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Golf Galaxy, Dick’s Pull Good Good Merchandise Amid Ad Controversy
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- Golf Galaxy, Dick’s Pull Good Good Merchandise Amid Ad Controversy
Golf Galaxy, Dick’s Pull Good Good Merchandise Amid Ad Controversy
Golf Galaxy and its parent company, Dick's Sporting Goods, pulled Good Good Golf merchandise from in-person and online shelves Tuesday. It's the latest consequence for the YouTube-channel-turned-major brand, which has been embroiled in controversy after posting a promotional video last Friday for a new driver—created in partnership with Callaway—that depicted Good Good cofounder Garrett Clark shoving a woman to the ground.
Dick's has yet to respond to repeated requests for comment from Front Office Sports about the status of its retail partnership with Good Good, but a search for the brand on Dick's website currently yields a " no matches found " result. Good Good products are also no longer listed on Golf Galaxy's website.
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FOS reached roughly a dozen Dick's and Golf Galaxy locations across the country Wednesday morning; while some noted they still had Good Good merch on-site, all said the brand had been removed from their floors and its products were not available for sale. Several East Coast and Midwest locations of PGA Tour Superstore—Golf Galaxy's biggest competitor—also said they had pulled Good Good merchandise when reached by phone Wednesday morning. One New Jersey store manager told FOS the move was a result of the backlash to the ad.
"The video does not reflect our values or our commitment to making golf welcoming for everyone," a PGA Tour Superstore spokesperson told FOS in a statement.
Golf Channel announced late Tuesday it was postponing the premiere of a new show with the YouTube group, Big Break x Good Good , by a week to "allow for necessary production updates following a request from one of the show's sponsors to remove its branding from the series." Previous network communications about the show used the verbiage "Big Break x Good Good presented by Golf Galaxy," suggesting Golf Galaxy is the dropout. (Golf Channel did not respond to a question asking about the sponsor.)
Also on Tuesday, Callaway admitted involvement in the ad with a statement attributed to its CEO, Chip Brewer, who said the company "sincerely apologize[s]," is "conducting both internal and external investigations," and has "already made changes to [its] approval processes aimed at ensuring this will never happen again."
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Calls for the PGA Tour to drop Good Good as the title sponsor of its Fall Series event taking place Nov. 12–15 in Austin, Texas, are growing amid backlash to the ad. Asked about this Tuesday at a Tour Championship press conference, Tour CEO Brian Rolapp indicated a change wasn't on the table—for now: "It's a bit of a fluid situation. … It sounds like in the last 24 hours they've made some progress. We'll continue to monitor the situation and see how it develops."
The fast-moving fallout represents a stunning turn of events for a brand that was otherwise red-hot.
In an interview last month, Good Good's VP of brand and marketing, Jeffrey Lefkovits , told FOS the company went from "roughly 800 to 4,000 retail doors in just the last year alone," and claimed "a majority" of the top 10 best-selling hats at both Dick's and Golf Galaxy in 2025.
Dick's, in contrast, had its worst day on record Tuesday. The retailer's stock price dropped about 30% after reporting weak second-quarter earnings and slashing its full-year profit outlook. In addition to its almost 800 eponymous stores, Dick's operates more than 70 Golf Galaxy locations across the United States.
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Extreme Backlash?
Some onlookers have begun to wonder whether the reactions have gone too far.
"Alright, the commercial was bad but what're we doing," Nate Geary, a Buffalo sports-radio host, wrote on X/Twitter Tuesday in response to a post about Golf Galaxy employees being ordered to pull Good Good merch.
"My goodness this overreaction is getting out of control," commented another user on the same post. "It was an ad made in poor taste…. they ended up pulling it & apologized."
Good Good, which has more than 2 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, has issued only one official statement on the situation so far. "We posted a video to our channels that ultimately depicted actions that are not aligned with our values as a brand," the company wrote in a post on its X/Twitter account Saturday. "We have since taken that content down, and sincerely apologize. Good Good has always stood for making the game of golf more inclusive to all, and we will continue to ensure that is our mission moving forward."
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However, its CEO, Matt Kendrick , spoke with The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
"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," he told WSJ . "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 added that the full 60-second video was meant to spoof the horror movie Obsession , released earlier this summer.
FOS obtained a copy of a memo Kendrick sent to all Good Good staff on Monday. In the email subject-lined "Owning Our Mistake," he said the company plans to donate all proceeds of the driver campaign to an "organization supporting women in [its] local community."
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Elsewhere, competitor brands are starting to pounce. Golf apparel and equipment provider Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG) shared a video of women golfers using its drivers on Tuesday evening. It was captioned, "Our drivers play nice with everyone. #SheGolfs."
The post Golf Galaxy, Dick's Pull Good Good Merchandise Amid Ad Controversy appeared first on Front Office Sports .
