{"id":54523,"date":"2026-08-22T23:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54523\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:15:17","slug":"pxg-founder-bob-parsons-is-no-longer-a-trump-fan-doesnt-support-liv-golf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54523\/","title":{"rendered":"PXG Founder Bob Parsons Is No Longer a Trump Fan, Doesn’t Support LIV Golf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated9 min read<\/p>\n

A few months ago, I took a trip to Los Angeles to play as much golf<\/a> as I could squeeze into a week. Then it hailed. And then it rained\u2014a lot. It was great for the courses, but awful for my agenda. I traded a few tee times for reservations and used the time to ask a bunch of golf buddies what they thought about the brand<\/a> PXG, one that most know from its big ads and bigger claims. When I came back home, I asked a few more the same thing. <\/p>\n

The consensus was that they came onto the market as the expensive ones. The clubs that didn’t say “I’m good,” as much as they said “I’m liquid.” If Titleist was the tastemaker’s choice, and TaylorMade was the technology-obsessed’s preference, a set of PXGs were simply something you could afford, or could not. <\/p>\n

I remember the early ads for PXG (which stands for Parsons Xtreme Golf) irons. It felt like they came out of nowhere, and I was conditioned to think anything that didn\u2019t come from a golf brand of my dad\u2019s era was some kind of scam. But they looked rich as hell, made to play in space. Bolder and more confident than the clubs\u2019 aesthetic was founder Bob Parsons\u2019 raspy, now-unmistakable voice. At the end of every spot, he grunts, \u201cNobody makes golf clubs the way we do. Period.\u201d <\/p>\n

The story of Bob Parsons has been told, but here\u2019s the short version. He starts messing around in Internet entrepreneurship in the late ’90s and founds GoDaddy.com, which becomes equally famous for selling domain names and a handful of Super Bowl ads that have aged poorly. This makes him rich, like really rich, and he spends a lot of those riches on golf clubs. (Like hundreds of thousands of dollars.) But he\u2019s got more money than that. He\u2019s got industry-swinging money. <\/p>\n

He lures a friend away from PING, one of the oldest and most storied equipment brands in the game, and gives him unlimited resources\u2014and no deadline\u2014to create golf clubs that won\u2019t have guys like him spending six figures on clubs. They do it, and Parsons finds a second wind as a creator of earworm-level<\/a> television advertising. In 2015, PXG is born as the spendy golfer’s brand. <\/p>\n

Years later, a pandemic ravages just about everything in this world, but golf squeaks through the cracks, and then booms. PXG\u2019s supply chain operation, coupled with a sales strategy that isn’t contingent on brick-and-mortar wholesale, keeps the brand open for business. (Parsons offered employees $1,000<\/a> for getting vaccinated.) By 2023, it’s not just<\/a> the spendy golfer’s brand of choice. But celebs like Nick Jonas<\/a> and Jada Pinkett Smith<\/a> do play them. <\/p>\n

And so, I imagined, did any guy who owns Truck Nuts and votes Republican. There was just always something that felt a little right wing about PXG\u2014like Goya, or MyPillow. Finding out Parsons reportedly<\/a> donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s campaign didn’t change my mind about that. <\/p>\n

It’s why earlier this year at Scottsdale National, while the brand unveiled its Gen6<\/a> family of clubs and SS23 apparel, I was so eager to ask Parsons about golf’s politically charged civil war, what he thinks playing PXG says about someone, and why he actually traded Trump for a straight Democrat ticket in the last midterms. <\/p>\n

The following has been edited and condensed for clarity. <\/p>\n

\"bob<\/p>\n

“On the LIV tour, I consider myself a patriot,” says Parsons. “With the stuff that went down at 9\/11, I have a hard time getting involved with them.”<\/p>\n

ESQUIRE: What is it like to start over?<\/p>\n

BOB PARSONS: Well, after I sold my first business, Parsons Technology, I had to retire for a year or so. My agreement with Intuit was that I had to retire. I was ready to take a break, but what happened was, I didn’t like not working. I needed to have some action going. So after the forced retirement was over, I decided to get involved in the Internet, because I\u2019d seen the Internet was going to be a big thing.<\/p>\n

