It’s the question we all want answering: What are the best golf films of all time? Over the next few pages, film crictic Michael Renouf gives you his definitive run down. (See if you can spot the notable omission.) Let’s start at No. 10 with…
The 10 best golf films: 10. The Legend of Bagger Vance
This movie certainly has star power with Hollywood heavyweights Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron filling the three most prominent roles under the directing watch of Robert Redford.
Rannulph Junuh (Damon) and Adele Invergordon (Theron) are sweethearts when Junuh, who happens to be the local golf hero goes off to serve in the Great War. When he eventually returns to Savannah, Georgia, many years later he has “lost his swing” and therefore all interest in the game.
Around this time Adele inherits the local golf club after her father commits suicide because of the Great Depression. She’s in need of cash and comes up with the bright idea of a challenge match between two golfing greats the real life Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. But, a local angle is needed so Junuh is convinced to play – in no small part thanks to the mysterious caddie Bagger Vance (Smith), who suddenly shows up in town at just the right time. Unusually, this wily caddie does not really give advice but just poses questions and dilemmas.
Did you know? Matt Damon had never played golf before and Tim Moss, who was hired to coach him, had only 28 days to make him look convincing on the big screen. They practiced with both hickory shaft and modern clubs.
The 10 best golf films: 9. Happy Gilmore
Adam Sandler plays Happy Gilmore, the ace ice hockey player who becomes a golfer. Well that’s not quite true – he would like to be a hockey superstar but, he can’t actually skate very well and has a temper that he loses quicker than the babysitter’s boyfriend is out the back door when you get home – especially if he knows you’ve had a bad round.
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The two things he does possess however are a ferocious shot and a loving grandma who he lives with – because of what the game of hockey has done to his parents.
Unfortunately, grandma has not paid her taxes for several years and sees her house repossessed and has only 90 days to raise the money to buy it back.
Happy discovers he has an amazing golf drive and starts to hustle money to try to improve his grandma’s situation and is spotted by Chubbs (Carl Weathers) who persuades him to enter a qualifying tournament which, if he wins, means he can join the pro tour. Of course, he does, but not everybody welcomes the foul mouthed, short-tempered newcomer.
Can Happy raise the money he needs? Can he learn to putt? Can golf handle him and his fans?
The 10 best golf films: 8. Tin Cup
Kevin Costner portrays Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy, a golf range driving pro who, when he puts his mind to it, has an amazing game. The problem is, he has about as much mental control of his limbs as an ice-skating Bambi and believes both his game and personal life have to be lived on the front foot, at all times.
Roy is happy with his squalid existence living in a Winnebago, in Salome, West Texas – with an outside spa – until Dr Molly Griswold (Rene Russo) shows up for private lessons and waggles her way into the heart of our flawed hero.
At the same time his old friend/nemesis David Simms – smoothly played by Don Johnson of white suited Miami Vice fame – reappears in Salome and we have ourselves a good old fashioned love triangle as David not only has the career Roy craves, he is also the current beau of the lovely doctor.
This spurs on the best player to never make it to attempt an ambitious double – qualify for the U.S. Open and win the heart of Molly – something he needs help with on both counts from his caddy, Romeo (Cheeh Marin).
The film is all set to a fantastic soundtrack featuring Bruce Hornsby, George Jones and Buddy Guy among others.
Did you know? Director Ron Shelton often writes or directs films about sports. As well as golf he has made movies about baseball, basketball and boxing.
The 10 best golf films: 7. Swing Away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUd7OtFGbZA
We all know the origins of the modern game were developed in Scotland or was it Greece?
Swing Away is a little known 2016 release about Zoe Papadopoulos who, while playing on the LPGA and suffering from the yips, has a meltdown and throws a hissy fit Elton John would be proud of.
To get away she jets off to her grandparents stunningly beautiful whitewashed village on the Greek island of Rhodes.
Here, by chance she meets Stella, an aspiring young golfer who cannot afford to play on the local course and the two form a friendship with Zoe becoming Stella’s golfing mentor.
Because of the financial crisis, the village has sold the aforementioned club to “a rude American” and is run by “a stupid Greek”.
Zoe ends up working here and tries to help not only Stella with her game but the local villagers with theirs and more.
Less intense than a lot of the other movies on this list but a worthwhile gentle film that non-golfers would embrace, thanks in a way to the stunning scenery.
Did you know? John O’Hurley, the baddie of this flick, is a keen golfer who plays off a single-digit handicap.
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The 10 best golf films: 6. Seve the Movie
Seve the Movie is the life story of one of the most charismatic and likeable golfers of all time.
Seve Ballesteros, or Ballerina Sevesteros as he was once introduced, was a golf obsessed young boy who used to skip school to practice on the local beaches, with his only club – a 3-iron – in the small village of Padrena in Northern Spain where he grew up in a tight-knit family.
The film is told in English and Spanish, with subtitles where appropriate, and includes film of the man himself throughout the movie. Although this sounds like it may take you out of the film it does not, if anything it strengthens the viewing pleasure.
Director John-Paul Davidson shows us where Seve got his tremendous will to win and what golf meant to this extremely talented individual, as well as what he meant to the game of golf.
The ending, what an ending!
