Industry Q&A - John K. Solheim

Interview by Tom Mackin | Photos Courtesy of PING

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, John K. Solheim was named the third-ever CEO of PING, the Phoenix-based equipment company, in 2022. Arizona Golf Insider talked with him about the loyalty of PING employees, advice from his predecessors and his favorite parts of the job.

ARIZONA GOLF INSIDER: How important is it that PING has stayed in Arizona since your grandfather moved here in 1961?

JOHN K. SOLHEIM: We’re very proud of our Arizona heritage. I guess I’m one of the rare ones at my age to be from here, and have lived most of my life here. I think it’s a great place for a golf company to be. We’ve got weather that we can play golf in year-round. We’ve got our own testing range here, so we can test year-round. We’ve got a great employee base that works here, many of them for a long time. So it’s really been a good fit for us. The cost of living here, I think, is good. It’s a business-friendly environment. We’ve got great people that work for us. Even if they’re not from here and they’re hesitant (to move), they get out here and they’re like, yeah, it’s not too bad.

Why have so many employees stayed at PING for such a long time?

I would say we do our part to do right by our employees, whether it’s through bonuses, or just a good solid career and good health care. And it’s a fun business. I think just how tangible our product is gives people a sense of pride about what they do and the craftsmanship that goes into it.

One silver lining from COVID has been a boom in rounds played. Did the golf equipment business see a similar bump?

Pre-COVID 2019 was our best year ever, except for maybe a few years way back. I remember just sitting here thinking, I don’t know how we’re ever going to beat this year. Everything just worked. Then COVID came and I didn’t even know if we were going to be in business in six months. But I was at home at Moon Valley Country Club and saw people playing golf all day long while I was on phone calls. The demand for golf equipment continues to be stronger than pre-COVID, so it’s been a bump that seems to be sustaining. I feel like people have picked up the sport and haven’t put it down, and tee times are still booked. And there’s more diversity. So we’re kind of fishing in a bigger pond for customers, because more women, more minorities and more kids are all playing golf now.

What do you consider your primary responsibilities as CEO?

I came up through engineering so I’m still very close to that. Making sure we get the product right, making sure we’ve got the right products. Do we like the design concepts? Does it test well? Kind of like the final check on that sort of stuff, and then, as we look out and call it a five-year product plan, do we have the right products? Are we working on the right products where the industry is? And how do we best meet the needs of our customers? I still see that as key to what I do. Where I think I can help move the needle a lot is in the marketing side: what our message is and what our budget is.

What’s on the short-term horizon for PING?

I have full confidence that our product pipeline over the next couple of years to the next five years down the road has lots of great ideas that we are prototyping and testing. And to me, it’s exciting, even with a potential golf ball rollback coming, which will kind of flip everything up in the air because all of a sudden now we will all be hitting it shorter and getting re-fit for our equipment.

Any advice or words of wisdom from your dad or your grandfather that you turn to these days in your current role?

I guess with my grandfather, Karsten, the ones popping into my mind right now are, “Deal with all the problems today. Don’t worry about tomorrow’s problems.” And then my dad stressed that every little detail matters. So from the engineering perspective, when you think you have the perfect design, it can always be better. And that used to drive me crazy. But I kind of realized, you know what? Every time I thought this is nuts, this is ready to go, we ended up weeks or months later coming up with a better answer, and it ended up being the right call to wait.

What are your favorite parts of the job?

Getting to play all the new equipment way before everybody else! But we’ve also had good success and have been able to provide some very good bonuses to our whole team at our annual Christmas lunch. That’s been very rewarding. 