Ping gives Hunter Mahan a gold putter for birth of his baby girl

Shane Bacon

Last month, at the RBC Canadian Open, Hunter Mahan was leading the golf tournament at the halfway mark, looking for his first PGA Tour win of 2013 and sixth of his career.

The issue was, Hunter's wife, Kandi, went into labor and Mahan had to make a decision between golf and family. He of course picked family, withdrawing from the event and leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.

While Mahan didn't win the event, he did get to see the birth of his daughter Zoe and that was good enough for his club sponsor, Ping, who issued the 31-year-old a gold putter despite not winning.

Ping has been giving gold putters to winners of worldwide professional events since the 1970s, sending one to the winner and keeping one in their gold vault.

Ping's CEO John Solheim said that the reason for the above gold putter was because sometimes a win isn't just a golf trophy.

“We’ll never know if Hunter would have held on to win that week,” said Solheim. “But the circumstances were so unique, we wanted to create a lasting memory for Hunter, Kandi and Zoe that would forever remind them of that special day. The birth of a child is a win any way you look at it, so we thought we’d have some fun with it."