BLINK AND YOU may have missed the 24-second commercial advancing the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay during the Seahawks NFC Championship game triumph over the Green Bay Packers.
There was a lot going on in that contest, particularly late, so I can understand being a bit forgetful.
Fox Sports produced the short teaser video to remind fans of what’s to come this June, the 115th U.S. Open.
The spot centers on an American flag rippling in the wind, with classic U.S. Open moments from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and more playing in the background.
As the shot drops down and moves toward the viewer, it is revealed that the flag is actually part of the pin on Chambers Bay’s signature hole, the 15th.
The Tacoma Narrows is visible with the sun breaking through an overcast sky and setting over the Key Peninsula while a tag line flashes “History Awaits.”
Sold.
I’m particularly impressed with the weather depicted in the ad.
Putting in an overcast sky, one that looks like it might threaten rain as part of the sunset, just like many Pacific Northwest evenings in mid-June, is refreshingly honest.
Producers could have splashed all sorts of August sunshine around the ad, but showed restraint and recognized the tournament runs from June 15-21 and will likely have some iffy weather.
View the teaser at www.tinyurl.com/PDN-OpenTease.
Weird week for PGA
That’s Tiger Woods grinning goofily at the top of the page.
He was pictured sans big tooth in Italy to watch his girlfriend Lindsay Vonn’s record 63rd World Cup victory in the Super-G.
Wood’s agent, Mark Steinberg, explained away the missing chomper as the result of a shoulder-mounted video camera clocking Woods during a crush of photographers at the awards podium.
Or not.
Race secretary general Nicola Colli disputed that Woods was near the awards ceremony when the incident reportedly occurred.
“During the [awards] ceremony, Tiger Woods was in the operations tent, the tent just outside the exit gate,” Colli told USA TODAY Sports.
“He was looking on from there and he was not in the finish area.”
There’s always been a conspiracy theory that Wood’s sabbatical from the sport was a result of a facial injury suffered the evening his marital indiscretions came to light.
For the straight tooth on that theory, visit tinyurl.com/PDN-ToothTruth.
Tiger’s tooth wasn’t even the weirdest PGA Tour-related story.
Golfer Robert Allenby missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii and decided to cut loose and have a little fun at a Honolulu wine bar.
Fade to black.
The Australian claimed he was abducted from the bar, lured out to a parking lot by a stranger who said his friends were waiting for him.
Allenby says he was beaten, thrown into the trunk of a car, and that he doesn’t remember any part of the next three hours.
He remembers waking up in a gutter, miles from the bar and being tended to by a nearby homeless woman.
But that woman, Charade Allen, has told media that just doesn’t jive.
She says she came upon Allenby, yards, not miles from the bar, bloodied and confused and sitting on a planter arguing with two homeless men.
Allenby has a bit of a surly reputation and a few of his former caddies came forward anonymously to say there are many folks with an axe to grind over his boorish behavior.
For more on the wacky hijinx, visit tinyurl.com/PDN-Allenby.
Soulless PGA decision
Seahawks fans heading south for the game and looking to take in the rowdiest tour stop of the year, the Phoenix Open, likely won’t come home with any golf swag.
The PGA Tour already banned the caddie races on the infamous par-3 16th hole at the Phoenix Open.
Next on the taboo list: throwing gifts to fans in the grandstands at golf’s bawdiest hole.
A notice was posted in the Sony Open locker room last week that said, ”At this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, for fan safety reasons, players and caddies are prohibited from throwing, kicking or otherwise propelling items into the crowd on the 16th hole.”
Bummer.
In the past fans have been treated to a variety of visors, gloves, and other freebies.
Phil Mickleson’s even tossed the old pigskin around before a tee shot.
Let them throw, I say.
Cedars ace
Sequim resident Warren Cortez picked up a hole-in-one recently on the 145-yard par-3 eighth hole at Cedars at Dungeness.
Cortez used a Titleist ball and his 7-iron to record the shot.
It was witnessed by Verl Nelson and George Surter, each of Sequim.
$12th Man green fees
SunLand Golf & Country Club in Sequim will offer $12 green fees on weekends for the remainder of the month.
The course also is running a Beast Mode package on weekends, with a chance to win a Marshawn Lynch jersey coming during a drawing on Saturday, Jan. 31.
Super Bowl Bash
Cedars at Dungeness in Sequim’s Super Bowl Bash tournament, a four-person scramble with handicap and Callaway divisions, will be quite a bit more fun to play in after Sunday’s heroics.
A shotgun start will kick off the event at 9:30 a.m.
The tourney is open to those who have a USGA handicap and those without.
There are variable fees, with the cart-using public paying $65, and members or employees $45; the walking public offering up $55, and walking members or employees paying $35.
Everybody will receive lunch, refreshments, range balls, a chance at KPs and two squares on a score-predicting betting board.
A $40 per team honeypot also will be available.
A chance to have some fun, get some exercise and make fun of any New England Patriots fans who show up representing their teams before the game also is included at no charge.
Boo politely.
Sign up by phoning Cedars at 360-683-6344, ext. 1 by Friday, Jan. 30.
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Golf columnist Michael Carman can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or pdngolf@gmail.com.
