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ATLANTA — In the span of less than a week, things went very bad, bad for Good Good Golf — which on Thursday stepped away from its sponsorship of a PGA Tour event this fall.
Just two weeks ago, Sports Business Journal wrote a profile on Good Good Golf in which CEO Matt Kendrick said “We want to be the biggest golf company in the world.”
The popular sports entertainment brand that started as a few young guys making trick-shot videos now has seven official YouTube channels and more than 2.1 million subscribers on its main channel alone while growing Good Good into an influential golf brand.
On Wednesday it was set to launch its highest profile mainstream mission yet, a relaunch of “The Big Break x Good Good” on Golf Channel in which the winner would earn a spot in the PGA Tour’s inaugural Good Good Championship this fall in Austin, Texas.
Then came the release last week of a promotional video for a Good Good co-branded Callaway driver in which company co-founder Garrett Clark runs over and shoves a woman to the ground when she reaches toward his clubs and looms over her saying threateningly “do not touch my new driver.”
Also in today’s DD …
Adam Scott, 46, and the challenge of longevity
This went south pretty quickly from there despite several half-hearted “apologies” for the inappropriate video. Just two hours before it was scheduled to premiere, Golf Channel postponed the start of “The Big Break” for a week to “allow for necessary production updates” after Golf Galaxy pulled its name from it as presenting sponsor.
Good Good merchandise also began disappearing from Golf Galaxy, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods and PGA Tour Superstore marketplaces.
Golf Channel later cancelled airing the season since the grand prize of an exemption into the Good Good Championship no longer exists.
“With Good Good stepping away as title sponsor, the exemption no longer exists, which unfortunately makes the grand prize and competition moot,” Golf Channel said, noting it “will bring Big Break back in 2027.”
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp weighed in with his disapproval when asked if Good Good had taken enough accountability for the debacle.
“I think initially no. I think what we saw was concerning, is clearly not aligned with PGA Tour values,” Rolapp said on Tuesday at East Lake. “We take it very seriously. I think their initial response was disappointing. It was a bit defensive and late.
“But I think the responses are getting better. I think we’ve seen some things this morning, we’ve had some conversations with them, so we’ll continue to monitor and work with them going forward. But no, we were disappointed with what we saw.”
George McNeilly wrote an excellent piece for Golf One Media asking whether Good Good should remain as title sponsor of the PGA Tour event scheduled for Nov. 12-15 at Barton Creek in Austin — the penultimate event on the tour’s fall calendar with a $6 million purse. When McNeilly also asked Rolapp about it, the tour CEO called it a “fluid situation” and said the tour would continue to monitor ir to “see how it develops.”
That fluid flowed downhill quickly. On Thursday — two days after apologizing for its role in pushing out the video — Callaway stepped up the accountability by dropping its affiliation with Good Good effective immediately.
“Over the last several days, we have listened and reflected deeply on the hurt and disappointment caused by the video we reposted,” Callaway 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. Violence against women is unacceptable and should never be trivialized, normalized or used as entertainment.”
Callaway also admitted that its content review concerning the advertisement was “not comprehensive enough” and promised to strengthen its procedural process. It also pledged $1 million to support organizations working to prevent violence against women, provide resources to survivors and advance education and awareness.
“These actions do not undo the harm caused or excuse our role in it,” Callaway said. “We sincerely apologize to everyone who was hurt, disappointed or offended by this incident.”
A few hours later, what seemed inevitable occurred. Good Good announced it was pulling its sponsorship of the Austin tournament.
“After thoughtful discussions with the PGA Tour and careful reflection, we have decided to step away as sponsor of our event in Austin this fall,” Kendrick said in a statement. “We recognize that we have work to do as an organization, and our focus right now is on our team, our culture and ensuring we learn from this situation.
“We are grateful for our relationship with the PGA Tour and appreciate their partnership over the years. We remain committed to earning back trust, and we hope to work together again in the future.”
The tour statement said: “We agree with their decision to use this time to focus on their organization and the work ahead. The PGA Tour believes in golf’s ability to bring people together and create a welcoming environment for all.”
