The 10 best golf films of all time
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.
Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
