Callaway Cuts Ties With Good Good Golf Over Controversial Ad
Callaway Golf has terminated its partnership with Good Good Golf "effective immediately," the fastest and most decisive corporate response in a controversy that erupted over a promotional video for a new Callaway Quantum driver collaboration. Reuters/Galveston County Daily News
The ad, produced by Good Good, showed a Good Good Golf member shoving a woman to the ground over a driver. Callaway deleted its social media posts promoting the video on August 22, 2026. Golfweek
The fallout spread quickly across several fronts. By August 25, the CEOs of both Callaway Golf and Good Good Golf had issued a second round of apologies for the marketing video, on top of initial statements from both organizations. Golf Digest Good Good's earlier apology stated that the driver ad "did not align with brand values." Golf Channel
The PGA Tour's leadership stepped in directly. The PGA Tour CEO responded after the initial apologies, and the Tour planned to drop sponsors whose promotional video showed the woman being shoved. Yahoo Sports A PGA Tour event featuring Good Good was potentially canceled due to the backlash. Outkick/Fox News
Retail distribution contracted as well. Golf Galaxy and its parent company, Dick's Sporting Goods, pulled Good Good Golf merchandise from both in-person and online shelves. Golfweek Yahoo Sports Golf Channel also delayed the premiere of its "Big Break" reboot featuring Good Good, with the delay attributed to a sponsor. Golfweek
The partnership between Callaway and Good Good had been commercially active. The two brands collaborated on Chrome Soft Triple Track and Truvis golf balls under a "Callaway x Good Good" branding, launched in May 2023. Callaway Golf EU Callaway cites its late founder Ely Callaway's belief that "good ethics is good business" as one of its core corporate values. Callaway Golf
The broader context here is a textbook case of brand-risk contagion in influencer-led marketing. Callaway handed creative production to Good Good for a product launch, and the resulting content triggered a reputational crisis severe enough to cause contract termination, retail delisting, programming delays, and potential Tour-event cancellation within a single week. The speed of the corporate response, measured from the initial social media deletion on August 22 to the partnership termination on August 27, compressed what would normally be a prolonged review cycle into roughly five days.
For golf-equipment manufacturers and their retail partners, the episode illustrates how influencer collaborations, which trade on the creator's editorial freedom and audience engagement, can import content risk into established brand portfolios. The PGA Tour's involvement raises the stakes further: a governing-body response that goes beyond moral condemnation into concrete commercial consequences for sponsors signals that marketing-conduct expectations now extend to third-party-produced content bearing a sponsor's products. The delisting by Dick's Sporting Goods, a major golf retail channel, adds distribution risk to the reputational exposure.
The two rounds of CEO apologies, separated by roughly three days, suggest that initial corporate messaging proved insufficient to contain the backlash, forcing escalation to the C-suite for a second statement before the partnership was ultimately severed.
