Callaway cuts ties with Good Good after advert backlash
Callaway has ended its partnership with Good Good, the American golf content brand, after an advert showing a woman being shoved to the ground drew widespread criticism for making light of violence against women.
The advert, created and published by Good Good the week before the backlash, showed co-founder Garrett Clark pushing professional golfer and Good Good content creator Alexis Miestowski to the ground while shouting, "Do not touch my new driver." Miestowski is a regular contributor to the Good Good channel, which launched on YouTube in 2020 and had grown to 2.13 million subscribers by the time of reporting. Callaway had worked with the brand since 2023.
Both Callaway and Good Good pulled the advert and issued apologies once the criticism took hold. In a statement on X on Thursday, Callaway conceded that its content review process "was not comprehensive enough" and said it had "listened and reflected deeply on the hurt and disappointment caused by the video we reposted" (BBC Sport).
The fallout did not stop at the sponsorship split. Good Good stepped away from its sponsorship of a PGA Tour event — golf's top-level professional circuit — scheduled for November in Austin, Texas. Chief executive officer Matt Kendrick said the company "remain[s] committed to earning back" the tour's trust.
Callaway also pledged $1 million (about £735,725) to organisations working to prevent violence against women and support victims. The company stated it has taken "appropriate internal corrective actions" to help ensure a similar incident does not happen again.
The sequence moves quickly: a brand built on golf's social media boom produces a sponsored clip, the clip lands badly, and inside a week the partnership is gone, a tournament sponsorship is relinquished, and a seven-figure donation follows. For a sport that has spent the past few years courting younger audiences through YouTube creators rather than traditional broadcast, it is a sharp reminder that reach and responsibility travel together. Callaway put its name to the content, and when the content failed, the name came off.
Good Good has not indicated what its next steps will be beyond the Austin withdrawal. The PGA Tour has not publicly commented on a replacement sponsor for the November event.
