Photo: lex Bierens de Haan//R&A via Getty Images
A reasonable person would expect that, in a country where one in four women experience gender-based violence, companies would abstain from making light of this issue when selling you a product. Unfortunately, the sports YouTube channel Good Good Golf and equipment maker Callaway Golf chose otherwise. Last weekend, an ad for the two companies’ co-branded driver ignited widespread backlash, causing them to remove the ad and cut ties with each other. Somehow, the fallout is still going — in an early-morning X tirade on Friday, the Good Good Golf CEO threatened to sue Callaway. In other words, it’s a mess. Here is what’s happened so far.
Callaway Golf is a very popular golf-equipment manufacturing company that’s been around for decades. Good Good Golf is a bro-y, up-and-coming media and apparel brand that got started as a YouTube channel in 2020 and has been credited with helping popularize the sport with younger generations.
The companies partnered to release a co-branded golf club, putting the logo and color scheme for Good Good Golf on Callaway’s popular Quantum driver. In a 15-second video posted on August 21, golfer Alexis Miestowski — who also stars in the media brand’s “Good Good Girls” spinoff — reaches for the new co-branded driver. When the driver’s owner, Good Good’s co-founder, Garrett Clark, sees this, he sprints toward her and shoves her to the ground. Standing over Miestowski menacingly, he warns, “Do not touch my new driver.”
Ah man, someone must have accidentally deleted the post. Don’t worry Good Good, I’ll reupload your @CallawayGolf ad! pic.twitter.com/I4GwzBmUOJ
— Jay Don Takes (@Skulledwedge) August 22, 2026
Social-media users immediately took issue with the clip, which was part of a longer 60-second ad. “Yeahhhhhh I don’t think any women (without internalized misogyny) we’re [sic] in the room when this was pitched, approved or produced,” one critic wrote on X.
The ad’s blatant depiction of violence against women looks even worse against a backdrop of misogyny in the sport — only about 28 percent of golfers are women. Whoever approved it also seems not to have considered the many documented cases where men have used golf clubs to kill women, including an appalling incident from earlier this year in which a man in Florida allegedly stabbed his female roommate, struck her in the head with several golf clubs until they broke, and then held her down until she died.
By August 22, the ad had been taken down and Good Good Golf posted a statement on social media addressing the controversy. “We posted a video to our channels that ultimately depicted actions that are not aligned with our values as a brand. We have since taken that content down and sincerely apologize,” the company said. “Good Good has always stood for making the game of golf more inclusive for all, and we will continue to ensure that is our mission moving forward.”
A day later, Callaway issued its own statement. “We are disappointed by the content that was posted and are appreciative of Good Good for addressing this,” it said. “We look forward to working together to ensure a more inclusive space in golf.”
The PGA, meanwhile, also attempted to distance itself from Good Good Golf, which was set to be the title sponsor for an upcoming PGA Tour event in Austin, Texas, this fall. “The PGA Tour believes in golf’s ability to bring people together and create a welcoming environment for all,” it said. “We do not condone violence in any form, and the since-deleted video does not reflect our values or commitment to inclusivity and respect.” Five days later, the PGA Tour announced that Good Good had decided it would no longer sponsor the event.
Meanwhile, several companies, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, and PGA Tour Superstore reportedly removed Good Good products from its online stores.
After several more days of backlash, Callaway formally announced that it had ended its three-year-long partnership with Good Good Golf. “Over the last several days, we have listened and reflected deeply on the hurt and disappointment caused by the video we reposted,” the company said in a statement. “We heard from individuals who shared personal experiences related to violence against women, and their stories were powerful reminders that this issue touches the lives of far too many people.”
It continued, “Unequivocally, violence against women is unacceptable and should never be trivialized, normalized, or used as entertainment.”
Well, Clark apologized for starring in the video while also claiming it was inspired by Obsession, the hit horror movie about a young man who forces his female friend to love him through using a wish, erasing her consent, and stealing her bodily autonomy in the process. (How exactly a feminist film would inspire an ad depicting violence against women remains unclear.) “Good Good messed up by supporting a very poor-taste ad that was not good in any way, shape, or fashion,” he said. “But hopefully you guys can forgive Good Good as well as myself for being a part of it, and hopefully we can move on and grow the women’s side of golf, because that is one of our huge, huge goals.”
pic.twitter.com/mpFFRvUedE
— Garrett Clark (@gm__golf) August 26, 2026
Not everyone was so apologetic. Around 3 a.m. on Friday, the media brand’s CEO, Matt Kendrick, issued a ticked-off string of X posts directed at Callaway. “Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it,” he wrote. He also responded to a comment, saying he was “not opposed” to suing Callaway “for every single penny they’re owed plus damages.”
Something tells me that won’t pan out.
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