There are better overall golf films, but none with such an emotional finish – one that gives a small glimpse of the high regard that the golfer and more importantly the man, was held in by his fellow pros.
Turn the page to find out what’s No. 1 as our best golf films countdown continues…
The 10 best golf films: 5. The Squeeze
This is an entertaining romp about Augie Baccus (Jeremy Sumpter) who is a rock’n’roll golfer living in small town Texas.
One day he shoots a 63 to win the City golf tournament by 15 shots and also break the course record.
At the same time, professional gambler, Riverboat (Christopher McDonald) and his over the top girlfriend Jessie (Katherine LaNasa), also known as ‘The Bank’, are listening to the radio in their car.
So they decide to swing by and try to convince Augie play golf in money matches in which they will back the talented young man, but our aspiring star refuses.
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Riverboat is nothing if not persistent and tracks Augie down at work and this time, against his girlfriend Natalie’s wishes, he succumbs when the man who makes his living from the talent of others, rightly points out this has gone on in golf for many a year.
All is going well until the intrepid trio try their luck in Las Vegas where Augie gets caught in the squeeze between his backer and local hoodlum Jimmy Diamonds when he has to play in a match for a cool million dollars and an awful lot more.
Did you know? Terry Jastrow, who wrote and directed this movie, loosely based it on Keith Flatt. This is the second film in my top ten in which Christopher McDonald plays one of the main characters, he is also Adam Sandler’s nemesis in Happy Gilmore.
The 10 best golf films: 4. Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
Robert Tyre Jones Jr was a sickly child with an amazing golf ability and one of the best swings ever seen. He was a fantastic player but had a foul temper with club in hand and an inner smouldering wrath which dogged him on the course.
He had his breakthrough in 1923 when he won his first U.S. Open but 1930 would be his most glorious golfing year as he became the first and only man to win the Grand Slam of British Open, US Open, British Amateur and US Amateur in a calendar year.
Jim Caviezel, as Jones, delves deep into the psyche of this extremely talented but vulnerable individual with aplomb and we understand why, after this momentous achievement, he retired from tournament golf before reaching 29 to concentrate on his day job as a lawyer. However, he did make time to found and help design Augusta National Golf Club, oh and the small matter of co-founding the Masters.
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The 10 best golf films: 3. Tommy’s Honour
In 1860s Scotland, Tom Morris is one of the finest golfers in the land. “Old Tom”, who is viewed as the father of the modern game, was also the father of Tommy Morris or as he is commonly known “Young Tom”.
Between them, the two men would be the youngest as well as the oldest Open champions. The pair are portrayed by Peter Mullan and the extremely talented Jack Lowden respectively, with both actors putting in fine performances.
In this true tale of their relationship, we get to study not only the early origins of the game but the changing times and British class system.
A film not only for golf players but anybody with an interest in human drama or historical movies.
Note of interest
In 2004, a commemorative five pound Scottish banknote was issued to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews featuring Old Tom’s likeness.
The 10 best golf films: 2. From the Rough
An Englishman, an Australian, a South Korean, a French-Algerian and an African American walk into a bar, no this is not the beginning of a bad joke but the first ever golf team Tania Starks puts together.
From the Rough is the story of Starks (Taraji P. Henson), the former swim coach of Tennessee State University.
She is a workaholic coach who, when the chance presents itself to become the university’s newly formed men’s golf team coach, volunteers for the role and in doing so becomes the first female African American to coach a men’s NCAA division golf team.
Starks only gets the job because no-one else is interested and then finds in turn nobody is interested in playing for her.
She casts her net far and wide recruiting other people’s table scraps – who hail from five different continents – instead of just the black American community which is the more traditional route for TSU sports teams.
This multi-layered film about a multi-racial team shows how golf can bring us together and the difference a dedicated coach can make, not only to somebody’s game but their whole life.
Did you know? In her time at TSU one of the players Starks coached, Sean Foley, went on to become Tiger Woods’ swing coach.
The 10 best golf films: 1. The Greatest Game Ever Played
Another true story, another cracking film.
This is the account of the 1913 US Open and the tale of 20-year-old amateur, Francis Ouimet (Shia LeBeouf), which documents his struggle to play golf against his father’s wishes and certain members of the establishment.
Luckily for Francis, some other people within the golfing world see his talent and try to help him fulfil his potential, one of them being his 10-year-old caddie Eddie Lowery.
The film shows us the young man’s story on the way to this competition along with Harry Vardon’s (Stephen Dillane) who at the time was a 5-time Open champion and would go on to be the player that held that particular title on the most occasions, with six victories in all.
The movie focuses on five players in this tournament, the two mentioned previously along with two more British invaders, Ted Ray (Stephen Marcus) and Wilfred Reid (George Asprey). The quintet is made up by American defending champion, John McDermott (Michael Weaver) and through some thoughtful direction Bill Paxton shows us how each player’s mind is their own biggest enemy.
For the golfing historians among you, yes some of the scorecards are incorrect but Paxton ramps up the tension on each and every day of this dramatic clash to give us an extremely tense finale, especially if you don’t know the outcome.
Did you know? Francis and Eddie, who went on to become a multimillionaire, stayed firm friends for life.
So there you have it, the 10 best golf films, do you agree with Michael’s choices? Let us hear your favourites in the comments.
