Squeezing a round can be difficult enough on its own, but it’s certainly a bit trickier when you have to mind 10 dogs simultaneously. However, this fellow handles it with ease. He trusts his pooches to be chill on the course and knows when it’s time to get back on the move.

??? Those ten good boys are having the walk of their lives ?

(?: bobby.scarboro/IG) pic.twitter.com/2fyBydw7qm

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) October 5, 2023

This clip has made the rounds here and there, but that doesn’t mean we can’t recognise its brilliance and the camaraderie of a golfer and his course-trotting canines.

Imagine coming across this on the course. It would either fix your bad round or make a good day even better. Unless you’re allergic, of course.

Seen it live. It’s impressive pic.twitter.com/kGP0kKEDiJ

— Kev'n (@KevCo32) October 5, 2023

Anyway, we know that this is a heck of an 18 holes for both the man and his dogs. It’s a great walk for them, and they won’t care if you hit a bad shot.

Main image: @KevCo32

The post Watch as golfer walks 10 dogs while getting a round in appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The other day I pulled nine clubs out of my golf bag and stuffed them in my trunk. Thanks to a sore back and some general frustration with my game, I wanted to play with just five. I needed a break from carrying a full bag, and getting in and out of a cart was actually worse (“You could also not play,” my wife suggested, which I assumed was a joke). Plus, I had the sense I was starting to take golf too seriously and this might help me lighten up.

Did it work? Yes. But also, no. Let me explain.

The five-club experiment

The original plan was to play with just three clubs since that would be far more restrictive and require greater creativity. But I went with five for two reasons: one, my driver has been erratic of late and I wanted the opportunity to work on it. Also, my regular golf group plays a modest four-ball Nassau that I didn’t want to disrupt. Was I already compromising the “just go out there and have fun” edict I was purporting to follow? Of course. Is my relationship with golf complicated? Exceptionally.

Anyway, the five clubs I chose: driver, 6-iron, 9-iron, 56-degree wedge, putter. In that arrangement, the biggest gap by far was the 70 or so yards between my driver and 6-iron, but that really wasn’t the hardest part. More on that in a bit.

Where it helped

Early in my round, it was apparent how the limitations of my bag could oddly play to my advantage. The first hole of my club is a beefy par 4. Even with a good drive, I’m usually left with more than 200 yards in, but with only a 6-iron in my bag, I was absolved of the delusion I could get home. Instead, I smoothed an approach to 35 yards short of the green, pitched to 10 feet, and lipped out a par putt.

Most of the front nine played out in a similar fashion. My ball striking is a wildcard even with access to all of my clubs, but my short game keeps me competitive, so I was content to deliver balls to strategic sports short of greens and take my chances from there. The fun was in trying to solve a new puzzle — choking down on 6-irons, bumping 9-irons, or trying to muscle 5 extra yards out of a sand wedge. If I was faring worse on the scorecard, it wasn’t by much, and the benefits were apparent. In mindfulness practices, they call this “beginner’s mind,” in which you approach an endeavour with fresh eyes and without preconceived expectations. For someone who plays a decent amount of golf at the same course, this was an opportunity to play the game from a different perspective. If you find yourself stuck in a similar rut, I recommend it.

And yet …

Where it hurt

There is a reason golf is played with 14 clubs. Ask tour players about the regrettable tendencies of their pro-am partners, and many cite that they don’t take enough club. The mid-handicapper often confuses the ability to hit a 6-iron 165 yards with the ability to do so consistently, which I’d say is pretty stupid if I wasn’t guilty of the same thing. Now take nine clubs out of your bag, and your room for error is pared even more. If I am capable of manufacturing a decent score with a limited set, it’s contingent on me hitting each of those five clubs well every time, which in my decades of playing golf has happened precisely … never. The strain builds, and suddenly this innocuous experiment of playing with fewer clubs had me gripping a 9-iron too tight and trying to fly it 140 yards over a bunker. Spoiler alert: I wound up in the bunker. In this case, I didn’t take enough clubs because I didn’t have enough clubs.

Lesson learned: Frame success differently

The mistake of my experiment was not in setting a goal, but perhaps making it unrealistic. I had a target score that wasn’t so far removed from my normal range, and I was trying to compete in a match at roughly the same level (my playing partners allotted me one extra stroke a side). Now factor in a stiff back, and I made things too hard for myself … which led to frustration … which was supposedly the thing I was trying to avoid.

