In Conversation with Renee Parsons, Queen Bee of PXG

The editor of Women’s Golf Magazine (that’s me) has wanted to interview Renee Parsons, President and Executive Creative Director of PXG Apparel for quite a while. Finally, off the back of the brand's announcement to distribute its wares in Australia and New Zealand, the timing aligned. 

Renee is a leader in business, fashion and philanthropy, co-founder of The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation and the head of hospitality and design at Scottsdale National Golf Club. 

Her manner is approachable and cheerful, and (in my mind) our chat begins with casual banter akin to old friends catching up. We move on to discuss various topics including her personal life, PXG’s new apparel collections and the importance of creating and nurturing a golfing community. 

Renee is on the line from her Hawaiian home and seems cool to be quizzed about anything from athletes who she admires/finds stylish to her foundation's overarching charitable efforts. 

At the end of the interview, I am invited to Scottsdale any time I like. Heck! I may even meet her at a Hawaiian Tiki Bar soon. I wonder if we are now indeed friends, or if it’s all in my head and she is just a very personable and powerful ally. Time will tell…

WG: It’s so exciting that you're launching in Australia.

RP: Yes, it's long overdue, but it's great timing because we have lots of exciting things going on this year, as always, with new products and releases. It'll be wonderful to be down there and offer the full brand experience. 

When we set about building the new clubhouse, we took elements of the hacienda-style charm, the mortar wash brick, and the exposed wood beams from the old one and we reinterpreted them in a modern way with very high ceilings and very large windows to encourage an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. 

Positioning the building to take advantage of the views was paramount too - there are great views in every direction here since Scottsdale is surrounded by the Sonoran Desert. The 18th green is right in front of the clubhouse, which has beautiful terraces, fire pits and cosy places where people can congregate and watch golf with a cocktail and admire the beautiful sunsets we have. You can always playfully heckle people coming down the 18^th. I've done that many times, especially to my husband. So yeah, the clubhouse was designed with the social aspect of golf in mind. 

At Scottsdale, it is very much about equal opportunity for men and women. Bob and I were conscious of the fact that we wanted everyone to feel like they belonged. Overall, it has a super fun atmosphere.

WG: Tell me about the development of PXG apparel.  

RP: I didn’t study fashion professionally, but I’ve always loved the fashion world since I was a young girl. It was something I was always drawn to; I not only loved it - I appreciated it. I started to attend fashion weeks (circa 2014/2015) to get more personally involved in the industry. And then, because I love golf, it was only a matter of time, well, let’s say I saw a definite void in golf fashion. 

Anyway, a couple of my friends were actively encouraging me to do something with golf apparel and at the very beginning, I was like, yeah right, whatever. But then things evolve, as life does and after I wrapped up the Scottsdale National Project in 2018, I was like, okay, I have a little more time now. 

PXG was going great at the time, the equipment had taken off and we definitely saw a need for expansion of the brand in soft goods and apparel. With my perspective on fashion and women's golf, it just became the right time. We launched a very small collection in 2019 and it has grown from there! 

WG: I just checked out the women’s PXG clothing range aptly named ‘Hawaii’. I assume you drew a lot of your design inspiration from the climate and the aloha vibes. 

RP: For sure! The ‘Hawaii’ capsule is for both men and women. The colours are vibrant and the material is lightweight, which is very comfortable in this climate. For women, we have a long-sleeved quarter zip top. I typically wear long sleeves now because I just don't want to get my arms in full sun. And, the skirt is fun, cute and very flattering. 

We also have the high-low polo, which is a little riskier but not risky – it’s more of a fashion move and it's fun for layering or you can wear it by itself. It's got a little drawstring waist in the front. It's a little higher in the front and lower in the back - it's a very versatile piece of apparel. It could easily be styled off the course, but also fun on the course. It’s my favourite piece right now. 

The unisex hoodie has been super popular. Again, that's a piece that you can wear if you're not a golfer. Overall, it's a fun little collection for sure.

WG: What colours can we expect to see in upcoming collections? Do you look at global fashion trends when it comes to cuts/fabrics or are design decisions more based on feedback from your PXG ambassadors and customers? 

RP: All of the above. We focus on the US market; however, we are globally minded. We have a partner in Korea, so we share ideas and trends with them. There's a whole design team in Korea to service that market. Sometimes we use their styles and vice versa - it's a collaboration. Our design team regularly travels for inspiration. They'll go to London, where we just opened a store, New York and of course, LA. We pull a little bit of inspiration from everywhere we go. 

