Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
STROKE OF THE DAY |
"Never bet with anyone you meet on the first tee who has a deep suntan, a one iron in his bag and squinty eyes. " |
-Dave Marr |
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE
GUIDE
equipment
|
||||
 While golf hasn’t received as many film treatments as baseball, boxing and other sports, there are plenty of decent films about the game or the people who play it. From the hilarity of comedies like “Caddyshack” to the more solemn treatments of the game like “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” the range of movies about golf runs the gamut. That’s no surprise: sports is inherently dramatic and filled with conflict, two things that are tailor-made for the silver screen. Golf is no different. But with so many golf-related movies out there (the earliest known capture of golf on film was a 1904 match between Harry Vardon and James Braid at Scotland’s Muirfield. Running time: 2.5 minutes) it can be difficult narrowing your list of choices. Here’s five: Dead Solid Perfect Dan Jenkins, one of the best American sportswriters of the past 50 years, wrote two of the best books about football and golf, respectively. “Semi-Tough” focused on exploits on the gridiron, while “Dead Solid Perfect” followed the fictional journey of a second-rate golfer who traversed the country trying desperately to make the PGA Tour, at the same time dealing with a foundering marriage and party-hearty lifestyle. This one is a little harder to find in the video stores since it’s not yet out on DVD, but the inspiring story of Kenny Lee, portrayed by Randy Quaid, is worth the search. Director: Billy Roth. One thing you probably didn’t know: In his youth, supporting actor Jack Warden, who portrays Billy “Bad Hair” Wimberly, was a welterweight boxer who fought under the name Johnny Costello. Caddyshack Though it won’t win any awards for subtlety or taste, “Caddyshack” is the highest-grossing golf movie ever made, if inflation is factored in. The 1980 comedy starred some of the most popular TV personalities of the day — including Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase and Ted Knight. Ostensibly about a scheme by a crooked developer — Dangerfield — to build condos on the site of a country club, what people remember most are Dangerfield’s non-stop barrage of one-liners and gags, and Murray’s insane battle with a pesky gopher. Director: Harold Ramis. One thing you probably didn’t know: Carlspackler.com is a web page entirely devoted to the movie. Tin Cup Avid golfer Kevin Costner stars as Roy McAvoy, a down-on-his-luck pro who lives in a glorified trailer at a dilapidated driving range he owns in West Texas. After falling for a beautiful woman who winds up being the girlfriend of his PGA Tour star nemesis, McAvoy tries to qualify for the U.S. Open in order to turn his life around. Costner is a typical Hollywood leading man, but performances by Don Johnson as his archrival and a hugely funny supporting performance by Cheech Marin light up the film. Director: Ron Shelton. One thing you probably didn’t know: No golf movie featured as many cameos by star players, with everyone from Peter Jacobsen and Johnny Miller to Phil Mickelson and Craig Stadler spending time on the set. Happy Gilmore Golf purists — and those who loathe Adam Sandler — may wince, but there are few movies that better capture the unadulterated joy of playing the game than this 1996 comedy. Sandler plays Gilmore, a hockey player possessed with the right kind of fierce temperament for the game. But he finds that his hockey shooting style translates into the kind of golf swing that would make John Daly green with envy. Gilmore turns pro and the movie follows his illogical (but very funny) ups and downs. The actor who steals the show is Christopher McDonald as Gilmour’s archrival Scooter, one of the best golf villains ever captured on film. The movie was also released just as Tiger-mania was sweeping the golf world, and there is a definite sense in the film’s script that it’s attempting to make a point about how the game belongs to everybody, and not just the elite. Director: Dennis Dugan. One thing you probably didn’t know: NHL star Vincent Lecavalier of the Stanley Cup-defending Tampa Bay Lightning is a teen-age extra in a scene where Happy tries out for the hockey team. Follow the Sun Although criticized by some for fictionalizing elements of his life, this biography of Ben Hogan is a powerful movie thanks to the man’s incredible story. From his poor upbringing in Texas to rising to the top of professional golf, and his incredible comeback after a near-fatal accident, this is the type of story that, unlike the others on this list, is completely real. It can get corny in that 1951 way, but there’s nothing corny about the golf sequences in the film: Hogan hit the shots himself. Directed by: Sidney Lanfield. One thing you probably didn’t know: Lanfield directed nearly all of the episodes of “The Addams Family” during the TV show’s heyday. n |
||||
RSS Subscribe
Digg This Article
