Golf Movies

Who's Your Caddy?

2009-01-25T00:54:00.000-08:00

Who's Your Caddy? is a 2007 comedy film directed by Don Michael Paul and starring Antwan "Big Boi" Patton, Lil Wayne, Andy Milonakis, Faizon Love, Terry Crews, Tony Cox, and Jeffrey Jones. It is the first film produced by Robert L. Johnson's Our Stories Films studio. It was released on July 27, 2007 in the United States and was released on DVD on November 27, 2007.

Reception

The film opened to extremely negative reviews. In particular, many critics have deemed this film a "terrible rip-off" of Caddyshack . It has also been critizied for its cliched "Get Whitey" driven plot, which is often used in urban black American comedies.

It currently holds the 9th place spot on IMDb's "Bottom 100", and holds an extremely low 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Tin Cup

2009-01-25T00:53:00.000-08:00

Tin Cup is a 1996 romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Ron Shelton, and starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo with Cheech Marin and Don Johnson in major supporting roles.

Production

Kevin Costner trained extensively with Gary McCord to learn how to play golf, as stated in the foreword he wrote for McCord's book, Golf For Dummies. McCord, who helped Costner develop a swing and pre-shot routine, is listed in the end credits as a golf consultant.

The film's climactic scenes take place at a fictional U.S. Open tournament set in North Carolina. Several pro golfers make cameo (credited) appearances. Some of the film was shot in Kingwood, Texas, and some was shot at Tubac GC in Tubac Arizona. The lake was built by the film company and still guards the front of the green on this beautiful par 5 on the back nine.

Many of the golf shots by Kevin Costner's character were made by Costner himself.

Stupid Little Golf Video

2009-01-25T00:51:00.001-08:00

Stupid Little Golf Video (released as Leslie Nielsen's Stupid Little Golf Video in the USA) is the third and last of the how-to-golf-badly trilogy. (The other two are Bad Golf Made Easier and Bad Golf My Way.) It is the only one that is released on DVD. Nielsen's wife Barberee Earl Nielsen made a cameo as a lady golfer.

Cast

Leslie Nielsen: Himself
Bob Donner: His Trusted Caddie
John Boswell: The Unsuspecting Golfer
Barbaree Earl Nielsen: Lady Golfer 1
Pauline Burns: Lady Golfer 2
Paul Gadd: The Weatherman
Doug Wood: The Golfer/Actor

Reversal of Fortune

2009-01-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

Reversal of Fortune is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Yong-woon, and starring Kim Seung-woo and Ha Ji-won. The film features several songs from Ha Ji-won's debut album, Homerun.

Plot

Having turned his back on a promising career as a professional golfer, Kang Seung-wan is now a down on his luck stock exchange worker, and in debt to local gangster Ma Kang-sung. After crashing his car while driving through a tunnel, Seung-wan wakes up to find himself in a alternate reality where he fulfilled his sporting ambitions, and is now a famous golf champion. But things aren't as perfect as they first seem; he now has a wife who wants a divorce, and must compete in a major golf tournament despite not having played for over ten years.

Pat and Mike

2009-01-25T00:48:00.000-08:00

Pat and Mike is a 1952 comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. The movie was directed by George Cukor, who also directed The Philadelphia Story and Adam's Rib.

Plot

Pat Pemberton (Hepburn) is a brilliant athlete, except when her domineering fiancé is around. The ladies golf championship is in her reach until she gets flustered by his presence at the final holes. He wants them to get married and forget the whole thing, but she cannot give up on herself that easily. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan (Tracy), a slightly shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer (Aldo Ray), and a growing mutual attraction.

Filming locations and cast

Pat and Mike was filmed on location around Los Angeles with many golfing scenes taking place at the Riviera Country Club. Additional scenes were filmed at Occidental College. Many notable athletes played cameo roles or play themselves in the film, including golfers Babe Zaharias, Betty Hicks, and Helen Dettweiler, and tennis champions Don Budge and Alice Marble. Other notables in the cast include Charles Bronson, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Jim Backus, and, in his film debut, Chuck Connors of "The Rifleman."

