Firstly, just to reassure readers who are not necessarily into golf, or perhaps even loathe it, this article is about the jeopardy of influencer marketing and what happens when it goes wrong, it’s not about golf. Although it just so happens to be from the world of the brightly-coloured-slacks, harlequin-patterned jumpers, one-glove wearing, jaguar-driving and the ‘fancy a cigar and a quick brandy in the clubhouse’ after a round brigade.

It’s a world that has been, historically at least, somewhat middle class male oriented, for example the Royal & Ancient in St Andrews, one of the oldest and most famous golf clubs in the world, only started admitting female members as recently as 2015. That demographic has been shifting though, with the pandemic sparking a big increase in women players matched by a growth in the professional game with LPGA prize money rising by 90% in the last 4 years to $131 million. The sport has been struggling with a decline in popularity of both viewers and players, due to factors like Tiger Wood’s implosion on and off the course, a rise in other more physically active sports like cycling and its somewhat exclusive and stuffy membership model which, as older members have gone to the great fairway in the sky, haven’t been replaced by younger ones. Clubs that once had long lists just to get on the years long waiting lists have been reduced to advertising for new members, signalling a change in attitudes, even if they are driven by the old ‘adapt or die’ adage.

Whilst it’s been somewhat behind the curve when it comes to innovation, compared to other sports such as cricket's T20, golf has tried to modernise with new formats such as TGL [Tomorrow’s Golf League] which is played indoors using a combination of tech simulators, artificial short holes and team competitions. The sport is now attracting new audiences - more younger players and more female players - which has inevitably driven more engagement on social media channels, the natural playground of youth. Equally inevitably this has spring-boarded the arrival of golfing content creators, the leader being Good Good Golf launched in 2020 which publishes a predictable mix of bro-style, bloke-ish videos featuring golf trips and pranking, apparently, and unsurprisingly, it's mostly made by men. But they’ve been very successful building their brand on Youtube amassing an audience of 2.1 million subscribers and over 4 million social media followers. In turn, these kind of numbers have led to lucrative marketing deals with big golf brands like Calloway who market equipment, clubs and clothing. This deal, however, and their reputation, is hanging by a thread after just one, horribly miscalculated promotional video. In the video, a woman golfer - Alexis Miestowsk - moves towards a Calloway bag to take a ‘Calloway Quantum’ club from it when a man rushes across and shoves her to the ground saying ‘Do not touch my new driver,’

The backlash has naturally been huge with influencers and players alike condemning the crass skit “I like the Good Good guys” commented English golfer Mel Reid “They do good stuff for golf - my nephews are obsessed with them - but it’s just weird. It just gets so f**cking annoying, because you try and make these steps to make it a bit more comfortable for women to get into golf. They have no idea how much harder we have to work.”

They are probably starting to appreciate this now though as Good Good has lost its three-year partnership with Callaway Golf, while the PGA Tour said Good Good would no longer sponsor one of the association's tournaments in November. Good Good has tried to make amends with founder Garrett Clark posting an 8 minute apology video announcing a $1 million donation to organisations working to prevent violence to women. This hasn’t been enough to stop sports retailers pulling Good Good stock from their shelves.

Then, as seems inevitable with PR disasters, the blame game started with Good Good claiming Calloway has asked them to ‘take the fall’ and threatened legal action, whilst Calloway CEO Chip Brewer stated "Mistakes were made, and we are taking the matter very seriously." It’s clear, if scarely believable, that both of these market-leading organisations somehow managed to approve the video: “I had to double take, did two of the biggest brands in golf really just approve that?’ Said Jasmine a golf presenter to her 65,000 Instagram followers. “Do I think they should be cancelled? No, I don’t. But I hope it does make other golf creators think. You can be absolutely funny without making women the punchline.”

Using humour in marketing and advertising is of course a well-trodden path, and when it's done well can be a very successful strategy - a lot of the TV ads we remember are the funny ones. But humour, especially when it's edgy, has to be considered carefully. One person's funny is another person's offensive. That's not to say this is the case with the Good Good video, which isn't even borderline, it's sexist and condones violence against women which is never acceptable, never mind funny. And, in the context of where golf is with its female audience, quite how this got past the moderators of both Good Good and Calloway is mind-blowing. It should make all content creators think twice about what they publish. The immediacy, reach and accessibility of social media channels are obviously hugely powerful. Social media has shifted marketing away from traditional channels into the arms of the millions of influencers to promote products and services to specific markets. But with this comes a responsibility for content creators and publishers to consider what they create and post. So (to coin a phrase) when push comes to shove always take into account the commercial risks of edgy campaigns, take a moment to sense-check that they're not inappropriate, off-key or just plain 'bad bad', like this one.