How Happy Gilmore made golf sexy

Telegraph

8 hours ago

In 2015, the actor Christopher McDonald attended the US Open and found himself in a private box with Tiger Woods. Professional golfers know McDonald for playing Shooter McGavin, the smug, sneering villain of Adam Sandler 's beloved 1996 golf comedy, Happy Gilmore. He also returns for the long-anticipated sequel, which is now streaming on Netflix.
While golf enthusiasts would usually pester Woods for a selfie, in this case it was the other way round. Woods – a 15-time major tournament winner – wanted a photo with the one and only Shooter McGavin. Such is the cult reputation of Happy Gilmore in the golfing world.
'We did a selfie and it wound up on the internet with a bunch of funny headlines,' McDonald later told Vulture. 'My favourite was, 'Greatest Golfer in the World Takes Picture with Tiger Woods.''
In the original film, Happy Gilmore (Sandler) is a failed, short-fused ice hockey player who turns to golf when he discovers a knack for hitting a 400-yard drive. He enters the PGA Tour for the prize money, to save his sweet (but tax-dodging) grandmother's repossessed house, and causes chaos in the usually stuffy sport – swearing, fighting, and throwing his clubs around the green. The character was inspired by Kyle McDonough, a childhood friend of Sandler's and a former hockey player.
In the years since its 1996 release, golf pros have copied Happy's signature tee-off shot – a running, hockey-powered swing – and golfers have lined up for a cameo in Happy Gilmore 2.
It's little wonder. Happy Gilmore – the definitive Adam Sandler comedy – gave the sport a sense of humour. It's the film that finally gave golf a bit more edge.
'[Did it make it] a bit sexier and trendier? I think, yes, absolutely it did!' Kyle McDonough – the original Happy Gilmore – tells me now. 'Not everybody who loves Happy Gilmore plays golf, but I think everybody who actually likes golf loves the film.'
Sandler and McDonough have been friends since the first grade (6-7 years old) and then lived just three blocks away from each other in Manchester, New Hampshire. As teenagers they would play golf with Sandler's father. McDonough, who played ice hockey from the age of five, could always drive the ball much farther down the fairway – though not quite as far as the 400-yard drives seen in the movie.
'His father would say, 'What's with those wrists? That's something to do with that hockey background… there's something there,'' recalls McDonough, 59, now a history teacher in New Hampshire.
Did McDonough agree with Sandler Sr's theory, that hockey was the reason he hit the ball farther? 'It made sense to me,' he says. 'The core, the hand-eye coordination… I wasn't going to argue. And, hey, it helped my golf game! It was a good enough theory.' He adds: 'I've played golf with a lot of hockey players who can really hit the ball. But do we always know where it's going? No…'
How far could McDonough really hit the ball? 'A little later on, I was invited to a tournament,' he says. 'I had to borrow Adam's father's clubs. I won the long drive contest in that tournament. I hit that right near the green. It was 300-something yards.'
McDonough recalls that after a stint playing pro ice hockey in Scotland, Sandler called him and told him that he was planning to make a movie inspired by his friend's talent. McDonough gave Sandler advice on the world of hockey and hockey players. In the film, Happy Gilmore isn't particularly good at hockey or ice skating – all he can do is whack the puck and whack the opposing players.
McDonough admits he could be tough and sweary on the ice, but that's where the similarities end. 'I was a tough hockey player but I wasn't Happy tough,' he says. 'I wouldn't stab people with skates… but I led the league in penalties when I played in Norway. I guess you say there's a little Happy in me.'
Sandler began working on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s and moved into movies. Following the similarly-spirited Billy Madison (1995) – about a slacker who goes back to school – Happy Gilmore was one of his early breakout films, establishing Sandler's volatile, sweet-natured man-child schtick.
During filming, Sandler turned to Mark Lye, a pro golfer-turned-broadcaster, for advice on the golfing world. Lye protested about some story elements that he thought were mocking the sacred game and the hallowed ground of Augusta National, the club where the Masters Tournament is held. Lye insisted they remove the inclusion of the coveted green jacket, traditionally worn by the winner of the Masters, so Happy competes for a fictitious gold jacket instead. Lye also arranged for the crew to attend a PGA Tour event to get a feel for what golf was really like.
Happy Gilmore is a far from realistic depiction, though. Golf experts have had some fun picking apart its numerous golfing inaccuracies, from scoreboard errors to Happy's hockey stick-shaped Odyssey putter. (Odyssey has released a hockey stick putter to coincide with the sequel). But the film is ultimately about loosening up golf's prim-and-proper disposition. 'Golf has been waiting for a player like this,' says Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen), the golf publicist-turned-love interest. 'A colourful, emotional working-class hero.'
Happy's antics draw new fans to golf. In the movie, one golf commentator describes the newfound fans as an 'economically diverse crowd'. And anecdotally, at least, a similar trend took place in real life: Happy Gilmore brought the formerly upper-crust sport to the masses.
Happy Gilmore isn't the only iconic golf comedy. Caddyshack (1980), starring Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, scored a hole in one for the previous generation of golfing fans. But Caddyshack didn't stick a flag into the golfing culture in the same way as Happy Gilmore.
Golf websites such as Golf Digest are packed with articles on Happy Gilmore (with particular love for Shooter McGavin), and attempting the wild Happy Gilmore swing has become a staple for golfing pros. Irish golfer Pádraig Harrington is particularly well known for doing it. Harrington performed the swing at the 2014 PGA Championship. 'Look, it's second nature to me,' he said. 'I grew up playing hurling so I've never had a second thought about doing a Happy Gilmore – running up, hitting it.'
The Happy Gilmore swing is technically legal, though the R&A golf authority gave a snooty opinion on it back in 2012, telling CNN that there was a concern about 'whether it fits with the etiquette of the game as defined in the rules. Players must have respect for the course itself and perhaps this shot lends itself to increased likelihood of damage to the course.'
Rick Shiels, a British PGA pro and golf YouTuber, made a video about the Happy Gilmore swing ('One of my favourite films of all time,' he said) to see if the technique actually helps hit the ball further. He managed to wallop the ball an impressive 337 yards, at a speed of 120mph.
McDonough is amused at the idea his long drives inadvertently inspired the pros. 'I saw three or four of them all doing it at the same time, I guess it's kind of a ritual.'
McDonough is likely referring to a 2021 video in which Team TaylorMade – a group of sponsored pros including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy – marked 25 years of Happy Gilmore by wearing his iconic hockey shirt and trying the big Happy drive.
The big swing isn't the only part of Happy's game that's influenced real golfers. In 2022, Spencer Levin used a Happy-style putting technique – holding the club with a split grip, with one hand much lower than usual – at the Shriners Open, making his first PGA Tour cut in five years. And just last week at the Scottish Open, American pro Scottie Scheffler was compared to Happy for outstretching his arms in disbelief when a putt veered off to the left.
Scheffler is among numerous golfers who have cameos in Happy Gilmore 2, along with Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, and Nelly Korda. McDonough also has a cameo as a caddy.
For McDonough, it's a fun legacy – particularly in his job as a history teacher. Every year the younger students hear the rumours that he's the basis for Happy.
'Rumours fly around from the older kids,' he says. 'By the end of the year they ask me directly, 'Is that true?' Sometimes I play around and say, 'That doesn't sound like me.' They look it up and I get a bit more street cred when they realise it's true.'
It's telling that Happy Gilmore is still an unlikely sporting hero for younger generations. Almost thirty years on, Happy Gilmore's popularity keeps on swinging – from the golfing green and beyond.