British Open champ Zach Johnson (left) and two-time major championship winner Cristie Kerr are two of the 12 touring pros who have signed on to play the new PXG clubs, shown on this page, from PXG founder Bob Parsons (middle). PXG stands for “Parsons Xtreme Golf.”


. . . you name it, I’ve played it,” Parsons said. “I knew what worked and what didn’t, what was real and what was just hype. PXG was born out of my desire to do things differently and design the best golf equipment on the planet.” Parsons hired several former PING


employees to fulfill that task, including longtime engineers Mike Nicolette and Brad Schweigert, who tried to talk him out of it. His first directive: Create an iron that


BILLIONAIRE PARSONS PUTS HIS MONEY WHERE HIS CLUBS ARE, SIGNS 12 TOURING PROS TO PLAY SLEEK SET THAT COSTS $5,000


By John Davis P


XG IS THE ONLY BRAND OF GOLF clubs in the world that come with this warning: “Our clubs are amazing but expensive.” That is


its advertising pitch and, in a nutshell, the message the Scottsdale equipment maker has presented to the golf world. PXG, created by Bob Parsons, the


billionaire founder of GoDaddy, entered the market last summer with clubs that offer new technology and a jaw-dropping price tag of about $5,000 per set. Parsons is a self-described golf fanatic


who plays virtually every day when his schedule allows, and an equipment junkie who estimates that he was spending about $250,000 a year in search of “a club that delivered on its claims.” “I am obsessed with golf equipment


18 | AZ GOLF Insider | SPRING 2016


looks like a blade but is more forgiving than a cavity back, goes farther than anything on the market without making the loft stronger, has the softest feel possible and has a distinctive look. In short, the club golfers could only dream about hitting. “Basically, Bob wanted us to go to


the moon without telling us how to get there,” Nicolette said. “And we said, ‘Anything else?’ ” Actually, there was one more detail:


They had an unlimited budget, which immediately set PXG apart from the rest of the industry. While club makers might claim to


start with a performance goal in their designs, in fact nearly all begin with a price point and then create the best club they can within that figure. “If you talk to any engineers, the


biggest design restraint they face is almost always cost,” Cool Clubs founder Mark Timms said. “When you tell an engineer to build you the best thing they can regardless of cost, that’s a totally different animal. You can have a blast doing that but it’s not what they teach you in college.”


Timms’ stores were the first retailers


to offer PXG clubs. The demand, he added, has been startling despite the sticker shock. “I am very surprised about how many


we’ve sold,” Timms said. “I thought it would start off strong and that customers who have plenty of money would want the latest and greatest, and then it would taper off. But it really hasn’t. We basically sell everything, and they are in our top four right now, which is surprising to me. “I thought it would be a nice product


for our company and maybe account for 10 percent of our business, but it has been much higher and they have done even better overseas. The interest we have seen in Asia, in particular, has been unbelievable.” Parsons isn’t surprised by the


numbers, even though he has done limited advertising. “PXG really started as a passion


project,” he said. “Making money was not my first priority. Our market strategy was simple and it worked: get the clubs into the hands of the right people and let the clubs speak for themselves. “Our sales are growing 50-60 percent


month over month. I think our growth now and in the future will surprise the entire industry. This is just the tip of the iceberg.” In the past year, Nicolette said, the


company has increased from one club builder to 11 and “we’re looking for more.” The irons feature a hollow body that


is filled with thermoplastic elastomer. That allows for a thinner face — about half the thickness of most irons — and extreme perimeter weighting, which is


www.azgolf.org


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46