PXG puts down permanent roots in Charlotte with new golf store in University City

By Erik Spanberg  –  Managing Editor, Charlotte Business Journal

In University City, across a large parking lot from Topgolf and surrounded by nearby construction, sits a sleek, black rectangular building bearing a company logo and this slogan: “Nobody Makes Golf Clubs The Way We Do. Period.”

It is home to PXG — Parsons Xtreme Golf — whose custom-club fitting and mass-boutique approach to golf equipment feels a little like mixing a pro shop with an Apple store. The company was started in 2014 by Bob Parsons, the billionaire entrepreneur best known as the founder of online marketing and domain name company GoDaddy.com.

CBJ visited the new PXG store last week, just days after PXG reduced its store operating hours at all locations to five days per week from seven (closed on Sundays and Mondays) and laid off 65 people, slightly more than half its retail staff, according to Golfweek. A company spokesman confirmed those figures to CBJ.

John Krzynowek, partner at apparel and equipment sales tracking firm Golf Datatech, told CBJ that despite the jobs cuts and reduced store hours, PXG remains well-capitalized — Parsons’ estimated net worth is $3.4 billion — and maintains a unique position in equipment sales.

Charlotte’s PXG store is one of 21 the company has opened to date. And they follow a similar template, offering a putting “studio” as well as several hitting bays with whiz-bang simulators. Next up: Cincinnati and Kansas City.

Customers can sample PXG irons and woods, then see an avalanche of data analysis of their shots, and have club heads, shafts and weights adjusted by store reps.

The University City store is 7,500 feet; it opened a month ago.

“The quality is very good,” Krzynowek said of PXG’s clubs and stores. “The people they have are highly qualified.”

The difference from other retailers is that PXG sells only its clubs. Big-box and specialty golf retailers alike sell multiple brands of equipment and apparel.

As for apparel, you get an idea of the fashion sense with one of PXG’s most prominent endorsers: Nick Jonas, the 30-year-old pop singer and actor, who got to know Parsons at Scottsdale National Golf Club in Arizona. Parsons owns the club.

Chris Blackham, Charlotte store sales leader, spent several years in PXG’s field sales division, selling at private events and to country clubs, before shifting to retail in January to lead the Charlotte store. Blackham made the move into retail, in part, because he was already living here.

Most sales are custom clubs, he said, with fittings done in store and then the club or sets of clubs manufactured to those specifications at the company’s Arizona headquarters and shipped directly to the customer.

“Charlotte’s a really strong golf market,” Blackham said.

He noted that the company had a temporary location at a country club in Huntersville that was “very successful” but had more of a pop-up-shop feel because it was only open a couple of days a week as a mobile site.

Looking around at the hitting bays, customer lounge, expansive apparel displays and the rest of the store, Blackham said the permanent store not only offers more products, it puts them in proper context.

“On a much grander scale now, we can do the same thing,” he added. “Not only are we a product and an innovation brand, we’re also an experience brand. This is very well done; we can control the experience a lot better than we could renting someone else’s space.”

The space next to Topgolf “was probably not an accident,” but Blackham said he couldn’t say for sure because he was not involved in site selection.

Krzynowek said equipment and apparel companies, even with a recent slowing in sales, are well poised for continued success.

Golf sales surged during the pandemic, peaking last summer at 40% above 2019, Krzynowek said. And, he said, even with the recent decline, equipment sales remain 35% above pre-Covid numbers.

This article was originally published by the Charlotte Business Journal.