Testing yourself is good for your golf, and so is trying to breathe life into your routine. It’s when the two pursuits aren’t aligned that things get sideways. I am going to play with five clubs again soon, but next time it will be without a hard target or a goal of trying to figure out my swing. In hindsight, the fewer clubs in your bag, the fewer thoughts should be in your head as well.

The post Can playing with just five clubs make you better? Here’s what I learned appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

• • •

When you question the standards and practices of PGA Tour players, multiple expert teachers and perhaps even golf’s ruling bodies, you better bring in some heavy thinking. Especially when you say that not only is leaving the flagstick in questionable, it’s no benefit for 99.9 per cent of putts. But this conclusion is not made lightly.

There’s loads of science behind that number. But then this is what you should expect when you put a PhD on the case, which is what Golf Digest did in an effort to answer the debate over the flagstick and whether in or out is the best way to putt.

Tom Mase, professor of mechanical engineering and former associate chair of the department of mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), is no amateur golf scientist. He’s been on the vanguard of golf equipment research for much of his 30-plus years in academia, as well as stints at both Callaway and Titleist and as an original and long-time member of the Golf Digest Hot List Technical Advisory Panel.

His research on the value of leaving the flagstick in was precise, painstaking and perfectly clear. His findings upend the conventional wisdom that the flagstick is some kind of backstop, gathering wayward putts back into the hole. The facts of his study suggest the opposite, that the flagstick does much, much more to hurt your chances of a putt going in than help turn a bad putt into a made one. Here’s how he got to that incredibly definitive number:

What was Prof. Mase’s testing methodology?

The testing occurred over six separate sessions at the Cal Poly golf team practice facility at Dairy Creek Golf Course. Some of the preliminary sessions determined a model and methodology for the final testing, but the main testing involved rolling putts with the Perfect Putter training aid, which is a ramp-like structure that sends the ball on a consistent path and at a consistent pace. The Perfect Putter was set up two-and-a-half feet from the hole to eliminate the irregularities in the putting surface that might have skewed results on putts from a longer distance. Given that the focus of the study was the pace of the putt as it reached the hole, this speed could be regulated more consistently from close range.

Putts were rolled six at a time during various scenarios and speeds. Those included:
—Flagstick in (with three different flagsticks: fibreglass, tapered aluminium, dual-diameter aluminium)
—Flagstick out
—On-center hit—Off-center hit

There were five main areas of focus in the testing.

So where does the 99.9 per cent number come from?

“Let’s say that a golfer is an extremely good putter,” Mase says. “He or she seems to hit the hole or get a piece of the hole every time. Of course, they are not perfect, so assume their putts adhere to what scientists call a ‘normal distribution.’ A normal distribution is basically what we know as a bell curve. For our really good golfer, we’ll assume that the middle of the hole gets the most activity (the top of the bell curve) and then the range of all putts drops off equally left and right of dead centre, stretching at the extremes beyond the edges of the hole. These dropoffs, or standard deviations, are broken down into six regions across the 4.25-inch diameter of the hole. Divide 4.25 inches by 6 and you get 0.7083 inches per standard deviation. That means our really good putter only hits the area of the hole 99.73 per cent of the time.”

Now, Prof. Mase’s theory explains that hitting the flagstick directly means hitting a half-inch wide area in the centre of the hole, or less than the width of one standard deviation. Using a Matlab script, he calculated the probability density function and concluded that this theoretical “really good putter” is hitting the flagstick straight on only 27.6 per cent of the time.

So basically, there are two scenarios to consider: the approximately 28 per cent of putts that hit the flagstick straight-on; and the approximately 72 per cent of putts that otherwise catch some portion of the flagstick and the hole.

First, let’s consider putts that hit the flagstick straight-on.

In Prof. Mase’s exercise, for putts rolling at a pace equal to 2 1⁄2 feet past the hole, 100 per cent of putts went in. That was true regardless of the scenario: flagstick in, flagstick out, straight in or off-centre and regardless of flagstick type. For straight-on putts that would hit the flagstick dead centre, there also was no difference in attempts for putts that would have rolled 4 1⁄2 feet past the hole. Whether the flagstick was in or not, 100 per cent of the putts were made. That 100-per cent make rate also remained true for attempts on putts rolling eight feet by the hole.

However, once that velocity was exceeded, the putts holed dropped precipitately. At nine and 10 feet past the hole, the make rate drops well below 50 per cent with the flagstick out to ultimately zero. With the flagstick in, it generally remains at 100 per cent—even at a pace 11, 12 and 13 feet past the hole (see chart below). (One caveat: The dual-diameter aluminium pin showed make rates dropping below 50 per cent at nine feet past the hole and higher.)

