They Face Penalty for These Blind Tee Shots

Have you seen those Buick commercials where Tiger Woods -- wearing shorts and his trademark grin -- pops out of the bushes and challenges a foursome of recreational golfers to a closest-to-the-pin contest with a $42,000 SUV at stake?

With cameras secretly rolling in the trees, Mike Freeman, a salesman from Longwood, Fla., hit a seven-iron to within 10 feet on the par-three 12th hole at the Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes and then found out it wasn’t a joke when he was handed the keys.

He also soon found out the real meaning of the campaign called “Tiger Trap.”

Freeman, the reigning Orlando City Amateur champion, has had his amateur standing voided by the U.S. Golf Assn. and will not be allowed to defend his title later this month.

“What I did should not constitute losing my status,” Freeman, 39, told the Orlando Sentinel. “I didn’t enter anything and didn’t ask for anything. It’s all after the fact.”

USGA spokeswoman Donna Anderson didn’t see it as a difficult decision, however. “Whether he knows he’s participating or not,” she said, “it’s still a prize he won based on his golf skill.”

Add Tiger flap: Those golfers who didn’t win cars but accepted royalty checks also have blown their amateur status -- not that any of the others care, considering they figure to make about $25,000 from the commercials.

Buick officials said the paperwork the golfers signed after they found out they were being filmed indicated they would lose their amateur standing, but there seems to be some confusion about that.

“It might have been in the stack of documents we signed,” said Keith Kemp, another winner. “I might have bought a condo in Puerto Rico, for all I know.”

Trivia time: What two college teammates were picked Nos. 1 and 3 in the 1969 NBA draft?

He said, he said: Al Davis obviously grew weary of defense attorney James Brosnahan continually digging up Davis’ testimony from previous trials during the Raiders vs. Oakland case and then asking Davis, “Did you say that?”

At one point, Davis snapped: “If I said that, I said it.”

Bogus bay: Emmitt Smith saw an Internet auction site recently and found 20 items that he had supposedly autographed. Smith told the Arizona Republic that 17 were fakes, two forgeries were “damn good,” and one was actually legitimate.

Martina the muse: Leander Paes, 30, on teaming with Martina Navratilova to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title: “When I was 7 or 8 years old, I watched Martina play and she really inspired me to be out here ... She said not to say that.”

Milestone: Eighteen years ago today, Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros recorded his 4,000th strikeout, fanning the New York Mets’ Danny Heep in the sixth inning.

Trivia answer: UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (first) and Lucius Allen (third).

And finally: Mike Tyson, in an interview for Fox Sports Net’s “Beyond the Glory,” which will air Wednesday: “Maybe in my next life, I’ll have a better life. And that’s why I’m just looking forward to go to the other world. ‘Cause I hate the way I live now. And I hate my life now.”