The final Lexus commercial from the US Open has just appeared on the Internet, courtesy of my favorite Youtuber, bbakshow:

Surprising as it may be, people searching for this commercial have made up an significant percentage of my traffic since launch, and I’m very happy to have found it. Being my first time seeing it, I can see how it could capture a golfer’s imagination.

When I posted about the making of this commercial almost two months ago after discovering an image on Flickr, I was lucky enough to have Bob Gunning, the general manager of the golf course featured in the commercial, post up some details:

I’m the General Manager of Longniddry Golf Club in East Lothian, Scotland where some of the GS450 commercial featuring the guy who drives around in the rain trying to find a golf course was filmed. As you can see from the photos in the News section of our website, the producers brought their own rain-making equipment even though it was raining at the time! The commercial also featured the iconic 13th hole at The Glen Golf Club in North Berwick.

So there we have it, the video is posted, I’ve filled in the blanks, and my virtual road trip is now over.

Update: The music for this commercial, which many of you have been interested in, is performed by Jimmy Haun, and is called Yellow and Blues. You can download it from his Myspace page.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has given us more insight into Lexus’ presence at the U.S. Open:

The U.S. Open at Oakmont marked the first time the USGA has used corporate sponsors in its history, and in the 107-year history of the Open.

“American Express was the only other sponsor,” noted Vince Salisbury, event marketing manager for Lexus. In the past, when players arrived at the airport they would just use a rental car, so every player was in a different car.

“There was no consistency and it was more complicated,” said Salisbury. “Part of the agreement with Lexus was that we would provide cars for all the players and USGA officials. The cars were prepared with decals on the front doors that say “Official car of the U.S. Open,” with that great squirrel logo.”

Also mentioned was an aspect of the car lending that I didn’t even consider:

The concept of the Lexus luxury lifestyle was clearly imparted because the company got inquiries all week about the cars. “People were asking for particular ones, especially if they were driven by particular players. Unfortunately our distribution doesn’t really allow for that. Of course they wanted us to leave the decal on!” [ Lexus event marketing manager Vince] Salisbury said, laughing.

Of course people would want cars driven by their favorite players in the event — Too bad Lexus couldn’t accommodate them.

The U.S. Open at Oakmont wrapped up today, and Lexus certainly did their part as the main sponsor of the event.

Not only did they provide LS 460’s to every golfer during their time in Pittsburgh (with the exception of Tiger Woods, who drove a Buick Enclave), they created an incredibly extensive website at myownpursuit.com that lets interested viewers to glean tips from the pros:

Featuring over twenty videos and articles from pro golfers, there’s plenty of proof that Lexus is taking their sponsorship very seriously.

One interesting service Lexus provided, and I would love to see an example if anyone feels like sharing, was creating a special area where people could have their photos taken on the course, which are then posted to their site for download. Pretty neat feature, it must be said.

UPDATE: I found an example of the Lexus photobooth while browsing the US Open site:

Rounding out this week of surveys and studies is a rather strange birdie — Lexus, as the first ever automotive partner of the United States Golfing Association (USGA), conducted a survey of golfers and found themselves looking in a mirror. It seems like Lexus and golfers have that very same relentless pursuit of perfection:

• Four out of ten golfers (43%) would readily give up sex for a month in order to have the perfect golf swing! (And more than one in five — 22% — would give up their hair!)
• Another 21% would be willing to sacrifice their next raise for the perfect swing.
• Three out of ten golfers say if they had to choose, they’d rather have a perfect golf swing than a perfect marriage.
• Two out of three golfers have skipped work in order to play golf (66%). More than four out of ten have skipped church or religious services (43%), and a similar percentage have bailed out on a family gathering (41%).
• Nearly one out of every two golfers (49%) says when buying a car they check to see how many bags of clubs can fit into the trunk.

The phrasing of the results is a little misleading: Is it so hard to believe that people would sacrifice their hair or their next raise to be actually be “perfect” at something?

[Source: PR Newswire]