Getting Fitted for the Most Coveted Golf Clubs in the Game

Three days at Scottsdale National, a billionaire’s golf nirvana.

The 18th green and PXG House at Scottsdale National in Arizona.

Photographer: Mark Boisclair

It’s not unusual for golf-addicted billionaires to drop a couple of hundred million dollars on the ancient game. Herb Kohler (of the Kohler Co.) built the famous Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run courses in Wisconsin. Paul Fireman (Reebok International Ltd.) created Liberty National Golf Club on a former Superfund site opposite the Statue of Liberty. Julian Robertson (Tiger Management) carved out two spectacular clifftop courses in New Zealand. Then there’s Donald Trump.

Bob Parsons has gone a different route. In 2013 the founder of GoDaddy Inc. (estimated wealth: about $2 billion) purchased a down-on-its-luck country club in Scottsdale, Ariz., and set about transforming it into a golf paradise, adding two courses, a second clubhouse, and luxurious overnight accommodations. Total cost when it’s all done later this year: $300 million.