What does this tell us? For that theoretical 27.6 per cent of putts that would hit the flagstick straight on, the advantage of leaving the flagstick in vs. out for holing those putts only begins to manifest itself when the pace of the putt is greater than rolling nine feet past the hole. But how often does that happen? Here’s where we get to the 99.9 per cent solution, although hold on, because we’re about to hit you with a lot of math.

Using PGA Tour statistics from 2018, on putts of more than 25 feet, the make percentage is 5.48 per cent. So under our model, this very good PGA Tour putter is then only hitting the flagstick dead centre a little more than one-fourth of those putts, or approximately 1.37 per cent of the time. Now, according to the PGA Tour’s ShotLink data, the number of putts that finish 10 or more feet from the hole is less than one per cent. Admittedly, that number is for all putts, but let’s get real. Tour players don’t miss putts by 10 or more feet very often when they’re putting from less than 25 feet. Basically, though, using these statistics and our model, about one per cent of putts from 25 feet or more are hitting the flagstick dead on at a speed that would take them 10 feet or more past the hole. That’s .01 per cent of the time.

So that’s the only time the flagstick will help a putt go in the hole that would not have gone in otherwise. The rest of the time—99.99 per cent—the better play is to putt with the flagstick out of the hole.

But doesn’t the flagstick help on off-centre flagstick strikes?

As Prof. Mase’s data and study establish, it is much more likely that a putt would be striking the flagstick off-centre as opposed to dead on. According to our probability calculations above, putts that contact the flagstick off-centre with a glancing blow occur almost three times more often (72 per cent vs. 28 per cent). So does the flagstick help in these situations? Once again, the answer is an overwhelming “No.” In Mase’s testing, he chose a pace where the ball was rolling 4 1⁄2 feet beyond the hole. (Remember that at 2 1⁄2 feet by the hole, 100 per cent of the putts were made whether the flagstick was in or out.) Here are the results of the off-centre testing performed with the Perfect Putter at Cal Poly. For the first round of 30 rolls, the order of testing and number of putts holed were:

For the first round of 30 rolls, the order of testing and number of putts holed were:
Fibreglass pin: 15/30
Pin out: 22/30
Taper pin: 15/30
Multi-diameter pin: 11/30

The second round kept the same order as the first round. The putts holed were as follows:
Fibreglass pin: 15/30
Pin out: 29/30
Taper pin: 2/30
Multi-diameter pin: 9/30

A final round of 30 putts:
Fibreglass pin: 25/30
Pin out: 30/30
Taper pin: 15/30
Multi-diameter pin: 14/30

For a putt travelling 4-1/2 feet past the hole. The total numbers are as follows:
Fibreglass pin: 55/90
Pin out: 81/90
Taper pin: 32/90
Dual-diameter pin: 34/90

In total, the make percentage with the flagstick out was 90 per cent. The average with a flagstick in was 45 per cent, as high as 61 per cent with the fibreglass pin and as low as 36 per cent with the dual-diameter pin. In general, then, a putt that would have struck the flagstick off-centre is twice as likely to go in with the flagstick out as it is with the flagstick in.

What about the belief that the flagstick may have some benefit in distance or break perception?

Prof. Mase’s brief study of this aspect was inconclusive. To assess whether people are better at processing a 25-foot putt with the pin in or out, players putted from two spots on the practice green to holes running in opposite directions. Players made one attempt on each of the putts. The first putt taken by the players alternated between the flagstick-in and flagstick-out conditions. The players tested were mostly collegiate golfers playing in the Bruin-Wave Invitational. Schools helping us with the testing were San Diego State University, New Mexico State, University of New Mexico, University of Washington, University of California, Stanford, Pepperdine, San Francisco University, UCLA, and Cal Poly.

There was no difference in the distance from the hole between the two scenarios. Whether the flagstick was in or out, putts finished about two feet from the hole. With the flagstick out, the misses were slightly closer (23.6 inches) than with the flagstick in (25.7 inches). With the flagstick in, 56 per cent of the putts finished past or in the hole. With the flagstick out, 39 per cent of the putts finished past or in the hole. Here is a chart for how putts finished in the two scenarios.

Jeff Troesch, mental coach to several college teams, explained that how players perceived and used the flagstick was still very much a work in progress.

