worked. From there, he went on to revolutionize putter design with classic models such as the world-famous Anser, which continues to be the winningest—and most copied—putter in golf. The most prolific of any PING product category, hundreds of putter models have been offered over the years to golfers hoping to find the answer to their putting woes. Fortunately for most, PING’s variety of styles and materials have come through more often than not.
If you use Buy it Now, I'll include a 50th Anniversary Gold Plated Limited Edition Ping Redwood City 1A (Retail price of $1500)
Email me with your questions. More pictures available upon request. Happy offering and thank you for looking.
Ping Redwood City 1A Putter Vintage 1959 Original Shaft 35 inch Very Nice RARE! 
