Last year I attended the 2008 Puma Open at Harborside International, and had such a good time that I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for 2009. I didn’t know what to expect, considering that last year’s 9 hole four-person scramble was by far the best scramble I’ve ever played in.

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What Is The Puma Open?

For those who don’t know what the Puma Open is, let me give you a brief rundown. The Puma Open is not your typical golf outing, where you play a standard scramble, instead your four-person team must compete in a nine hole scramble with special “Puma Open rules” on each hole.

2008 vs. 2009 Puma Open

The format for the Puma Open hasn’t changed a bit, you earn points for each hole you play based on your teams score and the best score for each hole wins a prize. The 2009 Puma Open has added two new holes to the 9 hole format that were submitted and voted on via the Puma Golf facebook fan page. The two new holes for 2009 are:

Hole # 4 Golf Pong

Before teeing off, players divide up into teams of two and each player gets three chances to chip balls into one of six buckets arranged in the shape of a pyramid. This may seem like an easy hole to play if you have he chipping and short game skills of Phil Mickleson or Tiger Woods, but it’s a lot harder than you can imagine.

Not to worry, the golf balls used are those provided by almostGolf, so you don’t run the risk of getting hurt. It was definitely a fun twist on a classic college party game.

Hole #9 Putt the Tee, Drive the Green

Players must tee off with a putter and putt with their driver. I don’t know about you, but I was a little hesitant to tee off using my putter for fear of damaging the face or worse getting a nasty stinger. It turns out none of the above happened, and according to the hosts at the hole if you did break your putter, Puma Golf would pay to replace it. At least my mind was at ease after learning that bit of information.

The key to hitting the drive with your putter was to tee the ball up extra high and aim to the left of the target, which is what I did, and the ball flew maybe 45 yards at best. Not too bad for driving with a putter.  The other challenging part came when you had to putt with your driver on the green, which is not as easy as you think. Overall, this was a great addition to the Puma Open, even if it meant possibly breaking your putter.

One hole worth mentioning that isn’t new for 2009, but is a slight modification of last year’s Longest Drive hole:

Hole # 5 function drinks Longest Drive

Just like last year, the person who hits the longest drive in the fairway or the rough wins a prize, but to make it more interesting Puma Golf shook things up by having you tee off from an empty function drink bottle. This elevated the golf ball about 6-8″ off the ground and made for some interesting tee shots. Luckily, one of the guys from Golf Chicago Magazine that we were partnered with had a pocket knife, and he cut down the function drink bottle to a 2 1/2″ height. Just for the record, we didn’t come close to winning the longest drive with our modification of the function drinks bottle.

I did watch the team in front of us have one of the players hold the bottle upright, while the other person hit the ball. Watch the video to see this crazy stunt in action, it’s quite amazing.

The Photo OP was also really fun, because you got to be really creative by posing with a pair of giant Puma Clydes shoes with the Puma Model.

The only hole I missed from 2008 Puma Open, that they didn’t have this year was the Don Julio Know Your Tequila hole where you tee off with a vintage fairway wood before getting a killer margarita. Otherwise, the six other holes were identical in format from 2008 (On The Clock, Draw, almostGolf Hail Mary, Mulligan, Lucky 7, and Photo OP).

Casino Night & Prizes

After the golf scramble, the second-half of the event begins with an awesome dinner buffet provided by Bolingbrook Golf Club and casino night. The casino night just like last year offered BlackJack, Craps, and Texas Hold-Em games to play with your 1000 Puma chips. The team with the most Puma Chips at the end of the casino night wins a prize. My teammates were not big gamblers and decided to give me all their chips to play with, so I started out with 4000 Puma Chips.

I ended up playing BlackJack for about half-hour and came away with nearly double of what I started with, at 7,700 Puma Chips. Not too bad for a half-hour of BlackJack, if I say so myself, but it wasn’t enough to win the team casino night prize. Still a great time!

After the casino night, prizes are awarded for the top team scores for special event holes : On-The-Clock Hole, Golf Pong, function drinks Longest Drive, almostGolf Hail Mary, Photo Op. Additional prizes for Team Golf Score, Team Chip Stack, and Combined Team Score.

Verdict

The big question is how did the 2009 Puma Open compare to last year’s event?  Not only did the 2009 Puma Open exceeded my expectations, it was even better by the addition of the two new fan submitted holes and modification of the Longest Drive hole. I had such a great time this year , that I’m not sure how they’ll be able to make it even better in 2010. I guess I’ll have to wait and see for the 2010 Puma Open.

It’s not too late to experience the 2009 Puma Open with five more stops left on its fifteen leg city tour across the United States and Canada. Next Stop September 18th Norcal,CA, September 25th Charolette, NC, October 9th Miami, FL, October 16th Texas, and October 23rd Atlanta.