“I speak with dozens of golfers every week and what is notable about the visual/mental perceptions of the pin is that the golfer reactions are quite varied. Some see having the pin in on shorter putts as visually intimidating and this feels distracting. Others perceive the hole to look smaller with the pin in (on shorter putts) and find this disconcerting. Others appreciate with the pin in that there is the sense of a “backstop”- particularly for putts that are downhill and/or are longer where there might be an overall increase of top putting speed. Still more have spoken about a sense of having greater hole awareness for short to mid-range putts as they can see the pin in their peripheral vision when in the address position. There is a group of golfers who don’t like the sight/notion of something that is “so radically different” from how they’ve always putted. They articulate finding themselves internally distracted from relevant cues that have worked in their pre-putt routine or during the execution of the putt itself. Others find themselves open and receptive to it and are particularly influenced by the perspectives of pros (e.g. Bryson DeChambeau and Adam Scott).”

So where does all this science leave us?

Leaving the flagstick in may have some benefits but from a physics standpoint, there is zero evidence to suggest that the flagstick helps in any but the rarest of situations. What the flagstick may do is occasionally reduce the length of a second putt and therefore possibly help reduce three-putts. Of course, it also will clearly and substantially reduce the number of one-putts. It’s also clear from our research that the fibreglass type of flagstick is the least detrimental (but still nowhere near as good as taking the flagstick out). Finally, there is some evidence that tour players putting on really fast greens may benefit slightly because the ball may be rolling slower as it comes in contact with the pin. This benefit however remains miniscule compared to the benefit of pulling out the flagstick completely. Perhaps the best benefits to leaving the flagstick in are the optics and distance perception. Several sports vision experts we contacted suggested there would be such benefits, especially from longer distances, and noted putting instructor Mike Shannon said his research suggested players read greens better because the flagstick acted as a plumb line. So the obvious solution might be to have the flagstick attended. In other words, a return to the preferred method from before the new rule was enacted. We shall see if tour players will see this data and change their minds.

The post The science behind why the flagstick should be pulled 99.9 per cent of the time appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

No, we’re not talking about Tiger Woods, but rather Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy. It turns out one of the most famous golf movie characters hit theaters less than two weeks before Tiger turned pro in August of 1996. But while Woods sparked a golf boom, sadly, the driving range pro from West Texas didn’t usher in an era of (other) great golf movies.

“Tin Cup,” however, still holds up, as evidenced by how often it gets referenced by golfers and by the countless re-airings of it on Golf Channel. And the biggest reason for the cult following that’s developed over the past quarter-century is the character of McAvoy, a West Texas driving range pro talented enough to be on the PGA Tour, but pigheaded enough to always get in his own way.

“The fact that year after year after year, not only on the Golf Channel or on cable or in life, like when Jean van de Velde blew the British Open and they said on TV, ‘Oh my god it’s ‘Tin Cup,'” producer Gary Foster said. “Every time I play golf with someone I don’t know . . . I say, ‘Oh, I did this movie Tin Cup.’ (They say) ‘Oh, my god!’ Of course, it feels amazing. Because most movies don’t last, and this is a classic.”

So to honour “Tin Cup’s” silver anniversary, we went behind the scenes—literally—with some of the people involved with the film, including Tin Cup himself. From how the film came together, to funny tales from the set, to why Kevin Costner almost didn’t take the role, here’s more on what is, for our money, the most authentic golf movie ever made. And why there hasn’t been another one quite like it.

BELOW: LISTEN TO THE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE PODCAST ON “TIN CUP”

• • • • •

In the fall of 1994, the writer and director Ron Shelton, writer John Norville, and producer Gary Foster got together for a round of golf at Ojai Valley Inn that proved to be an important step in the creation of what would become “Tin Cup.” Golf buddies and fellow screenwriters Shelton and Norville had discussed doing a movie about the game for years, but looping in Foster, whose long list of producing credits include “Sleepless in Seattle” and the TV show “Community,” was an important next step.

“So we had a fun round of golf and then we were sitting at the bar afterwards and (said) something to the effect of, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could do this every day, get paid for it?” Foster said. “Is there a movie? Is there an idea?”

That idea had actually first taken shape during the final round of the 1993 Masters. That’s when Chip Beck infamously laid up on the par-5 15th hole during the final round when he trailed eventual winner Bernhard Langer by three shots. It was the closest Beck ever came to winning a major, but in a weird way he helped create the character who would eventually become known as Roy McAvoy.

Chip Beck plays third shot to the 15th green after laying up during the final round of the 1993 Masters. David Cannon

“And we got on the phone immediately and said, OK, the guy’s flaw is that he can’t lay up. He’s incapable of laying up,” Shelton said. “What about a guy who keeps going for it on the last hole? And his hubris, what’s great about him is also what his flaw is. He has to go for it. Even if it’s going to kill him. And there’s something that I admire about that. And there’s something that’s childlike. And we all have a self-destructive streak, probably. We actually started with the ending.”

