Good Good Golf CEO Matt Kendrick addressed the company’s controversial, since-deleted Callaway driver ad in an interview with Front Office Sports, saying he never saw the spot before it went live and that marketing teams at both companies had signed off on it independently of him.
“Our marketing team saw it. Callaway said they approved it, and that went through their marketing team, as well,” Kendrick said. “So, both sides saw it. I don’t approve every social post that goes up—that doesn’t come across my desk. Just like it wouldn’t go across Callaway CEO Chip Brewer’s desk.”
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Kendrick was also asked whether anyone involved in creating or approving the ad had faced consequences. He confirmed some staff turnover but offered no further detail.
“We removed people responsible for the ad,” he said.
It all started last week, when Good Good and Callaway released an ad for their new driver. The commercial featured Good Good star Garrett Clark physically tackling a female golfer to the ground as she attempted to pull the driver from her bag. The apparent premise was that this driver is so coveted, its mere presence is enough to provoke someone into committing an act of violence against a partner or friend.
Last Saturday, as backlash to the ad began mounting on social media, Good Good posted a brief apology. The statement was unsigned, leaned on vague language about brand values, and offered no explanation of how the ad was conceived, approved, or filmed, nothing that resembled genuine contrition. Callaway and the PGA Tour issued their own statements around the same time, but neither did much to slow the growing outrage.
By that point, major retailers had already begun pulling Good Good merchandise from their shelves. On Tuesday, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp publicly criticized both companies for how poorly they’d handled the moment. By this time, Good Good had to make good or suffer the ultimate consequences.
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It chose neither, at least not convincingly. On Wednesday, Garrett Clark posted an eight-minute video apologizing again for the ad, but instead of delivering a clear, unequivocal statement, he hedged. He tried to explain away the ad’s intent, pinned much of the blame on his own marketing team, and even shared behind-the-scenes outtakes from the shoot, as if softening the moment with humor might undercut the criticism. He also attempted to get ahead of the narrative by claiming he’d recognized it as “the worst ad known to man” before the backlash had even started.
By Thursday, Callaway formally severed its partnership with Good Good and pledged $1 million to charities combating violence against women. Good Good, in turn, walked away from its fall PGA Tour event sponsorship. And Golf Channel canceled the upcoming season of Big Break, a show that had offered a spot in that very Good Good-sponsored PGA Tour event as its grand prize.
If there were any doubts about how justified those decisions were, Kendrick put them to rest in an early-morning social media post, lashing out at Callaway, accusing the company of running a “coordinated media blitz,” and questioning the sincerity of its $1 million donation. Screenshots have also surfaced showing Kendrick suggesting, in replies to other users, that Good Good might pursue legal action against Callaway.
As Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder wrote, the Good Good Golf downfall will be studied for generations. And if Kendrick’s comments to Front Office Sports are any indication, we’re probably going to be adding chapters to that story for a while.
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