For more information and to register your four-person team visit http://thepumaopen.com

Last month I shared my experience and behind the scenes photos of the making of the 2009 PUMA Open promotional videos with Erica Blasberg, Johnny Damon, Kasey Kahne, and Sandra Gal.  Now presenting my acting debut with LPGA star Erica Blasberg and New York Yankee outfielder Johnny Damon in this sketch about getting ready for the PUMA Open. BTW I show up 1:13 in the video.

Have a need for speed?  Watch this video and see why your average golf cart won’t do for NASCAR superstar Kasey Kahne at PUMA Open.

Make sure to register for the PUMA Open coming to 15 cities near you. You don’t want to miss out on great time!

What would you do if you were given the opportunity to hang out with LPGA golfers Erica Blasberg and Sandra Gal, New York Yankees Johnny Damon, NASCAR Superstar Kasey Kahne, but the catch is you have to be in your underwear?

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Several days before the video shoot I spoke with the director, to go over the script and my involvement in the video. At the time of speaking with director, my role was very small and had only one line, with very little interaction with the main stars of th scene. I was ok with my small role and quite relieved, and perfectly content with my small part. I was just looking forward to seeing what it takes to make a professional video and maybe hanging out with Erica Blasberg, Johnny Damon, Kasey Kahne, and Sandra Gal. But little did I know what lied ahead of me the day of the video shoot.

The morning of the shoot a car came and picked me up to take me to the set of the video shoot, which was at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Florida. This made me feel like a celebrity, even though I’m an F-list celebrity, it still felt pretty cool. When I went up to the green room, I was one of the first “actors” to arrive at and had no idea what to expect.

After settling in and grabbing a bite to eat, New York Yankees Johnny Damon arrived on set and entered the green room. We shook hands and I introduced myself, at that point I just tried to remain calm and not blurt anything out stupid. Shortly after Johnny had arrived, Erica Blasberg, Kasey Kahne, and Sandra Gal all showed up. Now I’m getting a little nervous, because I’m sitting in a makeshift green room with all these sports athletes and begin wondering, what am I doing here? What do I talk about? Everyone seems to know each other, except me. So I resorted to the common denominator topic, golf and the Puma Open. After a few minutes of conversation about golf and travel, I began to feel at ease with Erica, Johnny, Kasey, and Sandra. It was like hanging out with my friends.

As Erica was getting her makeup done by the makeup artist, the director for the shoot comes in to go over the script and discuss wardrobe for the scene. The director Brent begins to tell us that there has been a change in direction for the scene I was going to be in and that I would have a bigger and better part with more lines. It turns out I would be in a scene with Erica Blasberg and Johnny Damon, and it required me to be in my underwear. Immediately, I start to feel really squeamish and uncomfortable that my worst nightmare has come to fruition. Not only do I have to “act”, but I have to be in my underwear the entire scene. All sorts of thoughts started rushing through my head, like what is my wife going to think? What kind of underwear? I hope its not a pair of Speedos? It turned out that it was pair of boxers, to much of my relief.

Acting out the scene was not as easy as I thought it would be, but Erica and Johnny who are pros at this made me feel right at home when shooting our scene. The two of them were so fun to be around and the crew was also amazing at making me feel comfortable too. The number of bloopers that Erica, Johnny, and I committed during the filming the scene, were too funny and I hope to have these to share sometime soon. I have to admit, that I  grew an appreciation for the hard work and talent that actors do when making a movie and understand why they make the big bucks.  After a couple of hours of doing our scene, I learned so much about what it takes to film a two minute or so video, than I ever did by watching MTV’s Making the Video series.

After our scene was completed, the action was taken outside to the golf course at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, where Kasey Kahne, Erica Blasberg, and Sandra Gal filmed the other videos for the Puma Open. One of the videos featured Kasey Kane driving a turbo charged golf cart, while wearing his Nascar jumpsuit. Another scene also involved a pit crew, which were the production assitants and film crew doing car maintenance on Kasey’s golf cart. By mid afternoon production had wrapped, and I was off to the Orlando Convention Center to cover the rest of the days coverage of the PGA Merchandise Show.

In the end I had such a great time hanging out and getting to know all these athletes, and being able to participate in a totally fun video shoot, even if it required me to be in my underwear.

If you want to have as much fun as I did, you should sign up for the Puma Open, which is going to be in 15 cities this year, up from 9, a year ago. Make sure to visit thepumaopen.com next week to watch the promotional videos I got to be apart of for the 2009 Puma Open.

When I attended the 2008 Puma Open in Chicago, IL  last year I had a blast, and it was unlike any other golf event I have participated in.  During the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show, LPGA golfer and worldwide marketing symbol for Puma Golf Erica Blasberg competed against New York Yankee outfielder Johnny Damon  in a series of events from the Puma Open. 

Watch the video to see what makes the Puma Open a truly remarkable experience that you shouldn’t miss out on. 

For more information on the Puma Open, visit the new redesigned http://www.thepumaopen.com

I hope to see you all at the Chicago Puma Open later this summer.