We’ll get into that famed ending more in a little bit, but first, let’s address why making a golf movie requires the same type of daring attitude as going for a par 5 in two with a tournament on the line. Seriously, think about how few great golf movies have been made. Then think about how few golf movies have been made at all in the past 25 years.

If anyone could pull it off, though, it was Shelton, who had already written and directed a couple classic sports movies, “Bull Durham” and “White Men Can’t Jump.” But Shelton says golf was by far the most difficult sport he’s ever shot.

“We had a number of concerns. One of them was that it’s not a dynamic game in the way basketball, football and boxing are. Even baseball. It’s a mental game mostly,” Shelton said. “A golf course is 150 acres and a tournament is 150 guys doing basically the same thing over and over.”

Writer and director Ron Shelton flanked by “Tin Cup’s” two star golfers. Evan Agostini

Finding a place to shoot was also an issue. The driving range where Tin Cup works was built from scratch in a remote area about an hour south of Tucson, but even a major motion picture’s budget doesn’t cover building an entire golf course to host a fictional major championship. After a search across Florida, Myrtle Beach and San Francisco, they settled on Kingwood Country Club just outside of Houston, shooting most of those tournament scenes on the Forest and Deerwood courses there. Arizona’s Tubac Golf Club was also used for some of the film’s earlier scenes.

But there’s are also an economic reason for the lack of golf movies—and sports movies in general. As Foster explained, there are many foreign distributors who explicitly have it written in their contracts that they won’t deal with the sports genre.

“In America, yes, sports genre films can work. You know, Bull Durham and Tin Cup and all those films Ron makes, they work here. But they don’t travel as well,” Shelton said. “We thought with Tin Cup and golf, especially in Japan and other parts of Asia since golf is such a big sport, we might have another result. We did OK initially and overtime it’s continued to have an audience around the world, but it didn’t break out the way we had hoped it would.”

That’s not to say it didn’t do well. Very well, in fact. Despite being moved to a less-than-desirable late August release due to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, “Tin Cup” opened number one in the box office. And it wound up taking in nearly $76 million, exceeding the movie’s reported budget by some $30 million.

Obviously, having one of the biggest movie stars on the planet attached to your script certainly helps get it into theaters. But even with Shelton and Norville targeting Costner for the role right away, he was initially reluctant.

“I wasn’t going to do Tin Cup. Not because I didn’t think it was good, not because I didn’t think it was great. It was, I could see it,” Costner said. “But I was going through a divorce and I had just finished the longest movie in history. The average movie films for 40-60 days and I had just done 157 days on Waterworld. And I was really low. . . . I was down, my heart was on the ground.”

Plus, there was the fact that at point, Costner wasn’t really a seasoned golfer.

“And then, something in me, what was being said to me made sense,” said Costner, who credits then CAA agent Jane Sindell for finally convincing him. “And I agreed to go do it. And it was literally one of the best things I ever did in my life, was to go off with Ron and make Tin Cup.”

Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, and Don Johnson at the movie premiere of “Tin Cup.” Albert Ortega

The rest of the cast came together much easier. Well, except for the part of David Simms. Alec Baldwin had originally accepted the role as Tin Cup’s smarmy PGA Tour star rival, but he called Shelton to pull out just three weeks before shooting because then wife Kim Basinger was having some pregnancy issues.

That caused a bit of a scramble to fill the role and Shelton narrowed in on two other candidates: Tom Selleck and Don Johnson. But when Selleck couldn’t meet, he offered Johnson the part within five minutes.

But there was another job that proved to be just as important. And it didn’t go to an actor.

• • • • •

How do you make a golf movie authentic? You start by hiring an authentic golfer.

It certainly helped that Shelton, Foser, and Norville, who played college golf at Stanford, were avid players, but they knew they needed an actual tour pro to properly bring the tournament-related scenes to life. Gary McCord became that guy, and he was officially brought aboard as a consultant. Never a winner on the PGA Tour and already transitioning into his broadcasting career, McCord also fit the irreverent vibe Shelton craved.

“We wanted to make a golf movie, not for the elite golf audience, but for everyone. Blue collar component of golf was important for this story and us, part of the thematic of the film. Gary represented that. Never won a golf tournament, hilarious,” Foster said. “And at the time he was partnered with Peter Kostis and they had those golf schools and obviously Peter is an incredible teacher. And we thought between those two we had a base of knowledge and a network we could utilize to reach out.”

