Good Good Golf founder and CEO Matt Kendrick has apologized for a controversial advertisement that he stated was intended as a parody of the horror movie “Obsession.” The ad, released in collaboration with Callaway Golf to promote a new driver, depicted co-founder Garrett Clark shoving fellow creator Alexis Miestowski to the ground, which generated significant backlash.
“We fully own that we did make a mistake… As the CEO of the company, the buck stops with me and we should have had better processes in place,” Kendrick told The Wall Street Journal. “Obviously the execution missed the mark and didn’t come across the way that we wanted to, and in no way were we trying to make light of or support violence. But it came across that way, and that’s our fault.”
Kendrick reiterated these sentiments in a LinkedIn post, explaining that the video was “intended to parody a scene” from the horror film. He acknowledged that regardless of intent, the brand is responsible for how its content is received. "We got this one wrong,” Kendrick wrote.
Good Good Golf, which boasts over 2 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, is a significant entity in golf content creation and has been part of a movement contributing to the sport's growth. The influence of the brand, particularly among younger golf fans, amplified the reaction to the ad.
In response to the incident, Good Good Golf plans to donate proceeds from the driver campaign to an organization that supports women, though the specific organization has not yet been identified. Additionally, Kendrick announced that the company is implementing new content review protocols. “We are changing our creative review and approval process to make sure more perspectives are represented before something goes out,” he stated. “For the foreseeable future, I will personally review content coming from our marketing teams. We will make sure this never happens again.”
The PGA Tour, which sponsors a tournament in Austin, Texas, in November that Good Good Golf is involved with, has also commented on the situation. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp expressed initial disappointment with the brand's response, describing it as "disappointing" and "a bit defensive and late." He added that while the responses have been improving and conversations are ongoing, the tour is monitoring the situation.
Rolapp referred to Good Good Golf's participation in the fall PGA Tour event as a "fluid situation," indicating uncertainty about their involvement moving forward. "We’ll continue to monitor the situation and see how it develops,” he said.