The Man with the Perfect Swing

2009-01-25T00:45:00.000-08:00

The Man with the Perfect Swing is a 1995 American comedy-drama movie written and directed by Michael Hovis.

Synopsis

A passion for golf drives this story about fame, schemes and paying the bills. Having successfully failed at everything, Anthony "Babe" Lombardo rises from his couch potato life with one last hope. He invents the perfect golf swing that he believes will revolutionize the game. Determined to make it bankable, Babe frantically maneuvers amidst suspicious investors, vanishing friends and a disenchanted wife.

The Legend of Bagger Vance

2009-01-25T00:42:00.000-08:00

The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 film directed by Robert Redford, based on the same-titled 1995 book by Steven Pressfield. The story takes place in the US state of Georgia in 1931. The explicit parallels between Pressfield's novel and the Bhagavad Gita are brought out in a book called Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance (Continuum, 2000), written by Hinduism scholar Steven Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa). Pressfield himself wrote the foreword for Rosen’s book. It was also Jack Lemmon's final film before his death in 2001.

Analogous to Indian Bhagavad Gita

The movie has many parallels to the Indian spiritual text Bhagavad Gita in which the ancient Indian prince and warrior Arjuna is instructed on how to conduct his life by the Lord Krishna. In fact, the name "Junuh" in the film derives directly from "Arjuna" in the Gita, as "Bagger Vance" is a variation on the Indian Sanskrit word "Bhagavad."

The idea of discovering one's Soul and True Self as Bagger suggests Junuh do is an essential teachings of the Gita, and the Field is directly related to the ultimate Reality that one connects to when one discovers one's True Self. I.e. through inner silence (as Junuh is instructed) one finds one's True Self, which enables one to be One with the Field, which allows ultimate success and right action (the "One Authentic Swing") in life.

It was author Steven Pressfield’s intention to make the correlation between his book and the Gita as indicated from this summary of the book at Amazon.com: “In 1995, Steven Pressfield decided to introduce the Bhagavad-Gita to a contemporary audience, so he restructured the Gita in terms of a golf novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance.” Explicit parallels between Pressfield's novel and the Bhagavad Gita are brought out in a book called Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance (Continuum, 2000), written by Hinduism scholar Steven Rosen with a foreword by Pressfield.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

2009-01-25T00:41:00.001-08:00

The Greatest Game Ever Played is a 2005 biographical sports film, directed by Bill Paxton. The star Francis Ouimet is played by Shia LaBeouf. It is distributed by Walt Disney Studios, and is similar to their other fact-based sports dramas such as Remember the Titans (2000), The Rookie (2002), Miracle (2004) and The Miracle Match (2005). The film's screenplay was adapted by Mark Frost from his book, The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf.

Tag line: Everything begins with a Dream

Plot summary

Set in 1913, the film is about golfer Francis Ouimet, an amateur who was expected to fare poorly at the 1913 U.S. Open, and who was supposedly incapable of competing against professionals. Additionally, to discontinue an ongoing feud with his father, Francis agrees to get a real job and never play golf again. However, after getting a once-in-a-lifetime offer, Francis goes back on his word and competes for the U. S. Open crown. Against all odds, he managed to beat the British champions Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, who were considered the world's best golfers, and become the first amateur to win the U.S. Open.

Happy Gilmore

2009-01-25T00:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Gilmore is a 1996 American sports comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan and starring Adam Sandler as the title character.

Reception

The film overall met with mixed reviews. Roger Ebert said "I guess we are supposed to like Happy Gilmore, yet as played by Sandler, he doesn't have pleasing personality". Rotten Tomatoes critics only gave the movie 55 percent, considering the film rotten.

The Rotten Tomatoes community gave the film 83 percent, considering it fresh. It was also placed at #97 on Bravo's 100 Funniest movies.