Not that he was doing it for blue-collar wages. McCord took a mighty swing himself with a salary demand of a quarter million dollars—and couldn’t believe it when he got what he asked for. A quarter century later he still gets a kick out of telling people he was the highest-paid movie consultant in Hollywood at the time.

“I said, ‘Why me?’” McCord said of his initial chat with Shelton. “He goes, ‘Well, No. 1, you got kicked out of Augusta. No. 2, I just like your bullshit.’”

But Shelton also liked McCord’s stories. So much so that he took two things that happened during McCord’s career—a par-5 meltdown and a bar bet involving a pelican—and turned them into two of the movie’s pivotal parts. And McCord earned that consultant money by also playing the role of a producer, actor, and even babysitter.

“(Former Masters champion Craig) Stadler got arrested once in Tucson for driving his golf cart and three guys to go down to the 7/11 and get a case of beer and they’re not really supposed to be driving drunker than hell,” McCord recalls. “So it was like that.”

McCord was also the mastermind behind all those PGA Tour cameos, from Stadler to Phil Mickelson. When the film’s budget wouldn’t cover the appearance fees they were asking, he set up a dinner with Costner and Don Johnson with the players’ significant others and they quickly agreed to do it for scale.

Gary McCord, who Jim Nantz calls “the lynchpin” that brought the movie and CBS crews together for “Tin Cup.” Stan Badz

There was plenty more that went into making the film feel authentic, from signing sponsors for the fictional golfers to building out a TV tower that replicated the one at actual PGA Tour events to even bringing in the USGA to help get the courses in U.S. Open shape. And again, there were a lot of tales from the tour woven throughout.

“In essence, all the stuff was real that we did based on idiots like myself,” McCord said. “You had a lot of Trevino in there. A lot of Titanic Thompson with the hitting the ball down the road, stuff like that. So it was based on real stuff that golfers did, and it was just a fun movie.”

Is “Tin Cup” a perfect movie? Of course not. Are there unrealistic parts? Of course there are—from McAvoy’s 3-wood spinning so much to Peter Jacobsen winning a major. Sorry, Jake. But Shelton has a message for those nitpicking.

“Relax, folks. This is the most authentic golf movie you’ll ever see, whether you like it or not,” he said. “I mean, it is. We really looked hard at that. How do you stand, how do you put a tee in the ground. How do you stand. To Kevin, how do you stand when another guy is putting? There are ways. He’d make a long putt and he’d tend to raise the putter with his right hand and McCord would go, ‘No! Nobody raises it with their right hand!’ Things like that were very important.”

McCord and Kostis also put a lot of work into making sure Kevin had a swing that would hold up under scrutiny from golfers watching. At the time, the actor estimated he had only played about a dozen rounds in his life, and he wasn’t particularly keen on completely changing his swing at first.

To cover his bases, Shelton wrote Costner’s new three-quarter swing into the script. And it was easier to speed up in post production than the actor’s longer, more languid original move. Costner made clear from the beginning that he didn’t want a stunt double and that he intended to hit all the shots. And that he did, even pulling off a bunker shot with a garden hoe that McCord couldn’t do with hours of attempts.

McCord praised Costner’s athletic ability and called him a “parrot” for how quickly he was able to mimic various moves. That included hitting a flop shot, and even being able to shank a golf ball on cue. But the actor also practiced a lot and it showed. According to McCord, Costner improved enough to shoot even par a couple times during filming.

Jim Nantz, who played himself in the movie, wrote a Golf Digest column last year chronicling his involvement with the film. He remembers a special week in Akron, Ohio for the 1995 World Series of Golf, a year before the movie came out. If “Tin Cup” had been born on a golf course, its development began in earnest at a golf tournament.

“It was kind of a boot camp scenario for Kevin,” Nantz recalls. “He was being trained by two brilliant teachers in Kostis and McCord. And in the afternoons, they were coming over to Firestone and watching a really high quality tour event with a gathering of the world’s best. And at night, of course, there were team dinners and all of us were going out and having a big time of it. And the excitement was beginning to build about this movie that somehow we all were able to contribute in a few small ways to making a great film.”

• • • • •

But Nantz and the rest of the CBS Golf crew wound up having a major impact on how “Tin Cup’s” U.S. Open story is told. Although Shelton says he did less tinkering to this script than perhaps any other in his career, that big alteration was made after he spent time in the CBS production truck and saw the network’s legendary golf producer, Frank Chirkinian, at work.

