Good Good CEO says brand has big plans — and hopes to become 'top-five' golf company

USA Today

2 days ago

Good Good CEO says brand has big plans — and hopes to become 'top-five' golf company
HORSESHOE BAY, Texas — What started as a few buddies creating and posting golf videos has turned into a business that has disrupted the golf industry.
The Good Good YouTube channel has more than 1.83 million subscribers, making it one of the largest golf channels on the platform, and the brand has made shrewd decisions along the way, collaborating with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Rickie Fowler and even Jack Nicklaus. In 2024, the brand started sponsoring PGA Tour golfers Beau Hossler and Joel Dahman as well as Michael Block. The group includes members Garrett Clark, Matt Scharff, Thomas "Bubbie" Broders, Stephen Castaneda, and Brad Dalke, although a few high-profile members, including Grant Horvat, have cycled through the group.
And earlier this year, the Texas-based company announced it expanded its relationship with NBC Sports and purchased an ownership stake in the TGL's LA Golf Club. The brand has partnered with Callaway Golf for three years and helps the equipment maker sell Good Good-branded gear.
An infusion of $45 million in investment capital from a group that includes Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions will allow the creator-focused golf media company to grow faster and invest in larger events -- like the Good Good Lonestar Shootout, which took place in Austin, Texas, at Horseshoe Bay Resort.
Golfweek caught up with Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick to discuss the brand's beginnings and its grand plans for the future.
Golfweek: When you guys started this a few years back, did you ever envision events like this, hanging out with Matt Ryan and a host of celebrities? This success story is pretty insane.
Matt Kendrick: I mean, it's been a fun ride. And I always tell people I feel we're still just getting started. Like, we haven't really even hit our stride on what we're thinking about and wanting to do.
When we started, did we have ideas that we talked about and put things on a board? We'd want to go do this, this, and this over the next five years. Yes. Did we think it would happen as fast as this happened? No way. Every day, it's like we literally wake up and go, 'we have the best job in the world in doing what we get to do.' But I think even now, I think the best is still yet to come from us. We still look at things that we have, ideas and things that we want to do, and we're like, once we do these, people are really going to know who we are.
GW: In terms of events, this is the fourth, correct? And was the Phoenix event, at the lit Grass Clippings, the perfect way to start this?
MK: Yeah, this is the fourth. How it really started was Troon was our first connection, because Troon manages that golf course. And I told Kris Strauss (of Troon) and I was like, hey, we really want to do a night golf event during Waste Management, and he's, like, well, there's this new course opening. They just put up lights, and they're doing all the stuff you need to come check it out. So we went out there and did a site visit. We had such a great time. The place was amazing. It was the perfect setting for us to do our first big event, and so we did it last year in 2024. Now, I think we're just gonna make an annual tradition. Like, Wednesday night of Waste Management, we're always going to be there, and we're going to bring a different format every time.
The first one, we did a two-man scramble that was a pretty large field, and then this last one we just did was a it was a knockout challenge. Next year, we've got something planned that we'll announce soon that we think will be even more fun.
GW: You've said before that you have plans for big things, like equipment. Is that the biggest long-term play. In terms of growth?
MK: You know when we look at it, I mean, we look at ourselves as a media and a product company at the end of the day, so it's two different things. And, like, both of them are high revenue-generating sides of the business. I think products to me is where we start getting ingrained into the golf industry, and that's when we maybe get taken a little bit more seriously. I know that's going to take time to get change people's minds about us just being a YouTube channel in there.
It's different, and that's great. But at the end of the day, we're still trying to build great products, and we're going to try to build the best products in the golf space. That's not just us slapping our logo on something and putting it out there.
We know how important it is for stuff to be quality because we live in such a public view. And so, if we put out a bad product like, we're going to hear about it. You can just get on and comment on anything. We want to be known as one of the top five brands in golf, one day. That's what we want to be known as, and so if that's competing with TaylorMade and Titleist and Callaway at some point, like, that's, that's how we view it. We just do it differently.
GW: In today's media landscape, everybody's really fractured. The fact that you really just said YouTube's gonna be our bread and butter, our big ticket, was that like a conscious decision and has it paid off in a big way, or if you were to redo it, would you try and go into everything immediately?
MK: I wouldn't change anything. I think YouTube is one of the best ways to build a business from the ground up in this world and as time goes on, everyone needs to realize they have to be a content creator in some way. And you know, YouTube is a great way to do that, especially in the golf space.
