Every week on Globalnews.ca Canadian golf stars Graham DeLaet and Adam Hadwin take readers behind the scenes of the PGA Tour, providing insights, perceptions and observations as they battle at the game’s biggest tournaments.
I’m a Canadian golfer.
That means I’ve played in all types of conditions—snow, frost, rain, cold—I’ve played in all of it. Growing up in Weyburn, Sask., meant you played or practice whenever you had the opportunity. You didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the weather to warm.
That’s part of the reason why Shaw’s new campaign to promote its PGA Tour telecasts was so appealing to me. I’ve been sponsored by Shaw for the past year, and part of that arrangement involves shooting some commercials for them. Shaw’s team shared the idea for this year’s shoot with me early in the New Year and I really liked how they showed the length to which Canadians will go to play golf (even in the winter), while comparing it to the game in warmer climates. It doesn’t hurt that I’m not a guy to take myself too seriously, so I was able to be myself in the commercial and just joke about how cold it is in Canada during the winter.
I haven’t done a lot of commercial shoots, but it is part of the job of being a professional golfer these days. My first experience was actually for Shaw last year. It was nice that it was held in Arizona so that I was able to drive there directly from our place in Phoenix, and it was definitely cool to see how the idea developed. It was initially just a storyboard with messaging on paper to show what the overall concept of the shoot, and then the director took it and made it real. For me it was a switch as I had the opportunity to pretend I was an actor for a day, whereas in most golf commercials it is the actor pretending to be a golfer.
I also did a shoot with Dove last year, which was equally interesting because my wife Ruby was involved in the storyline. Those commercials highlighted our life on and off the course and demonstrated the important role she plays.
And late last year I was involved in a commercial for Acushnet, which runs the Titleist brand, and it was cool to see their ideas for 2015. Acushnet brought in a ton of extras and designed the set to look like a real PGA Tour event, with a scoreboard, bleachers and fans. They also took the shoot to the next level by using drones and it was interesting to see the role technology plays in getting these things done.
For the Shaw shoot, which was done about a month ago, everything was set strategically, so there were stations with cameras for the different pieces Shaw wanted to capture. It was crazy to see how many people are involved in a shoot, considering it ends up being a 30 second TV spot.
I also enjoyed seeing how different directors work in different environments, and how Shaw is taking the bumper they did last year to a new storyline that really connects with Canadians sitting at home watching golf with snow on the ground outside. And truthfully, I think it snowed at a PGA Tour event last year, so it does happen occasionally.
The Shaw commercial airs at a time when I’m working hard to get my world ranking up. I’m currently sitting at 64th in the world, and need to get into the Top 50 to get a spot at the Masters and the World Golf Championships. My health is good, aside from a virus I picked up that kept me out of the Farmers Insurance Open, which was disappointing, so I’m ready to play.
But I’m determined to get into the Masters and that means I’m playing a lot. You’ll see me at the Northern Trust Open this week, followed by the Honda Classic, the Puerto Rico Open and the Valspar.
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See Graham DeLaet in the Northern Trust Open this weekend on Global TV.
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