Trivia

The golfer who continuously shakes his head in dismay during the film is Lee Trevino. His only spoken line is: "Grizzly Adams did have a beard."
PGA Golfer Mark Lye makes an appearance when he welcomes Happy to the pro tour at the cocktail party.
The final scene, where Happy sees the ghosts of Chubbs, the alligator that bit Chubbs' hand off and Abe Lincoln waving to him is a parody on the ending of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
When Bob Barker was asked to do the fight scene with Sandler, Barker refused at first. He quickly changed his mind when the producers told him he would win the fight. Barker credits his appearance in the movie for revitalizing interest in "The Price is Right", especially among college students. During the Fight, Sandler yelled "The Price is Wrong, bitch!", which is a parody of the title.
Joe Sakic makes a cameo appearance in the hockey tryout scene.
On the DVD are several unshown scenes. One shows Happy returning to the old age home to confront the evil orderly, throwing him out of a window. In another, he gets a non-violent come-back on the guy heckling him on Shooter's orders by exposing his inability to play. This scene shows either an alternate or additional motive for the heckler to later attempt to mow down Happy with his car.
The movie has been the subject of many incidents on The Price Is Right, both in the Barker and Carey eras. Adam Sandler (not to be confused with the RTL Group producer on the show) appeared on-camera a few times in the Barker era, including in the final weeks of Season 35. Inspired by the movie, the Los Angeles Kings made an appearance in Season 37, complete with a Showcase featuring a fight scene where one Kings player throws another player into a boat (complete with pulling off the sweater) during a fight.

Follow the Sun

2009-01-25T00:33:00.000-08:00

Follow the Sun is a 1951 biographical film of the life of golf legend Ben Hogan. It starred Glenn Ford as Hogan and Anne Baxter as his wife. Many golfers and sports figures of the day appeared in the movie.

Plot

In Fort Worth, Texas, Ben Hogan (Glenn Ford) works as a golf caddy to help support his family. He romances and marries Valerie Fox (Anne Baxter), then with her support, decides to become a professional golfer. At first, Hogan has little success, but he gradually improves. Meanwhile, the Hogans become friends with Chuck Williams (Dennis O'Keefe), a popular fellow pro.

After serving in the military for World War II, Hogan returns to golfing and eventually becomes a top player. However, he has acquired an image of a robotic, cold competitor.

After winning a tournament (beating Williams), Hogan is very seriously injured in a car accident. Doctors hold out little hope for him walking, let alone golfing again. During his convalescence, Hogan is amazed to by the outpouring of regard from his fans. Through sheer determination, he recovers and goes on to become one of the great golfers of his time.

Dorf's Golf Bible

2009-01-25T00:32:00.000-08:00

Dorf's Golf Bible is a 1987 comedy film starring Tim Conway, Eddie Deezen and Michele Smith along with a special appearance by Sam Snead

Characters

Derk Dorf is the main character and the voice-over. He is playing a game of golf when, apparently, a voice over commands what he does. For example, the voice over said for Dorf to keep his left elbow in, and he did and sliced it just as the voice-over said. Apparently Dorf re-enacts whatever the Golf bible commandments are.

Waldo is Dorf's caddy. He first arrives late and does not know the terms of Golf. He also can distract or annoy Dorf whenever he is trying to golf. For example, Dorf asks for a tee, Waldo gives him a cup of hot tea.

Boom Boom is the Angel of numbers. She gives out the commandments as the voice-over calls them out. She puts roman numerals on a stone that has been flattened for her to put them on.

Puns and Jokes

Injuries There have been many bad things that have happened to him. One is the ball hitting his head. When he stole somebody's 9-iron he hit it to a tree and it hit him back in the head with the same sound effect. Another joke was when he was hit by the brick when he was hitting the target pretending to be in the U.S. Open.

Dorf's wife - Dorf's wife is constantly bothered that Dorf is spending too much time playing Golf and not speding time with her. Dorf usually calls her a name such as "My honey bucket, my sweetie pie, my darlin' lump of loveliness." Apparently when she's not listening, Dorf will talk behind her back.

