Challenge Tour player Noel Fox put a new spin on things as Padraig Harrington filmed ads for FootJoy at the TPI in California last month.

According the FootJoy tour blog, they needed a shot of a ball flying in over the film crew, stopping on the green and then spinning back to the camera where someone would stop it with their SYNR-G shoe. Fox was called into action and pulled off the required shot - even if it did take him "about 80 takes, to be honest." 

Lights, camera, action. Fox (far right in blue) makes his "appearance" in the new FootJoy commercial featuring Padraig Harrington.The blog explained: "Sounds reasonable, right? Well, in order for it to look authentic, it has to be done authentically….meaning someone has to hit the ball over the crew (30+ people), land it directly inline with the camera, and back it up inside the frame. We first tried a shot from about 50 yards. Lot of close calls but couldn’t get all the spin we needed.

"We then tried from a bunker where the Tour player demonstrated a trick shot that would produce the spin and trajectory required. Line two balls up end-to-end in line with your target. As you hit down on the ball at the back, one should fly straight into a net we had set up and the other would shoot up in the air and spin back.

"Makes sense, right? After about 30 tries, we abandoned that idea.  Final option was to back the player up and give him a full wedge into  the green. Did I mention he has to fly it over a full crew of people,  land it just over a VERY expensive camera and spin it back to an area about 4 feet around? Well, the kid did it. With direction from the Tour player on the green, this kid, who plays on the Challenge Tour, nailed it on about his sixth try. Nice work Foxy! With only about four hours of daylight left at this point, albeit with a very satisfied director and crew, it was time to move on."

You can check out this post and a slideshow that includes pictures of Fox in action here: http://www.footjoyblog.com/2008/12/04/footjoy-at-tpi-day-2/