PXG

The numbers on PXG clubs are United States Marine Corps job codes. 0311 is a rifleman, which was Bob Parsons' own job in Vietnam, and it went on the irons he built the company around; 0811 is a field artillery cannoneer and sits on the drivers. Parsons made his money in software and domain names first, and started PXG, Parsons Xtreme Golf in full, in 2013 from a construction trailer on his own Scottsdale course. The brief he gave his engineers was a club that looked like a blade and played like a cavity back.

That turned into a hollow head with a very thin face, the cavity injected full of soft polymer, and tungsten weights screwed visibly around the perimeter. Mike Nicolette, who had designed for Ping, was in the room for it. Nothing goes through big-box retail. PXG sells direct and through its own fitting studios, where a session runs from thirty minutes to two hours, doesn't require a purchase, and sends you out with your numbers written down. Then it's built to order by hand. Families run 0311 at the top, 0211 beneath it, Black Ops for forgiveness and Sugar Daddy on the wedges. Roughly five hundred people work for the company out of Scottsdale, and the Heroes programme extends a standing price break to military personnel, which fits the naming.