Which leads us back to that final big tournament scene that has polarized audiences for more than a quarter century. The hero of the movie has a chance to win the U.S. Open and . . . he makes a 12?

Of course, it’s not just the score, but the way Roy McAvoy makes it. As we discussed, being bold is part of the character’s DNA, but not taking advantage of the rules by going to the drop area is downright reckless.

But once again, it was based on something that actually happened. At the 1986 FedEx St. Jude Classic, McCord dumped five balls in the water in a row on Colonial Country Club’s par-5 16th hole. Like McAvoy, McCord refused to listen to his caddie about going up to the drop area or changing clubs until finally switching from a 4-iron to a 3-iron after being informed he was down to his last golf ball. McCord finally hit the green and then drained a 25-foot putt for a crowd-pleasing 16, which is still one of the highest recorded scores in PGA Tour history.

Of course, that’s a bit different than being on the final hole of a major with a chance to win. And Shelton says he even had to fight to keep that scene as is because there were Hollywood execs who wanted a more, well, Hollywood ending. But he pointed to “Casablanca” as an example of a movie that’s more memorable because the audience doesn’t get what it wants. And he’s had to debate it with many people since—including future U.S. President Donald Trump after an early New York screening of the film.

“He didn’t say, ‘How are you? Nice job,’ he said, ‘Let me tell you how you could have made a better movie.’ Honest to God, this is what he said,” Shelton says. “‘You can go into the editing room where they do those things, I know all about those things, and you can redo it so it goes in the hole and he wins. You make a lot more money, it’s a bigger hit.’ And I start to say my speech for all those people who say that. I say, ‘If Humphrey Bogart walks away with Ingrid Bergman,’ he turns around and he walks away with Marla and I never even got to Casablanca. That’s my Donald Trump moment.”

Thankfully, Shelton wouldn’t be swayed on this, and the world got its Tin Cup moment. One that he compares to the ending of another classic sports movie to further convey his point.

“If Rocky Balboa beats Carl Weathers, nobody believes it,” Shelton said. “He goes 15 rounds and it makes the movie work. It’s a fairytale about survival. And in that, it’s a triumph. These are important to me. You can’t win the game and win the girl. You can have one, you can’t have both—which is true in all my movies.”

But none of his other movies involves a climactic scene in which the protagonist does the same thing over and over—and over and over—and over and over again. To pull that off required some cinematic magic—from different viewpoints to different perspectives of other characters witnessing the action.

“You make it interesting in a number of ways,” Shelton explains. “First of all, you shoot the hell out of it. In other words, there are so many camera angles so that you’re never repeating what you saw exactly. And the ball flies into the water in different ways, it rolls back, it does this and it does that. . . . So you have these little things going on to keep it not repetitive.”

That’s not to say it didn’t get repetitive for Costner and those extras in the gallery—most of whom had no clue about the unexpected plot twist.

“I had enough of that hole after a day shooting there,” said Costner Deerwood’s 13th hole, which is actually a long par 4. “You know, because there are some people who don’t know the storyline and they go, ‘He’s just not going to get it across there!’ ‘That’s the script, lady. Just stick around and I’m going to hole this thing.’”

• • • • •

A surplus of athletic star power doesn’t guarantee a great movie. Just ask anyone who saw “Space Jam 2.” You still need a great script, and that’s where longtime golf buddies Shelton and Norville came in. They didn’t only nail those big tournament scenes, but also what makes regular hackers come back to the course every weekend. Just listen to Roy describe the golf swing in a lesson with Molly early in the movie.

It’s moments like those that perfectly capture the average golfer’s obsession with the game. After all, what golfer hasn’t had moments of brilliance when it feels like everything’s clicking only to completely lose it by the next hole? Even Roy McAvoy, a character who openly declares himself a “legendary ball-striker” can become so desperate that he needs to turn to a collection of infomercial swing aids at one point. And to a sports psychologist, for that matter.

So where has it gone wrong for other golf movies? For starters, there’s a lack of authenticity and attention to detail. But Foster believes other films have also remained too loyal to the game instead of focusing on a great story or compelling characters.

He and Shelton consider “Caddyshack” a classic because it was less about golf and more about poking fun at the country club scene. “Tin Cup” aims to be a more balanced portrayal of golf and the PGA Tour, but it’s about much more than that. There are loyal friendships, fierce rivalries, and, yes, a love story.

