Case study19 October 20269 min read

Twelve days that changed Good Good: what golf brands can learn from the Callaway clip

One ad, twelve days, lost partners and a new leadership team: what the Good Good case reveals about creator marketing and approval processes in golf.

Female golfer after a drive with the driver — Women are the segment of golf that is growing. That is exactly the group the clip turned against the brand. Photo: Benny Hassum, Unsplash

On 21 August 2026 Good Good, one of the biggest creator brands in golf, published an ad for a driver it markets together with Callaway. Twelve days later the Callaway contract, the shelf space at major US retailers, the title sponsorship of a PGA Tour event, a television show and the company’s leadership were gone. The case is more than an episode from American YouTube golf. It shows what happens when reach grows faster than the organisation responsible for it. And it concerns every golf brand that works with creators or plans to.

What happened

The clip was one minute long. Garrett Clark, co-founder and the best-known face of Good Good, shoves golfer and creator Alexis Miestowski to the ground because she reaches for his new driver, shouting: “Do not touch my new driver.” It was meant as a parody of a film scene. It landed as violence against a woman, used to sell a product.

The timeline shows how quickly that became a corporate crisis.

Date (2026)	What happened
21 August	Good Good publishes the clip on its own channels and deletes it the same day after heavy criticism.
22 August	Good Good apologises in a three-sentence statement.
25 August	PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp calls the first response “disappointing” and “a bit defensive and late”. Callaway CEO Chip Brewer admits that Callaway had approved the clip in advance. Golf Channel postpones the launch of the joint show “Big Break x Good Good”.
25 and 26 August	Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy and the PGA Tour Superstore pull Good Good products from their ranges, Target from its online shop. Garrett Clark apologises in a video.
27 August	Callaway ends the partnership and pledges one million dollars to organisations working against violence towards women. Good Good gives up the title sponsorship of the PGA Tour event in Austin, Golf Channel cancels the show.
28 August	CEO Matt Kendrick accuses Callaway on X of shifting the blame to Good Good. The post reaches 8.8 million views.
2 September	Kendrick and president Joe Flannery leave the company.

The November tournament is now called the Austin Championship. In his video message Garrett Clark called the clip tasteless and the criticism “very justified”.

Video

Garrett Clark’s video message of 26 August 2026: he calls the clip tasteless and the criticism justified, and apologises to Alexis Miestowski and the golf community.

Loading transfers data to X (formerly Twitter). Alternatively view it directly on X.

Source: Garrett Clark (@gm__golf) on X, 26 August 2026. Embedded, not copied.

Why one clip can cost so much

Good Good began in 2020 as the YouTube channel of a group of golfing friends. Today the main channel has around 2.1 million subscribers, and the channel has grown into a retail business with its own media production, based in Texas. In 2025 Good Good raised 45 million dollars, including from the production company of former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. Within a year the number of retail doors grew from around 800 to around 4,000. By the company’s own account, in 2025 the majority of the ten best-selling caps at Dick’s and Golf Galaxy came from Good Good. On top of that came the Callaway partnership, running since 2023, a television show and, to crown it all, the title sponsorship of a PGA Tour event.

Every one of those building blocks depended on a partner: on retail, on the Tour, on the broadcaster, on the equipment maker. Each of those partners has its own brand, its own customers and its own risk management. They reacted within days, faster than any community. Good Good itself reports that online sales keep growing and the investors remain on board. That fits the picture: fans forgive faster than partners do. But whoever builds a business on partners has to run it by their standards.

Five lessons for golf brands, retailers and clubs

1. Approval is brand management, not a formality

Callaway CEO Chip Brewer made clear that the clip had been produced by Good Good but approved by Callaway before publication: “That approval should never have happened.” Callaway says it has since tightened its approval processes considerably. In practice, creator content often passes through quickly and informally: a link in a chat, a thumbs-up, and it is live. That matches the speed of the platforms, but not the responsibility of a brand.

Define who approves content from creators and agencies, against which criteria and with what right of veto. That includes a written list of what is off limits, from depictions of violence to jokes at the expense of the groups you want to win.

2. Test with the audience you want to grow

The market research firm Zappi later showed the clip to 150 US consumers who buy sports and outdoor products. 53 percent of men found it appropriate, but only 35 percent of women. 37 percent of women saw Callaway more negatively afterwards, compared with 13 percent of men. The sample is small, the direction is clear. Competitor PXG responded within days with its own driver clip featuring professional female golfers and the line “Our drivers play nice with everyone”.

For the golf industry this is the most expensive part of the story. Women are the segment that is growing: in the US they make up 28 percent of on-course golfers according to the National Golf Foundation, more than ever, and 35 percent of beginners. In Germany the share of women stands at 34.7 percent and has been falling for years. Whoever tests campaigns only with the core audience optimises for yesterday’s market.