WG: Your brand is all about making women feel confident on the course. How do you do that? 

RP: It starts with a fit. The fit has to be right for it to be flattering. The cuts that we do (whether it be the polo, the skirts, the pants) really considers a woman's body shape. We go through an extensive sampling process with fit models on and off the course. I don’t know that a lot of golf apparel brands do that as extensively. Ultimately, we operate more like a fashion house in that way. 

We get a lot of comments from women, specifically regarding our pants, how good they make them look and how comfortable they feel. The stretch is amazing and their booty looks great. 

I’ll wear the pants to play golf, but I’ll also wear them with a pump or a sandal to a business meeting or a social gathering. I’m all about versatility. 

Women like to dress up and we like to change up our wardrobe. Practically speaking, we might go from school drop off, to golf, to lunch with girlfriends or to get the groceries - whatever. You want to look cute and put together throughout the day. Other more traditional golf brands don't allow you to do that. It’s kind of like - wear it for golf and then put it back in your closet. But with these new PXG pieces, there are so many non-golfers buying them. 

With better fashion and fit styling, we’re going to get more women interested in the sport.

WG: There seems to be a big swing in golf fashion trends with younger people embracing that country club aesthetic, a bit preppy, a bit sexy. 

RP: That look is definitely trending and our fall-winter collection is very much on that classic country club vibe. PXG is in our 10th year, so we thought we'd throw it back a little bit, and give a nod to the classic golf-roots look. 

WG: What are the latest technological advancements in fabrics and design? 

RP: Most of the innovative fabrics we work with are lightweight stretch materials sourced from Italy. Then it comes down to the detailing and how we construct the pieces to create that extra edge, how it performs and how it fits. PXG apparel utilises four-way stretch, moisture-wicking fabrics that have inbuilt sun protection. 

We look closely at the grams (fabric weight) and how heavy or how light it is. The other day I was looking at a perforated sample and you want a perforation that won’t permeate the sun rays, and that's also cooling and breathing. PXG has developed a beautiful fabric with our BP polo and our RP polo - it’s a standard because for us, having a fabric that breathes, stretches and also offers sun protection. 

WG: In your opinion, who are the most stylish athletes on the planet? 

Serena Williams is super stylish, an icon, in many ways. Also, Lewis Hamilton, his looks are killer, he's got a cool style vibe and is not afraid to take risks. That's the key … being confident in who you are, but also taking risks and putting it out there like who cares. People will then tend to follow. 

WG: PXG has many philanthropic pursuits that are to be commended. This got me thinking (plus, in our last issue we ran a story on the correlation between golfing and charity) about what drives you and your husband to give so generously. 

RP: My husband and I feel blessed to have had such success in our lives. It certainly sounds cliche, but we want to give back. We have been philanthropically involved for decades, previously in our former company, and then personally through the foundation we started in 2012. 

When we became more involved in PXG, we started thinking about how to give back to our veterans, our heroes - we call our heroes first responders. And the best way that we knew how to help was to provide veterans with reduced pricing so they could get into our products. 

That initiative segued into work with Team Rubicon, a veteran-led, all-volunteer organisation that deploys for all sorts of things but predominantly natural disasters. When Maui had the massive fires last summer, we immediately reached out to them, and asked how our money could be used and he said, ‘We could deploy more people to help’. So, we gave them a million dollars to help rebuild that community. 

You asked what drives us and it really is about contributing to people who have had a less than easy start to life. Those who have not been afforded the sort of benefits that others may have had. 

Bob had a very tough childhood and had to overcome a lot of obstacles growing up. So, from his perspective, he can relate to that feeling of being in a dire situation as a child, not having opportunities and not having any help at all. We like the underdog. We like the organisations that are helping individuals who wouldn't otherwise receive a lot of funding from elsewhere. We focus on organisations that have a harder time raising money and that can make a difference with the funds that we provide. 

Another thing we try to do is help expose more kids, who wouldn't otherwise, to golf. Golf is somewhat still an elitist game and if you're in the inner city, where's the golf course? 

What's unique with our 22 PXG stores in the US is that we're in the communities where we have a great opportunity to engage with that local community directly through our store staff and get the kids into the stores, show them what a golf club is, do some putting and make it fun and simply expose them to the game. We feel strongly about that. 

We also work closely with First Tee, a nonprofit organisation that is all about exposing kids throughout the country to the game of golf. It’s another opportunity for us to give back in this space. 

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Australia’s first designated PXG performance centre is scheduled to open at Hope Island, Queensland in early 2024