A two-day pop-up at DeBell Golf Club in Burbank, California marks Chili's Grill & Bar's first-ever on-course location, as the Brinker International-owned casual dining chain converts the clubhouse into a branded "19th hole" experience running August 28 to 29 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The activation — dubbed the Chili's Golf Club — layers food and beverage service with a limited-edition co-branded merchandise line developed in partnership with Rhoback, the Charlottesville, Virginia-based active-lifestyle apparel brand.
The Product Play
The merchandise collection, available at rhoback.com/chilis while supplies last, spans nine SKUs priced from $54 to $158, including performance polos, quarter-zips, a hoodie, a crewneck and two hat styles. Men's polos are priced at $132, women's styles at $96, and the top-priced item — the Rhoback X Chili's Horizon Block Performance Q-Zip — retails at $158. The range features a custom Chili's Golf Club crest and draws on Rhoback's breathable, four-way-stretch fabrications. Chili's and Rhoback also distributed the collection through the on-site pro shop at DeBell, a public municipal course that underscores the brand's positioning around everyday, recreational golfers rather than the premium end of the market.
On-site beverage programming leans into golf culture with two exclusives — the Transfusion Marg and the Tee Time Marg — extending Chili's well-established margarita identity, which the brand claims makes it the top margarita-selling restaurant chain in the United States across its 1,600 locations in 29 countries. The Triple Dipper, Chili's highest-profile menu item and a consistent social media traffic driver, also featured on the activation menu.
Why the Activation Matters
For Brinker International (NYSE: EAT), the Golf Club stunt represents a continuation of an aggressive brand-marketing strategy that earned Chili's Ad Age Brand of the Year honors in both 2025 and 2026. Limited-time experiential formats and culturally resonant merchandise collaborations have become a reliable tool for casual dining operators looking to drive earned media and reinforce relevance with younger, experience-oriented consumers without committing to permanent unit expansion or menu overhauls.
The golf category itself has expanded its casual dining addressable audience considerably since 2020, with recreational participation in the United States reaching record levels. That overlap — between everyday golfers and casual dining's core demographic — gives the activation a plausible commercial logic beyond pure brand spectacle. For Rhoback, the collaboration broadens wholesale and co-branded exposure as the brand transitions from a direct-to-consumer-first model toward retail partnerships, according to the company's own positioning.
George Felix, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of Brinker International, framed the event as a natural extension of the brand's community identity. "Chili's is the people's clubhouse, so it only made sense to bring that spirit to the course by building the Chili's Golf Club on a public muni," Felix said. A campaign film tied to the activation features celebrity cameos including Jena Sims Koepka and Caleb Pressley, distributed across Chili's and partner social channels.
Casual dining operators have increasingly pursued limited-time brand collaborations and experiential marketing as a lower-cost alternative to discounting. The Chili's Golf Club format follows a broader pattern in foodservice brand activations where a pop-up venue doubles as a content production platform, generating organic reach well beyond the physical footprint of a two-day event.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