3. Reach is borrowed, the trust of partners is capital

Within a week Good Good lost the partners that turned reach into revenue. For brands working with creators this means: contracts need content guidelines, approval steps and clear exit clauses, for both sides. For creator brands and young direct-to-consumer brands it means: the organisation has to grow with the reach. What works as a group of friends with a camera cannot carry a company with 4,000 retail doors.

Customer and sales assistant talking in a golf pro shop — Shelf space is borrowed: within a week the major US retailers pulled Good Good products from their ranges. Photo: Jopwell, Pexels

4. The first response decides how it unfolds

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp criticised not only the clip but the first response to it. The greater damage, however, was done by the company’s own CEO when he publicly blamed Callaway. A failed ad became a leadership problem, and that cost the company its top management.

Every brand that communicates publicly needs a crisis plan before it needs one: who speaks, within what time frame, with what stance. That includes the rule that nobody posts unilaterally in the first few days, management included.

5. Humour is not a free pass

Good Good’s success rests on personality rather than perfection, on irony and closeness. That is exactly what makes YouTube golf attractive to young people who cannot relate to the image of an elitist club sport. Yet golf has spent years trying to shed its image as an exclusive, male-dominated sport. A joke at a woman’s expense sets that work back, whatever the intention.

For clubs and brands in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that want to appear more relaxed and younger, that is not an argument against humour. It is an argument for looking closely at whose expense it comes.

What the case means for YouTube golf

CNN described the case as the latest clash between golf’s old guard and its new world. It is not the end of the new world. Bryson DeChambeau’s YouTube channel keeps growing, the PGA Tour has staged its own events with YouTube creators since 2024, and Good Good keeps producing videos. Since late September the team has returned to the format that started it all: in the series “50 States in 50 Days” it plays in a different US state every day, and the videos reach hundreds of thousands of views. Along the way Garrett Clark admitted that many courses initially did not want the team on their property. So clubs, too, have understood that a creator visit is a brand issue.

What changes are the rules of the game. Equipment makers, retailers and tours will treat creator partnerships like any other media plan in future: with a brief, an approval, a review and a contract. For creators that means less spontaneity in the advertising business. For brands it means creator marketing is now, once and for all, a matter for the top of the company.

Six weeks on: the fans stayed, retail did not

In early October Front Office Sports took a first look at where things stand. Nahid Giga is running the company on an interim basis; Giga is one of the early investors and sits on the board. Good Good is still absent from Dick’s, Golf Galaxy, Target and the PGA Tour Superstore. In hundreds of pro shops at US golf facilities, however, the products remain on the shelves. According to the company, its own online shop saw the busiest days in its history in the last week of August, and two thirds of buyers ordered from the brand for the first time. The main YouTube channel gained around 20,000 subscribers in 30 days according to Social Blade. For the Austin tournament from 12 to 15 November the PGA Tour has not yet named a new title sponsor, and Golf Channel wants to relaunch “Big Break” in 2027 without Good Good.

That may be the most important lesson of the case. What stayed is what Good Good owns: the community, the channel, its own shop. What fell away is what was borrowed: shelf space, sponsorship, airtime. For every golf brand that is a strong argument for owned channels, meaning your own shop, your own newsletter and a community that does not depend on a single partner. Two uncomfortable questions remain: how much is a brand worth whose fans stay but whose partners leave? And who sets the rules in golf marketing from now on, the community that forgives quickly, or the partners that cancel quickly?

What you should check now

Five questions every golf brand, retailer and club with a social media presence should be able to answer before the next campaign goes live:

Who approves content from creators and agencies, against which written criteria and with what right of veto?
Do you test campaigns with women and beginners too, not only with regular customers?
Do your creator contracts include content guidelines, approval steps and exit clauses?
Is there a crisis plan with a responsible person and a deadline for the first statement?
How much of your revenue depends on individual faces, partners or channels?

Frequently asked questions

What is Good Good Golf?

Good Good is a US creator brand based in Texas. It started in 2020 as a YouTube channel, has around 2.1 million subscribers and sells apparel and accessories through its own online shop and through retailers. In 2025 the company raised 45 million dollars.

What did the Good Good and Callaway ad show?

Co-founder Garrett Clark shoves golfer Alexis Miestowski to the ground because she reaches for his new driver. The clip was published on 21 August 2026 and deleted the same day after heavy criticism.

Why did Callaway end its partnership with Good Good?

Callaway had approved the clip before it went out. CEO Chip Brewer called that approval a mistake, ended the partnership on 27 August 2026 and pledged one million dollars to organisations working against violence towards women.

What can golf brands learn from the case?

Approvals need clear criteria and a right of veto. Campaigns should be tested with women and beginners before launch. Creator contracts need content guidelines and exit clauses. And for the worst case, a crisis plan with one clear voice.

Sources

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About the author

Claudio Lohs

MBA. 20+ years in the golf industry as a player, club president and strategist. 12+ years of marketing expertise in brand management and e-commerce. I work for you. For nobody else.

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