{"id":61258,"date":"2026-09-04T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/61258\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:22:11","slug":"opinion-good-good-golfs-callaway-ad-was-anything-but-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/61258\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Good Good Golf’s Callaway ad was anything but good"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been significant backlash, and rightly so, against a recent Good Good Golf<\/a> commercial promoting its new Callaway driver. The video shows co-founder Garrett Clark charging toward a woman as she reaches for his driver. Before she can touch it, he pushes her to the ground, stands over her, and angrily warns, \u201cDo not touch my new driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using violence against women to sell a product is appalling.\u00a0And the question I keep coming back to is: How could this possibly have been approved?<\/p>\n

As an entrepreneur with decades of experience in marketing and branding, I know these decisions don\u2019t happen quickly. There are teams and discussions, yet enough people thought this ad was a good idea and apparently decided: \u201cYes, this is a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

At no point did anyone with enough sense say, \u201cWait a minute. A man knocking a woman to the ground and threatening her is horrible, and a terrible way to sell a golf club.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Good Good Golf has since deleted the ad and apologized, saying the content depicted actions \u201cnot aligned with our values as a brand\u201d and reaffirmed its commitment to making golf more inclusive.\n<\/p>\n

Callaway CEO Chip Brewer later issued a\u00a0statement admitting that Callaway approved the video before it was posted online and that the approval \u201cshould never have happened.\u201d But one sentence stood out: \u201cAs soon as we recognized the seriousness of the issue, it was escalated appropriately, and the video was immediately removed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

This is precisely the problem. It became serious enough to \u201cescalate\u201d only after people saw it and started calling it out.<\/p>\n

Equally striking is what Brewer\u2019s statement doesn\u2019t say. While he mentions that Callaway has \u201cbeen a positive force for diversity and inclusion in the game of golf,\u201d not once does he use the word woman. The very reason for the outrage: a man aggressively shoving a woman to the ground and threatening her is never acknowledged.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

But the apologies don\u2019t answer the more important questions: Why did this get approved in the first place? What does this say about our culture and how we view women? And who was at the table?<\/p>\n

This is just one of the reasons women need to be at the table, in positions of power and decision-making. Different voices, perspectives and lived experiences in the room matter.<\/p>\n

At a time when companies are scaling back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, this should serve as a reminder of why representation in decision-making was never simply about checking a box. It\u2019s about making better decisions.<\/p>\n

The golf industry, in particular, should be paying attention to women.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0National Golf Foundation<\/a>, the number of female on-course golfers increased 45% between 2020 and 2025, a net gain of 2.5 million players. More than 8.1 million women and girls now play on-course golf, the highest number ever recorded. Women and girls accounted for 52% of the net growth in on-course participation during that period.\n<\/p>\n

In other words, women aren\u2019t on the sidelines of golf\u2019s growth. We are driving it.<\/p>\n

Yet here we are in 2026 watching a golf company market a club with an image of a man aggressively pushing a woman to the ground.<\/p>\n

There should be consequences. And there have been.<\/p>\n

Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy pulled Good Good merchandise from their online and in-store sales floors. Multiple PGA Tour Superstore locations have also pulled Good Good merchandise. The Golf Channel postponed the premiere of \u201cBig Break x Good Good\u201d after a sponsor asked to have its branding removed from the series. Good Good stepped away as title sponsor of a PGA Tour event scheduled for this fall. Callaway ended its partnership with Good Good and pledged $1 million to organizations working to prevent violence against women and support survivors.\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not cancel culture. It\u2019s accountability.<\/p>\n

Women and girls deserve more than statements and apologies. If companies and institutions truly respect women, they need to stand behind their stated values with action.<\/p>\n

Companies make choices. Consumers make choices. Business partners make choices. And choices have consequences.<\/p>\n

The Representation Project created a call to action in 2012 \u2014 #NotBuyingIt \u2014 for ads that objectify, demean, sexualize or misrepresent women and girls. So, if Good Good Golf and Callaway don\u2019t want women touching their products, let\u2019s listen to them.<\/p>\n

Companies notice what we buy. They also notice what we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m #NotBuyingIt. And I hope more consumers and companies do the same.<\/p>\n

Jodi Bondi Norgaard is the creator of the award-winning Go! Go! Sports Girls brand and the author of \u201cMore Than a Doll: How Creating a Sports Doll Turned into a Fight to End Gender Stereotypes.\u201d She worked with the White House Gender Policy Council under President Joe Biden\u2019s administration and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been significant backlash, and rightly so, against a recent Good Good Golf commercial promoting its new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3053,3246,44,22845,146,144,302],"class_list":["post-61258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-callaway","tag-chip-brewer","tag-golf","tag-good-good-ad","tag-good-good-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-womens-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}