What year was that?<\/p>\n

That would’ve been ’97.<\/p>\n

When people were saying on TV, \u201cWhat’s the Internet?\u201d<\/p>\n

That was in ’97. I tried a bunch of things and none of them worked. Building intranets, extranets, education, all sorts of little things. The one area where I got some traction was on building websites. GoDaddy.com was available. So we bought it, literally as a joke. We told everybody the next day that we’re going to name the company GoDaddy. They’re going, “That’s a terrible fucking name.” But then it stuck.<\/p>\n

How did it stick internally? Did you guys say, “Fuck it, we’re going to stick with it?”<\/p>\n

Yeah. And then other people loved it. But I noticed that, whenever I said the name to somebody, they would smile\u2014and then, of course, they’d remember it. So GoDaddy it was… I’ve always been a golf aficionado. I don’t practice a whole lot. I get better by buying equipment. I was spending. I have friends who like to gamble. I know guys that buy really expensive cars. I drive a Chevy. But I would buy golf equipment. I spent about $200,000 a year. Actually, the last year before I had my golf clubs, me and my assistant started pulling the bills from the golf equipment that I bought. We stopped counting at $300,000.
<\/p>\n

What was that, mostly? Was it everything?<\/p>\n

It was mostly everything, yes. <\/p>\n

And then PXG?<\/p>\n

The advent of PXG has changed the industry a little bit. I was on the range one day, talking to Gabe Hjertstedt, who used to teach golf here, and he said to me, “You should talk to Mike Nicolette. He might be ready for a change.” Mike was a senior design engineer at PING. I said to him, “Do you think, if you had no time constraints and you could spend as much money as you wanted, you can make something significantly better?” He said, “I’d sure like to give it a run.” I said, “I’m going to start this company, would you like to join us?” And he said, “I’d love to, but the people at PING have been so good to me. I can’t leave them.” I told Steve, my right hand guy, “Stevie, we’ll hear from him in two months.” We heard from him in one month.<\/p>\n

\"bob<\/p>\n

Parsons at Scottsdale National Golf Club.<\/p>\n

Say I pull up to the tee box. I’m paired with a guy. We shake hands. I see he’s wearing PXG and playing PXG clubs. What’s my first impression of that guy? What do you want that to be?<\/p>\n

Well, it used to be the guys who wanted to spend some money on golf equipment. I served with the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and still a little fucked up over it, I’ll tell you that. We have a military bent about everything we do. We take care of veterans, current military law enforcement, firefighters, and EMTs. We call them heroes, and I’ll tell you what, they’re our guys.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one thing I\u2019ll tell you: Everything I ever accomplished, I owe to the United States Marine Corps. <\/p>\n

Do you follow pro golf, as a fan?<\/p>\n

I do. I watch it when I can. If I’m given the choice to watch golf or play golf, I’m on the course. Even if it’s the Masters, I’m on the course. <\/p>\n

\"fairfax,Tasos Katopodis\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“The last election was the first time in my life I voted a straight Democratic ticket,” says Parsons of his political views.<\/p>\n

How do you choose the pro guys that you’re interested in working with? <\/p>\n

When we first started, we needed guys that were known. So we started signing them and we had to pay a righteous amount for that. Now I sponsor guys out of college. I like to catch lightning out of a bottle, and to sponsor a guy that’s played with our clubs and won with them. Our rule is whatever we do for the men’s team, we do for the women’s team. I get letters from women’s coaches that tell me, “I’m so tired of seeing our girls looking across the range and seeing the boys getting fit in clubs.” So anyhow, that’s not us.<\/p>\n

What makes it not you?<\/p>\n

I’m going to give you a corny answer: It’s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

As a person who says he comes in and fixes things, if you were the commissioner of the PGA Tour, or in charge of LIV, what would you do to solve the tension that’s happening in the golf world right now?<\/p>\n

That’s kind of above my pay grade.<\/p>\n

OK, I’ll ask you the way you asked Mike [Nicolette] back in the day: If you were given the opportunity to…<\/p>\n

All right. OK. Well, I haven’t given it any thought. Mostly because it’s not… I don\u2019t have a dog in that fight. But I will say this here, on the LIV tour, I consider myself a patriot. With the stuff that went down at 9\/11, I have a hard time getting involved with them. I know, sometimes, bygones got to be bygones, and I’ve forgiven a lot of people. One of them is Jane Fonda for what she did during the Vietnam War. I’m no longer angry at her. I get it. She was young and stupid. But I just cannot bring myself to do anything with [LIV], and the guys who are heroes, they all agree with that.<\/p>\n