Dorf on Golf

2009-01-25T00:30:00.000-08:00

Dorf on Golf is a 1987 comedy film starring Tim Conway, Vincent Schiavelli and Michele Smith. The film is the first in a series of six films released by Conway using the Dorf sporting theme. The film had a total cast of three.

Cast

Tim Conway as Dorf
Vincent Schiavelli as Leonard
Michele Smith as Boom Boom

Characters

Dorf is the main character that is trying to teach everyone about the game of golf. He is apparently Swedish (as you can tell by the accent) and has the height of a 5 year old. You can tell his height by the way his clubs have been cut down to his size.
Leonard is the clueless caddy of Dorf and is twice as tall as Dorf is. As Dorf gives commands to Leonard, he'll usually say "Right." When he was looking for the five iron and found it, Dorf said "You get your numbers and colors down, you're going to be a real threat!"
Boom Boom is a posing character that "helps" dorf out when he's explaining the "dog-leg" hole. She has annoyed Dorf a little bit when her hot dog stuck to his stick and when she dropped the illustration when she was fixing her hair.

Den ofrivillige golfaren

2009-01-25T00:29:00.001-08:00

Den ofrivillige golfaren, also known in English as The Accidental Golfer and The Involuntary Golfer, is a 1991 Swedish comedy film and the fourth installment of the popular Sällskapsresan series directed by Lasse Åberg.

Plot

The hapless Stig-Helmer Olsson (Lasse Åberg) works at toaster factory and gets an offer to play a one-on-one golf competition against a wealthy man for money, something he has never done before. He travels to Scotland to learn to play golf, taking lessons by the skilled golf veteran Roderic McDougall (Jimmy Logan).

Cast

Lasse Åberg - Stig-Helmer Olsson
Jon Skolmen - Ole Bramserud
Jimmy Logan - Roderic McDougall
Margo Gunn - Fiona McDougall
Barbro Hiort af Ornäs - Stig-Helmer's mother
Claes Månsson - Scientist

Dead Solid Perfect

2009-01-25T00:27:00.000-08:00

Dead Solid Perfect is a 1988 American film following the life of a professional golfer on the PGA Tour. It was produced by HBO films and based on the novel of the same name by Dan Jenkins.

Instrumental music for the soundtrack was composed and performed by Tangerine Dream

Cast

Randy Quaid ... Kenny Lee
Kathryn Harrold ... Beverly T. Lee
Jack Warden ... Hubert 'Bad Hair' Wimberly
Corinne Bohrer ... Janie Rimmer
Brett Cullen ... Donny Smithern
Larry Riley ... Spec
DeLane Matthews ... Katie Beth Smithern
John M. Jackson ... Grover Scomer

Caddyshack II

2009-01-25T00:26:00.000-08:00

Caddyshack II is a 1988 sequel to the 1980 cult classic golf comedy film Caddyshack. The film stars Jackie Mason, Dan Aykroyd, Robert Stack, Dyan Cannon, Chevy Chase, Jonathan Silverman and Jessica Lundy.

The original Caddyshack was rated R, but the sequel was rated PG.

Reception

The movie made USD$11 million compared to the original’s $39 million gross at the box office.

Cast reception was negative. Chevy Chase, who reprises the role of Ty Webb, was rumored to have murmured to the film’s director Allan Arkush during post-production, “Call me when you’ve dubbed the laugh-track,” before walking away in disgust. Arkush, who also directed Rock 'n' Roll High School in 1979, begged Rodney Dangerfield to come in and save the script at the last minute. Upon reading it, Dangerfield asked, “What’s with the ferris wheel?” and dropped it in the wastebasket.

Dangerfield was replaced by Jackie Mason, Ted Knight (who died of cancer two years before) was replaced by Robert Stack, Michael O'Keefe was replaced by Jonathan Silverman and Bill Murray was replaced by Dan Aykroyd.

