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SPORTS A21
Tuesday 5 January 2016
Zach Johnson among eight players moving to PXG
DOUG FERGUSON United States’ Zach Johnson watches his tee shot at the Presidents Cup on the Jack Nicklaus Golf ‘’It got to the point three
Associated Press Club Korea, in Incheon, South Korea. Johnson is among eight players who have signed to play or four years before I
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) PXG golf clubs this year. PXG is owned by GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, who thinks there is a started the PXG venture
-- Bob Parsons conducts market for clubs that cost $5,000 for a full set. that I would spend about
business to an extreme, $250,000 to $300,000 a year
and that now includes golf (AP Photo/Woohae Cho) on equipment,’’ he said. ‘’I
clubs. bought pretty much ev-
The people he hired to goals on the course.’’ (Champions Tour), Sadena (which he sold in 1994 for erything and would hit it. I
build his golf clubs have no PXG also signed Billy Parks and Beatriz Recari. $64 million) and then with could tell you which irons,
limitations and no dead- Horschel, Chris Kirk, James Parsons describes him- the GoDaddy Group. He woods and all that ... were
lines. Money is no object, Hahn and Charles Howell self as a golf fanatic and stepped down as GoDad- real and what wasn’t. Most
either, and that better be III on the PGA Tour, along an equipment junkie. He dy executive chairman in of it is gimmicky. You take
the case for the consum- with Cristie Kerr, Alison Lee didn’t start playing seri- 2014, though he remains on any manufacturer and
ers. Parsons, the billionaire and Gerina Piller on the ously until he was in his 30s the board and is the largest they say, ‘This will give you
founder of GoDaddy, is LPGA Tour. Already on because he was too busy shareholder. an extra 10 yards and 15
selling his PXG clubs at board with the clubs were with work, first with Parsons By then, an affinity for golf yards.’ If all that were true,
about $5,000 for the entire Moore, Rocco Mediate Technologies for 10 years turned into an addiction. we’d be hitting it a mile-
set. ‘’Making money is not and-a-half.’’
what I have in mind,’’ Par- Eventually, Parsons was in-
sons said. ‘’My goal with trigued by building his own
this is to build some very clubs. PXG stands for ‘’Par-
incredible clubs without sons Xtreme Golf,’’ though
regard to cost, without re- a running joke in the indus-
gard to the process. I’ve try is that it also stands for
been telling people what ‘’Ping X-Guys.’’ Among the
I’m doing and I’ve heard Ping employees he hired
many times, ‘You’re nuts.’ were two engineers, for-
That’s a very good sign.’’ mer Bay Hill winner Mike Ni-
Ryan Moore last year be- colette and Brad Schwei-
came the first PGA Tour to gert, and Parsons turned
put them in play. them loose.
Now, the Scottsdale, Ari- ‘’We have no constraints
zona-based company is on our engineers, no cost
hopeful of making a big constraints, no time con-
splash in 2016 by signing straints,’’ Parsons said.
an additional eight play- ‘’The only they must do is
ers, men and women, to the performance must be
staff contracts at PXG. Top- there before we release it.
ping the list is British Open ... q
champion Zach Johnson,
who had been with Titleist Browns fire coach Mike Pettine, GM Ray Farmer
his entire PGA Tour career
that includes 12 victories CLEVELAND (AP) — The enth full-time coach since evitable. headache off it.
and two majors. Cleveland Browns fired 1999, and the team has “It is a bottom-line business He spent 73 days in a rehab
Johnson, who is in the field Mike Pettine and the San changed coaches and and you guys don’t have a facility during the offsea-
this week at the Hyundai Francisco 49ers dismissed GMs five times since 2008. column in the newspaper son, got benched by Pet-
Tournament of Champi- Jim Tomsula as their head “We’ve made this decision for moral victories,” Pettine tine for two games during
ons, did not want to discuss coaches on Sunday, pay- because we don’t believe said. “Our record is that we the year for misbehavior
his switch ahead the an- ing the price for disappoint- our football team was po- have won three of our last and missed Sunday’s game
nouncement at Kapalua. ing seasons. sitioned well for the future,” 21 games. That is just not with a concussion.
He said in a release that he Pettine went 10-22 in two Haslam said. good enough.” While his teammates fin-
did not make the change years, dropping 18 of his fi- “We are all disappointed One of Farmer’s biggest ished the season, Manziel
lightly. nal 21 games after a prom- with where we are and we mistakes over the past two was reportedly in Las Ve-
‘’My entire team, from ising 7-4 start in 2014. Own- take full responsibility.” years appears to be the gas.
caddie to coach, was part er Jimmy Haslam also an- Following Sunday’s loss to drafting of quarterback Tomsula was dismissed just
of the discernment pro- nounced the firing of Ray Pittsburgh, just before the Johnny Manziel. The former two hours after the 49ers
cess,’’ Johnson said. ‘’We Farmer as general man- decision was made, the college star hasn’t lived ended the regular season
all agree that PXG is unde- ager. 50-year-old Pettine said he up to expectations on the with an overtime victory
niably the best equipment Pettine was the team’s sev- understood change was in- field and continues to be a over St. Louis.q
to help me achieve my
