Callaway says Good Good ad fallout caused no material sales hit in Q3

Callaway says the backlash to its Good Good Golf driver advertisement caused no material financial damage, according to its third-quarter update on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Chief executive Chip Brewer told analysts that sales trends showed no discernible change during the episode. He said the company's brand rating and online consumer sentiment fell, then recovered to their previous levels. Those are management's assessments of the fallout.

The comments address the commercial consequences of an August campaign that ended Callaway's partnership with the golf creator group. Front Office Sports reported that the ad appeared online Aug. 20 before being deleted. It showed Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark shoving colleague Alexis Miestowski to the ground.

According to Front Office Sports, Dick's Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy and PGA Tour Superstore pulled Good Good merchandise while retaining Callaway products unrelated to the creator brand. That left a clear question for Brewer: how much damage had the episode done to the equipment maker's wider business?

Callaway's quarterly sales did decline. Its official results show revenue of $436.9 million, down 5.6% from a year earlier, and golf equipment sales of $281.5 million, down 7.9%. The company attributed the expected second-half slowdown to changed iron-launch timing and the removal of some lower-margin products, with currency movements in Asia also hurting the quarter.

Even with those declines, Callaway raised its full-year sales forecast to between $2.065 billion and $2.078 billion. The results exceeded its own expectations.

Brewer also outlined a separate equipment investment on the call: a $15 million 3D-printing facility beside Callaway's North American distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas. He said it should open in mid-2027 and begin supporting some U.S. custom titanium product needs in 2028.

For simulator golfers following the next club cycle, Brewer said Callaway plans to announce a product using the technology in early 2027. Watch that announcement for the actual equipment specifications and buying details; Thursday's call set out the manufacturing plan and expected timing.