Former UW QB Sonny Sixkiller is once again at the forefront of a cultural shift — in golf
by Brian Beaky
CG Editor
Who is the face of golf in the Seattle area?
The obvious choice, of course, is Fred Couples, whose passion and fondness for his hometown only seems to grow with each passing year. But, his busy schedule keeps Couples on the road for much of the year, and during the offseason, he makes his bed in Palm Springs, not the Northwest. He’s our favorite son, for sure, but it’s hard to be the face of Seattle golf when he’s only in town a few weekends a year.
Ryan Moore would be a logical choice, with his Northwest roots and RMG Club courses, but he, too, hasn’t called the Seattle area home for more than a decade. The same goes for Paige Mackenzie, while those Home Teamers that do maintain their Northwest roots — Kyle Stanley, Richard Lee and Andres Gonzales among them — aren’t quite prominent enough yet to take the “face of Seattle golf” crown.
Think hard enough, and it won’t be long before you might settle on a Seattle sports icon whose face has become almost synonymous with the Northwest golf scene … Sonny Sixkiller.
There was a time when Sixkiller was known primarily for his outstanding college football career, during which he led the University of Washington from a 1-9 record his freshman year (in which he redshirted, per NCAA rules at the time) to a 22-10 record over the next three seasons, crushing every UW passing record in the process. Sixkiller’s success led to a Sports Illustrated cover, songs recorded and sold throughout the city (“A guy came up to me at the Seattle Golf Show this year and sang the entire ‘Ballad of Sonny Sixkiller,’ he says. “It was amazing.”), and even a part in Burt Reynolds’ famous football classic, “The Longest Yard” (“He was a fan and asked me if I’d be interested,” Sixkiller recalls. “I didn’t have any acting experience, but I said, ‘Why not?’”).
Ask anyone under the age of 35, though, and they’re just as likely to recognize Sixkiller from his ubiquitous commercials for Sequim’s Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course, which air seemingly around the clock on sports television and radio stations throughout the region. Sixkiller and the Cedars at Dungeness have become so entwined in the local golf consciousness, in fact, that when Sixkiller shows up at the course — which he does often — many golfers he meets assume that he owns it.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Sixkiller says of his relationship with the Cedars, owned by the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which also operates the nearby 7 Cedars Casino. “They asked me if I’d be interested in doing some ads for them, and I said that I wanted to do something that would benefit the community. I didn’t just want to talk about table games and slot machines. With the golf course, I get to talk about the beauty of the area, the quality of the course itself and the people there. Honestly, it’s a lot like the way I grew up — a small town with good people.”