sports

Golf Personality David Feherty Signs On As Hyundai Ambassador

Hyundai, which has inching its way into the pro-golf reserved parking space over the past few years, has signed David Feherty as its first golf ambassador. The Irish player has shot three ads that are appearing on his show and on the Golf Channel throughout the PGA Tour season. Feherty, CBS golf analyst and former PGA Tour player (no duffer he, Feherty has won multiple tours,) will be the voice and face of the automaker's Hyundai Golf platform, and as such will make appearances at Hyundai-sponsored golf events, per the company.

The humorous new spots, via AOR Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Innocean, U.S.A., premiering on Feherty's Golf Channel show, toy with “driving tips” as they pertain to golf and cars, to tout the Genesis luxury coupe. The ads use golf as a metaphor for the car's navigation, sensor, and form attributes, respectively. 

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One spot opens on the green with Feherty talking about avoiding hazards when you drive. As he settles in to make a shot, we hear the familiar, quickening beep of a back-up rear-collision sensor. Suddenly his hand shoots up and he snatches a ball out of the air that is just about to nail him in the temple. “Fore!” some shouts from a distance. “Yeah,” Feherty shouts back, “I noticed.” 

The ad cuts to shots of the Genesis and blind-spot detection technology overview. In another one, his ball has voice navigation, and so when he hits the ball wide of the hole, it navigates itself to a hole-in-one. “Yeah,” he says, “I've still got it.” The third, on stance, has him starting in correct driving stance, then slowly reclining until he’s sitting in midair as if in a car seat. Hyundai says he will also go to social media this year to extend the metaphor to digital. 

Hyundai has been moving into the luxury realm since it debuted the Genesis in , and has expanded its presence in golf to include title sponsorship of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Kapalua resort in Maui, and Hyundai Invitational, which it created. It is also the official vehicle of the Humana Challenge and Farmers Insurance Open. 

Hyundai Motor America marked its fifth year of title sponsorship of the Tournament of Champions on Jan. 8, when this year's match was held. Players drove Equus sedans, and Hyundai also had Genesis sedans, Santa Fes, Sonata, Sonata Hybrid, Santa Fe Sport, Azera and Tucson Fuel Cell on display on the course. Also, the tournament winner got Equus or Genesis for a year. Hyundai also has relationships with dozens of charity tournaments around the country, which are feeders to the Maui match. 

Meanwhile, sibling brand Kia Motors America, which is also moving into the near-luxury realm with the K-900 has been ramping up its own golf activities, which got going in 2010 when it tapped Michelle Wie as official golf ambassador for the brand, and became title sponsor for the inaugural Kia Classic in San Diego. In 2013 it signed a multi-year deal to be "Official Automotive Partner of the LPGA."

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