Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick has reportedly become the latest high-profile figure caught up in the fallout from the YouTube golf giant’s widely criticized advertising controversy.
Business Insider reported on Wednesday night that Kendrick and Good Good president Joe Flannery have both stepped down from their roles at the popular golf media and apparel brand.
The departures come after Good Good lost endorsement deals and media opportunities following the release of a commercial for a branded driver that critics said appeared to portray domestic violence.
The backlash has been swift. Callaway cut ties with the group, Good Good products were removed from shelves, and a planned Golf Channel show was canceled before it ever aired. The brand also withdrew from its title sponsorship of a tournament in Austin.
Earlier this week, Alex Upegui, Callaway’s director of content and production, also left the company.
Upegui, who had held the role since 2023, is believed to have been the most senior Callaway employee with the authority to approve the controversial Good Good ad.
Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick has reportedly become the latest senior figure affected by the advertising scandal
Good Good’s controversial Callaway advertisement has triggered major fallout for the golf brand
Additionally, it is believed that Good Good’s VP of brand and marketing, Jeffrey Lefkovits, was also fired.
The full-60 second ad, for the Good Good-branded Callaway Quantum driver, was supposed to be a spoof of the popular horror movie ‘Obsession.’
But the opening shows Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark rushing over and body-checking fellow member Alexis Miestowski as she reached for the golf club.
As Miestowski lay flat on her back on the ground, Clark is seen standing over her before angrily saying: ‘Do not touch my new driver.’
The rest of the ad shows other members of the content team somehow becoming possessed by the golf club before the video ends.
In a statement on August 25, Callaway CEO Chip Brewer said the company was ‘conducting both internal and external investigations and have already made changes to our approval process aimed at ensuring this will never happen again.’
Two days after that statement, Callaway announced they were severing ties with the golf brand, saying: ‘In this instance, our content review process was not comprehensive enough. We have taken appropriate internal corrective actions and significantly strengthened our approval procedure to help ensure this does not happen again.’
In a video released following the backlash, Clark apologized and even called the commercial the ‘worst ad known to man.’
The popular golf social media brand has seen backlash from fans and sponsors over the ad
Last week, Kendrick told the Wall Street Journal: ‘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 added: ‘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.’
Then in the early hours of Friday morning, Kendrick dusted off an old social media account to attack Callaway and even suggest Good Good could take legal action following their split.
‘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,’ Kendrick posted at 3:38 a.m. ET.
When it was put to the co-founder and CEO that Good Good should ‘sue Callaway for every single penny they’re owed plus damages,’ he responded: ‘Not opposed.’ Kendrick also told one social media user that he was ‘down to boycott @CallawayGolf’ and said he ‘agreed’ that the golf giant had set up his brand.
But the CEO did admit that Good Good had ‘made a terrible ad,’ adding: ‘We apologize for that.’
Kendrick appeared to have deleted some of the social media posts by Friday morning but he then shed new light on the scandal in an interview with Front Office Sports.
The CEO revealed that he did not see the commercial before it was released but that Good Good had ‘removed people responsible for the ad.’
‘Our marketing team saw it. Callaway said they approved it, and that went through their marketing team, as well. So, both sides saw it,’ he explained.
Garrett Clark posted his own apology video after the disastrous Callaway advert was pulled
‘I didn’t see it initially when it went up, either. But my team informed me that they had pulled it down and then I saw it. And after I saw it, I was like: “This isn’t acceptable.”‘
Kendrick rowed back on his apparent threats to take legal action, insisting: ‘We’re not thinking about that. It was just off the cuff responding to a comment.’
In fact, despite his social media rant and the bitter fallout from the commercial, Kendrick lauded Callaway, the PGA Tour and the Golf Channel.
On Callaway’s decision to ‘sever ties,’ he told FOS: ‘I understand everyone’s position and I get it. We loved being with Callaway for a long time. They were nothing but great to us the entire time we were together. I just hate that this is how it ended.’
He praised the PGA Tour’s handling of the saga – ‘I have nothing but good things to say about them’ – and said he ‘appreciated everything [Golf Channel] has done for us.’