The PGA Tour said the event would go on as scheduled and that it would provide an update on sponsorship plans at a later date. The tour website already stripped the name off on the schedule page and temporarily listed it as the Austin Championship.
UPDATE: Just when you think it’s safe to move on, Good Good’s CEO Kendrick goes on an overnight social media bender and starts throwing stones at Callaway and in a series of replies to posts implies they might have been “set up,” is “down to boycott” Callaway and “not opposed” to suing them.
Kendrick tweeted: “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. 30 for 39 will be legendary.”
Good Good will go down as a textbook case in how not to manage a crisis of its own making.
Adam Scott shot 4-under 66 to start the Tour Championship (Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Rising to the challenge of longevity
Adam Scott’s first professional victory came more than 25 years ago. He won the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, a co-sanctioned European Tour and Sunshine Tour event in January of 2001. Justin Rose finished a stroke back.
The duo were paired together during the first round of the Tour Championship at East Lake on Thursday, and Rose even acknowledged their history in a social media post, noting how they’ve got more than 50 years of combined pro experience.
That both made it to the Tour Championship is an underrated feat for a couple of guys who both turned 46 in July. Rose, it should be remembered, contended at the Masters again this year. He won the Farmers Insurance Open in January. It would be a mild surprise to not see him on Europe’s Ryder Cup team next year.
Scott remains resilient as well, despite not winning in six years. As hard as it might seem to believe, his last victory came at the 2020 Genesis Invitational, just before the COVID-19 shutdown.
And yet the 2013 Masters champion has managed to stretch his major championship streak to 101 starts in a row. And by making it to the Tour Championship, he’s pretty much assured himself of being in all four majors next year to roll that streak to at least 106 through the 2028 Masters.
Not that it is getting any easier to keep up with the unrelenting wave of young talent that keeps pouring into the professional ranks.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t think it was harder,” said Scott, whose opening-round 66 on Thursday at East Lake leaves tied for ninth four behind tournament leader Min Woo Lee, who shot 62. “I watch so many of the players on tour, and the standard is so deep. There are so many players with the potential to win any week.
“The learning curve is a lot quicker. I think they learn in college now. I think I came out, I didn’t know a lot. I didn’t learn a lot in college, in the classroom or on the golf course.
“Then there was like this apprenticeship you served as a tour pro, and it was at least five years before you really knew how to play. You’ve just seen over the last 10 to 15 years, from Jordan Spieth onwards, guys coming out of college so prepared.
“I’d say it’s much harder, and I probably took for granted those years where I was kind of cruising through out here. I feel like the moment I relax, I just plummet down rankings and leaderboards and everything. There’s no letting up out here.”
Scott’s assessment of the current situation in men’s professional golf and his own plight remains in keeping with his keen perspective. He won the Masters in 2013 and got to No. 1 in the world a year later.
To rise to those levels today, he believes, requires a player better than he was then.
“I think that No. 1 standard has improved since then,” Scott said. “I think the standard is always improving at every level. I think managing all the different disciplines you have to, physically and mentally, as a professional golfer and managing a life and balancing your priorities and keeping everything at peace is a lot more demanding and takes a lot more energy from me these days to do that, because the standard is higher.
“Even the standard I play at is I think I’m a better golfer. What I’m trying to say is putting it all together every week, that seems to be the biggest challenge for me. I work on my long game and I hit it great, but my short game suffers a bit. Finding the time to always keep bringing everything up to that top level is my biggest challenge.”
Scott, of course, is now married and has three kids. Although he is from Australia, he makes his home in Switzerland and thus has some travel demands.
Next month, he will play in the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour at Wentworth and then head back stateside for the Presidents Cup at Medinah. It will be his 12th consecutive Presidents Cup as a player since his debut in 2003.
“I’d love to get back and win a tournament. Any tournament would do,” he said. “This one I’m playing in this week would be fantastic. To be a FedEx Cup champion is really one of those career milestones that I’d like to achieve still. I know time is really not on my side for that, but I’m off to a good start, and it could be three days away.”