Billionaire businessman Bob Parsons’ new golf company – Parsons Xtreme Golf – has signed a stable of PGA Tour players led by 2015 Open Champion Zach Johnson. Besides Johnson, the players on the PXG roster include 2014 FedEx champion Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk, Charles Howell III, Ryan Moore and James Hahn.
Zach Johnson
Parsons is best known as the founder of GoDaddy.com. More the a year ago he hired former Ping engineers Brad Schweigert and Mike Nicolette to design the PXG line of clubs. Those defections didn’t seem to hurt Ping – PXG’s Scottsdale, Ariz., neighbors – as Ping’s G30 was among the top selling drivers – if not the top-selling driver – in 2015. Ping Golf is expected to unveil its G driver within the next few weeks.
The PXG clubs won’t come cheap – as much as $700 for a driver. That begs the question of who – and how many consumers – will pay that kind of price for a driver when most major equipment companies have had trouble selling drivers in the $299 and $399 price range.
Look for PXG to get a lot of publicity for its clubs over the next few months, but publicity doesn’t equate into sales – or even moving the needle slightly in the equipment industry. PXG could be a nice niche equipment company – and a nice toy for its rich owner – but those who think Parsons will create some kind of paradigm shift in the struggling equipment industry need to think again.
