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Callaway admitted it had the final say on a controversial, since-deleted ad for its new co-branded driver with Good Good Golf, the YouTube channel-turned-major golf brand.
In a statement addressed, in part, to “golfers everywhere,” Callaway CEO Chip Brewer said the promotional video—which depicted Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark running and shoving fellow Good Good talent Alexis Miestowski to the ground as she reached for the club out of his bag—was “approved by Callaway prior to posting.” The message was shared at 1a.m. ET Tuesday morning to Callaway’s X/Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Brewer also said the company “sincerely apologize[s],” is “conducting both internal and external investigations,” and has “already made changes to [its] approval processes aimed at ensuring this will never happen again.”
The video sparked online outrage almost immediately after Good Good posted it early Friday morning. And amid the controversy, Golf Channel is postponing the premiere of its new Big Break x Good Good show.
Many users, including several high-profile golf media personalities, described the content as confusing, scary, and endorsing violence against women. Good Good removed it from all platforms by Friday evening.
Both companies issued initial statements on Saturday. In a post to its X/Twitter account, Good Good apologized and said it decided to take the video down because it “ultimately depicted actions that are not aligned with our values as a brand.” A Callaway spokesperson, meanwhile, told Front Office Sports the company was “disappointed by the content” and appreciated Good Good’s addressing of the situation.
Good Good’s statement was widely perceived as lackluster, including by PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp. At a press conference on Tuesday ahead of the Tour Championship this weekend, he described the company’s initial response as “a bit defensive and late.”
Calls for the Tour to drop Good Good as the title sponsor of its Fall Series event taking place Nov. 12–15 in Austin, Texas, are growing amid backlash to the ad. Asked about this Tuesday, Rolapp indicated that a change wasn’t on the table—for now: “It’s a bit of a fluid situation … It sounds like in the last 24 hours they’ve made some progress. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and see how it develops.”
Good Good, which has more than 2 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, has not released an official follow-up statement, but its CEO Matt Kendrick spoke with The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
“We fully own that we did make a mistake…As the CEO of the company, the buck stops with me and we should have had better processes in place,” he told WSJ. “Obviously the execution missed the mark and didn’t come across the way that we wanted to, and in no way were we trying to make light of or support violence. But it came across that way, and that’s our fault.”
Kendrick added that the full 60-second video was meant to spoof the horror movie “Obsession,” released earlier this summer.
FOS obtained a copy of a memo Kendrick sent to all Good Good staff on Monday. In the email subject-lined “Owning Our Mistake,” he said the company plans to donate all proceeds of the driver campaign to an “organization supporting women in [its] local community.” (Good Good is based in Frisco, Texas.) Internal creative process reviews are also underway, and Kendrick will be personally approving content released through Good Good’s content and marketing teams “for the foreseeable future,” per the memo.
Callaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the long-term future of its partnership with Good Good, which began in 2023. In addition to special-edition clubs, the companies have released co-branded balls, gloves, and shoes over the years.
Good Good Golf Channel Show
The controversy has also resulted in Golf Channel postponing the premiere of a new show with the YouTube group, Big Break x Good Good. The revamp of the network’s competition reality TV series that last aired in 2015 was scheduled to debut Tuesday night.
“Golf Channel is postponing tonight’s premiere of Big Break x Good Good to next Tuesday September 1,” Golf Channel said in a statement posted on X late Tuesday afternoon. “This will allow for necessary production updates following a request from one of the show’s sponsors to remove its branding from the series.”
Previous announcements used the verbiage “Big Break x Good Good presented by Golf Galaxy” when referring to the official show title. (Golf Channel did not immediately respond to a question asking about the sponsor.)
The new edition of Big Break is a collaboration with Good Good, and was filmed earlier this year. The show’s winner will earn an exemption into the Good Good Championship PGA Tour event in November. Good Good’s Brad Dalke and Sean Walsh are two of the show’s 12 competitors, while fellow members Garrett Clark—who shoved the woman in the driver ad—and Bubbie Broders are non-playing team captains.
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