Golf has seen an evolution, like many sports, in the content creator space, with various channels and social media pages being created to grow the game and build brands.
One that stands above the rest has been Good Good Golf, a groundbreaking group of golf influencers that has captivated the game and has 1.72 million subscribers on YouTube along for the ride.
The apparel side of the company has just made history.
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Good Good Golf announced that they will be sponsoring professional golfers on the PGA Tour and beyond, marking the first time a YouTube-driven brand has built a business this robust to officially partner with players at the highest level.
Founder and CEO Matt Kendrick spoke with FOX Business Digital about this exciting announcement that will feature Joel Dahmen, a fan-favorite thanks to his involvement with Netflix’s “Full Swing” docuseries, PGA Tour rookie John Pak, Beau Hossler, Willie Mack III and Michael Block.
Good Good Golf has powerhouse golf partners like Callaway and has their apparel featured in DICK’S Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy.
However, Kendrick hopes the main takeaway from this sponsorship with the Tour players is that Good Good Golf is much more than just a YouTube brand that sells merchandise.
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“The goal for Good Good at the end of the day is we want to be a top five brand in golf,” Kendrick said. “So, part of that strategy is we’ve done it untraditionally through YouTube and the content that we’ve been doing. But we obviously got to a point where we now want to get into the more traditional golf space, and sponsoring athletes on the PGA Tour is a step in that direction. We’re excited about being in a spot to be able to do that and get our product on the highest level of players on the PGA Tour.”
Kendrick understands that the stigma of being “YouTubers selling merch” will have to be broken down layer by layer, but this is a huge step in the right direction.
“Everything that we do, we want to be entertaining in the golf space,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing with the YouTube side of it. But we also want to be taken seriously in the product and brand spaces in golf.”
For the players, what is intriguing about joining Good Good is the fact that they are not just going to be wearing merchandise and playing like so many others do with their respective brands. They will be involved in the YouTube content, which, in turn, continues to grow their own personal brands.
“It’s not just in wearing it. Yes, we want them wearing the product, but we also want them involved in our content,” Kendrick explained. “So, I think that’s the other thing you’re going to see – how do we integrate them into what we’re doing. All of them are excited about that. They see what we can bring to their personal brand because we have a platform that no other golf brand really has. We do offer something different, so that’s another part of the piece right there.”
As for Dahmen, he comes in as somewhat of a headliner with the announcement given his recent fame with “Full Swing.”
Dahmen is someone who comes off as the complete opposite of famous golfers like Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy or Justin Thomas – guys who live and breathe golf at a very technical, highly competitive level at all times. His nonchalant manner, though he certainly wants to win every event he is at, has made fans quickly latch on to him.
With the Tour Championship hosting the first-ever “Creator Classic” this year, and the Good Good golfers participating, Dahmen was one of the PGA Tour players who was a part of the broadcast team during the event. Once he finished his duties there, he met with Kendrick.
“After the event was over, and we were in the lobby of the hotel, we sat there and just chatted about his career,” Kendrick said. “He was super interested in what we were doing on the Good Good side. I think he saw the value he got out of “Full Swing,” and having the ability to tap into that with us was super interesting to him. So, that’s where the conversation started. He was actually on the channel in early, early days. In 2021, we had Joel on and he won the next week.
“He’s the perfect mold for us because he gets it. He gets what this means, and his personality can shine through content like ours. On the PGA Tour, it’s all about the golf. You don’t see the interactions or personalities so much on the broadcast. ‘Full Swing’ has shown a little bit of that. With us, you get to see the full spectrum of what these guys have from a personality side, and I think it’ll be interesting to see all these guys show up and interact with our team.”
The same goes for Block, the head golf professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, who was getting texts from Michael Jordan and others after finishing T-15 in the 2023 PGA Championship, where he famously hit a hole-in-one with McIlroy as his partner on the final day.
Block has been involved in many things since then, including joining the Good Good team this past year.
“He was with us last year, and he’s been great because he’s into the content,” Kendrick said. “He’s been in a bunch of events we’ve put on, and Blockie’s always the best.”
Pak and Hossler have both been on the channel as well, and like Kendrick mentioned, understanding what the Good Good brand can do for their own personal brands on the Tour goes a very long way.
“I think what you’re seeing from all professional sports as well – it’s not just golf – you’re seeing all of these athletes now care about their personal brand,” he said.
“[Heisman Trophy winner] Travis Hunter is a great example. All these people are starting to build their brands at a young age, and everyone’s starting way different than it’s ever been done before. They actually really care about it, so that’s where we fit in perfectly. Everyone is trying to be a content creator, no matter who you are. Everyone is trying to build a brand online, and luckily for us, we’ve established ourselves as a great platform in the golf space. So, bringing all these pros into it is a huge win for us and a huge win for them because everyone is now caring about their own personal brand in a different way than they have before.”
Finally, these products that will be featured on these players on the Tour are not cheap materials with the Good Good logo slapped on them. Kendrick’s background is in product development, and he has spearheaded high-performance gear since day one with his brainchild.
“I think the thing is people don’t realize the team we have behind the product side of it,” he said. “We have a really robust development team, so everything is designed and developed in house. We have designers and product managers from Louis Vuitton, Fossil, JCPenney – some of the biggest names in the apparel space are working on our team. This is not just us slapping our logo on some product out of a catalog from Asia or any like that. This is us developing from the ground up and that’s how it’s been from day one.
“I don’t think that’s something the public realizes. They just think that somebody else is developing it for us, but that’s not the case.”
Good Good’s evolution from YouTube sensation to a performance-driven powerhouse brand in the gold space has checked a massive box for themselves with these groundbreaking parternships.
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