The film wound up receiving four Golden Raspberry Award nominations; it “won” two of them. It was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Actor (Jackie Mason). And it “won” both the awards for Worst Supporting Actor (Dan Aykroyd) and Worst Original Song (for the song “Jack Fresh”).

The theme song for Caddyshack II is “Nobody’s Fool,” performed by Kenny Loggins. His hit song “I’m All Right” was featured in the first film.

Caddyshack

2009-01-25T00:24:00.000-08:00

Caddyshack is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis and Douglas Kenney. It stars Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray, with music by Kenny Loggins. Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray's elder brother, also has a supporting role.

This was Ramis' first feature film and was a major boost to Dangerfield's film career; previously, he was known mostly for his stand-up comedy. Grossing almost $40 million in the U.S. alone (16th highest of the year), it was the first of a series of similar comedies. A sequel, Caddyshack II, followed in 1988, although it wasn't nearly as successful or as well-received.

In 2000, Caddyshack was placed at number 71 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American films. In 2005, a line from the movie was chosen by AFI for their list of the top 100 movie quotes from U.S. films. This film is also second on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Production

The movie was inspired by writer and co-star Brian Doyle-Murray's memories working as a caddy at the Indian Hill Golf Club in Winnetka, Illinois. His brother Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis also worked as caddies when they were teenagers. Many of the characters in the film were based on characters they had encountered through their various experiences at the club, including a young woman upon whom the Maggie character is based and the Havercamps, a doddery old couple who can barely hit the ball out of their shadows ("That's a peach, hon"), based on a couple Doyle-Murray had known at his club. The now-legendary scene involving a Baby Ruth candy bar being thrown into the swimming pool was based on a real-life incident at Brian Doyle-Murray's high school.

The pool scene was filmed at Plantation Country Club in Plantation, Florida. The pool had not been used for several years prior to filming and was considerably revamped and then filled for the production. The dinner and dancing scene was filmed at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club in Boca Raton, Florida.

The film was shot over 11 weeks during the autumn of 1979. Golf scenes were filmed at the Rolling Hills Golf Club in Davie, Florida. The explosions that take place during the climax of the film were reported at the nearby Fort Lauderdale airport by an incoming pilot, who suspected a plane had crashed.

The famous scene that begins when Ty Webb's golf ball crashes into Carl Spackler's ramshackle house was not in the original script. It was added by director Harold Ramis after realizing that two of his biggest stars, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray (who did not get along due to a feud dating back to their days on Saturday Night Live), did not have a scene together. The three met for lunch and wrote the scene together. Although the scene has nothing to do with the plot, it is widely regarded as the funniest in the movie. This is the only time that Chase and Murray have appeared in a movie together.

Bill Murray's famous "Cinderella story" scene was improvised based on two lines of stage direction. Ramis basically gave him direction to act as a kid announcing his own imaginary golf moment. Murray just took it from there. The flowers were his idea.

The gopher sequences were written and filmed after most of the movie was shot. Originally, director Harold Ramis wanted to cast a live animal to play the gopher. When that did not work out, the animatronic gopher (credited as "Chuck Rodent") and its tunnels were built by John Dykstra. The gopher sounds were the same sounds used by Flipper the dolphin in the 60's television show of the same name. This was after principal cinematography had been completed and used higher quality film stock in an indoor soundstage resulting in the higher picture quality of these scenes still evident even on the current DVD.

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius

2009-01-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius is a motion picture based on the life, specifically the golfing career, of Bobby Jones, the first player in the sport to ever consecutively win all four of the men's major golf championships (in that era, before The Masters existed and before the PGA Championship was counted as a major, the British and U.S. Amateurs were considered "majors" along with the British Open and the U.S. Open). Jim Caviezel stars as Bobby Jones. The film is notable for the fact that it was the first motion picture concerning the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews that was actually given permission to film on location.

Filming Locations

Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Castleberry Hill, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Covington, Georgia, USA
Griffin, Georgia, USA
Scotland, UK
Southern California, California, USA
St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK