Fifteen PGA Tour players will use PXG clubs in '17, and while company officials "wouldn't divulge their sales, the company has gone from 33 employees" in December '15 to 102 today, according to Scott Bordow of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. James Hahn, Ryan Moore, Zach Johnson and Billy Horschel are among the pros playing PXG clubs at this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open. PXG clubs last season "accounted for 59 top-10 finishes on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour." A set of PXG clubs "costs approximately $5,000." By comparison, a "complete set of Titleist clubs will go for about $1,700." PXG Founder Bob Parsons said, "We’re the only company that ever puts a disclaimer in advertising, a warning that our clubs are amazing but expensive. I don't know anybody else who does that. But it’s true. We make a top-end golf club the way Ferrari makes a top-end car. In other words when we release a set of clubs you’re not going to find anything better." Bordow noted in an effort to "further differentiate itself from other golf club manufacturers, PXG clubs aren’t available in box stores." They are "available only at the company’s headquarters, at fitting centers or online at the company website" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 1/30).
SNAKE EYES: In N.Y., Adam Schupak noted Cobra-Puma Golf endorser Bryson DeChambeau is "spreading the gospel" of the company's new single-length irons, with all shaft lengths being 37.5 inches. The "logic behind single-length iron sets is simple: It promotes a more consistent swing and eliminates the need to make stance, ball position and swing-plane adjustments as the club gets longer or shorter." It has been "nearly seven years since Puma purchased Cobra, and a bag of 7-irons may represent the company’s best chance for a breakout product in the highly competitive" $5B golf equipment market, which has been "stuck in the doldrums in recent years." Nike even "got out of the market last year." Cobra Dir of Innovation, Research & Testing Mike Yagley said that retail orders of single-length sets "outpaced forecasts, prompting Cobra to divert some production of stock inventory to make one-length sets out of them" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/29).