Does it put you in a tough spot to have guys [wearing and playing PXG] on that tour?<\/p>\n

Well, we really don’t have guys on that tour. I mean, we’ve had some guys that had contracts that went on that tour, and I honored the contracts. But now that the contracts are up, I have no contract with them, and I don’t think they can contract with sponsors with the LIV tour, at least. I don’t know. I could be speaking out of school, but if I had an opportunity to come up and do it, I wouldn’t do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right thing to do.\u201d Do you approach that relentlessly? We live in a pretty divisive world. People forget that\u2019s still on the table. <\/p>\n

There’s always time to do the right thing. You want to call Trump?<\/p>\n

Do you want to call him? You got him on speed dial? <\/p>\n

No. I’ll tell you what, I did vote for him, but I’m no longer a fan.<\/p>\n

Did that change recently?<\/p>\n

I changed with the insurrection. The insurrection and reading a lot of books about what happened when he was the president and how he ran his office.<\/p>\n

I’m probably… I know you’re going to print this and you do what you want to do…but during the last election was the first time in my life I voted a straight Democratic ticket. I’m talking the midterms. The thing is, Ben, the number one thing I care about is our country and who’s going to do the best job. I’m not a Democrat, and I’m not a Republican. I’m a registered Independent. I just want this country to be what it can be. And I’ll tell you, in retrospect, the president that I think the most of is Obama. I read something once\u2014let’s see if I can tell you this without crying.
<\/p>\n

In [Bob] Woodward’s book, Obama’s Wars, when he was deciding whether he was going to do a push on Iraq or not\u2014before making that decision, he took Marine One and flew to Dover, Delaware. Now, incoming war dead all come through Dover, Delaware because that’s where they’re processed. He stood with the raincoat in the dark, waiting for the plane to land. And when it did land, he went by each coffin, talked to the families, and then went back and made his decision. That fuckin’ did it for me. That did it for me, and I’m proud to say he plays PXG today. I absolutely love the guy. <\/p>\n

He’s a stick, too. He’s got a game, right?<\/p>\n

Well, I don’t know. I haven’t played with him. I hear I might have an opportunity one of these days, but he’s my hero. Anyhow, the deal is\u2026brother, we all have our faults. We’re human. That’s part of the game, you know? And he is one of the few presidents that is just truly a good man. <\/p>\n

You talked about the heroes. Where else are you trying to contribute?<\/p>\n

Well, we support several types of causes. One is the military, and we do that through The Semper Fi Fund\u2014it was founded for injured Marines. Now it supports all armed forces and most of your money goes right to the cause. They are a wonderful organization. Other than that, we like causes that are making a difference, but because of whatever it is they’re doing, they’re not popular and they can’t raise money. When you find a cause like that, that’s where you’ll find us. <\/p>\n

One of them is a group called One\u2022n\u2022ten. The heartbreaking story is that when [a parent] finds out their son or daughter is gay, they throw them out, which is terrible. When that happens, the kids on the street fall prey of all sorts of shit. One\u2022n\u2022ten finds these kids, gives them a place to stay, and teaches them that they’re part of the American dream, too\u2014and they\u2019ve got a right to be proud. <\/p>\n

Another group we help is undocumented citizens. The way I feel is, we’re a nation immigrants. These people are willing to risk their lives and die to become Americans. Isn’t that who the fuck you want here? They come here and there is a whole economy that preys on them. If it’s a good cause, they come to us, it’s making a difference, and they can’t raise money\u2014they’re going to get their money.<\/p>\n

What’s the next thing you’re going to disrupt?<\/p>\n

I dunno. I hope it’s my golf swing.
<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Ben Boskovich is a contributing editor to Esquire, and writes about style and golf. He previously served as Esquire’s Deputy Editor, and the site’s Managing Editor. Prior to joining Hearst Digital Media, he was the Social Media Editor at Entertainment Weekly.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9 min read A few months ago, I took a trip to Los Angeles to play as much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3026],"tags":[3170,20559,8470,1863,1855,3137,3136,20560,20557,17222,20558],"class_list":["post-54523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pxg","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-59cccef3-3328-456e-94b2-4c2740699cb5","tag-displaytype-long-form-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-parsons-xtreme-golf","tag-pxg","tag-read_time-10","tag-shorttitle-bob-parsons-on-liv-golf","tag-sponsored-false","tag-trump-and-pxg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}