Putting out long-form content, YouTube's a great platform for that, and it will always be the foundation of what we do. It's not the only thing we focus on. That's why we have the relationships with NBC, and others, because I believe that we've got to go find people you know. We need to go meet people where they are, and so not every golf fan is watching YouTube. And that's fine. We don't need every golf fan to watch YouTube. We would love them to watch our stuff, but it's great to have great relationships with others and be able to do things like this, and then we can go find the other audiences and meet them where they are. I know that there are a bunch of people watching the golf channel, so that's we want to show this product on there and get them exposed to what we're doing and continue to grow the brand even more.
And so we're not stuck on just YouTube. I can't thank NBC enough for for helping and seeing the vision, what we see, and they've benefited greatly from it as well.
GW: Having a real grasp on the demographic you have, and I've got buddies whose kids are more concerned with Good Good than the PGA Tour, are there any drawbacks to being primarily in that demographic?
MK: I don't think there's a drawback at all. There's probably a stigma from like the older golf fan that 'only 12-year-olds watch that.' Well, if you actually knew our demographic, you would know that it's 24-to-35 is our main demographic.
But I think what's great is the younger that you can get a fan of you, brand loyalty is a big thing in golf. If somebody decides that they want to pick up a Callaway golf club at 15 years old, changing them away from that over the next 20 years is actually pretty difficult if they like it, and, and so I think what's great about us is if we can get them in extremely young, and which we would love.
And we're family-friendly, and we try to be fun and entertaining. We're not trying to be the most serious golf. Content out there in the world, but if we can bring them in, and they like our products like, you have a customer for a long, long time, and I think so, so brand loyalty is a big deal.
The big players like TaylorMade and Callaway, they know that, too. That's why they're out getting these young players as young as they can at 10, 11, 12 years old playing their golf clubs because they know that they're not going to change.
It's the same idea with us.
GW: Is it odd because you are not yet competing with the Callaways of the world, but you're growing in that space? You're still working. You're collaborating, for example, with people like Min Woo Lee, who goes to Lululemon, yet you're still collaborating with him. What's it like to navigate this minefield?
MK: Min Woo's caddie wears Good Good, so that helps us, and he's a good friend. As for Callaway, I mean, they're supportive. They know what our goals are, and they know what we're trying to do, and they're supportive of helping us build product and build our brand. And they've been a huge help in validating everything that we do as a brand. I will say we're gonna lean into Callaway as long as we can. And they want to be with us as well, helping us develop the things that we want to develop. We want to continue the relationship in a way that's beneficial to both sides. I can't say enough great things about Callaway and Nick McInally over there and what they've done with us. I hope we're with them forever, and they help us build out what we want to do from a product standpoint.
GW: One final question: It is a group of 20-somethings. We all know what happened with Grant leaving, and others. Does the, I don't want to call it drama, but do the rotating personalities and the way that this is played out actually help you guys a little bit?
MK: Drama drives views. So that's real. Remember, Grant wasn't here from the beginning. Grant was here a year and a half after we started. And you've kind of got to look at it like a sports franchise in a sense. You're gonna have your stars, and you're gonna have your great players. And luckily, we've got great guys like Garrett, who's a founder and one of my best friends and we drive the company together. We never want to get caught up in personalities. I don't want to say this in the wrong way. Everyone is extremely important who's part of the team, but you don't ever want to get caught up too much in just each individual, right? Because at the end of the day, we're pushing a brand and, and if it's five guys or it's 11 guys or it's five guys and four girls, we're trying to push Good Good. As a brand, we're not trying to build one single person, and that's the thing. And everyone is very good about that, and everyone that works with us and is on camera, they know the goal is that we're pushing the brand, and that's what the most important thing is.
And even when people ask me, hey, can you guys show up to this thing and can we just get Garrett Clark out there? I say, no, you need to bring five of the guys. Like everything about this is about Good Good and Good Good is always first. We just have a lot of great talent and personality that's there and, and you know, we're always gonna be there to serve the fans and what they want to see and watch.
Look, they can't make videos forever. At some point, they want to be able to retire and go do whatever they're doing so the way to do that is to build a brand as big as you can build it. I mean, look at Michael Jordan. Yes, he's the greatest basketball player of all time, arguably, and you know, he's got his own brand that's out there.
But Michael Jordan hadn't played basketball in how long? And it's still that big of a brand, and I think that's how you have to look at this. It's just going to take time, like anything that you build in business. We're five years in. That's why I say it's early days for us. So, at the end of the day. We're gonna do everything we can to make the brand as big as possible. And, you know, people will come and go, and that's just part of it.