Let’s be honest, if it was just a movie about a golf pro and not a romantic comedy, the film never would have been No. 1 in the box office. And while “Tin Cup’s” characters aren’t as outrageous as Ty Webb and Judge Smails, they resonate with audiences in their own ways.

“I don’t see Tin Cup as a golf movie. I see Tin Cup as a story about Roy McAvoy and Romeo and David Simms and Molly,” Foster says. “Golf is part of it, and we committed ourselves to be as accurate and authentic as we could with the golf. But I would say audiences like it not just for how authentic the golf is, but for the storytelling, the characters, the thematics.”

After all, how realistic is it that a middle-age man working at a driving range could suddenly decide to give serious golf one more try and nearly win a major championship just a few months later? And that he would do something no one in golf history at the time had ever done: Shoot 62 in a major.

But it seems believable because of how everything is framed—and, yes, in part because of a familiar voice telling that underdog story.

Incredibly, Jim Nantz’s memorable monologue describing McAvoy making history was actually delivered far, far away from the cameras months after filming had ended.

“We did not have a sound-proof booth so I sat in the backseat of my rental car near the CBS truck,” Nantz said. “Gary Foster showed me a clip of McAvoy shooting 62 and said, ‘How would you handle that? What would you say if you were sitting on that moment?’ And basically I just gave him 20 seconds with the historical perspective that, ‘No one had shot 62 in a major, but now the record belongs to Roy McAvoy.’”

• • • • •

Releasing a movie is kind of like hitting a golf shot. A lot of preparation goes into it, but once it leaves your hands, it’s out of your control. Like Foster said, “Tin Cup” did well. But a slightly different timing could have turned it into a true blockbuster.

Although Shelton says the film benefitted a bit from the Tiger effect once it was released internationally, he estimates the box office take would have doubled had the movie been released in August of 1997 instead of 1996. You know, after Woods had won the Masters and set off that golf boom. It so happens “Happy Gilmore,” which was released in February of 1996 and only made about half what “Tin Cup” did, just missed the Tiger bump as well.

That being said, money isn’t the only way a movie’s success is measured by—especially one that came out a quarter-century ago. For those, there’s a more important question: Does it stand up over time?

While “Tin Cup” never quite reached Oscar-level status with critics, I was happy to find it just as watchable when I was prepping for this project as it was when I was in high school. And I can confirm it even checks the box for a movie night with the wife. Although, I had to hide that I was getting choked up when McAvoy finally holes that 3-wood, the crowd goes crazy, and the CBS crew is in disbelief, all to the stirring score by William Ross cranks up. Gets me every time.

Yes, there’s a part of me that always wants McAvoy to play it safe on that final hole, but that’s not the point. And perhaps no one understands that better than someone who has played golf at the highest level.

“I think there’s a lot of us on the tour that saw us in him,” McCord said. “We didn’t try to make fun of the game or anything, we made fun of ourselves and our ability to withstand this bombardment of negative reaction for our whole entire life and try to produce something positive. I mean, it’s a perfect movie for that. Because you knew at the end he was going to screw up. He always screwed up. And we all know we’ve screwed up and we’re going to do it at the end when it counts the most.”

McCord’s own Tin Cup moment a decade before wound up being one of the most memorable sports scenes in cinematic history. But obviously those involved with the movie, including the Hollywood star it helped heal, will remember a lot more than that.

“It was a lot of fun . . . And Don (Johnson) made it fun for me. I’ll never forget him, because he made it fun for me,” Costner said. “And he’s a protective guy and therefore, I was protective of him. And the guy who made it all work was Shelton, because he’s protective of both of us. . . . He loves his players like a manager loves his players. He’ll get thrown out of a game to raise my game.”

Nantz recalls Costner trying to raise his game as an actor. And he says the team effort helped create many lasting friendships—in addition to a lasting movie.

“You know, it’s been 25 years, but in many ways, the memories are so vivid it feels like it was a couple weeks ago,” Nantz said. “It was easily one of the five favorite things I’ve ever experienced in my career—if you call it part of my job or business. It wasn’t anything like work, obviously. This was just a group of friends getting together, trying to contribute to a film that we knew going in had tremendous potential. And coming out of it, we found out the world loved it—and the world still loves it 25 years later.”

But the world never got to see a “Tin Cup” sequel. Not that one wasn’t discussed. And even written. Shelton and Norville’s “Cup at Q School” would have followed Roy McAvoy as he tried to earn his PGA Tour card. Costner was in, and things got serious enough for Shelton to spend a week at the final stage of the tour’s 2006 qualifying event. But, alas, it never came to fruition. At least, not yet.

“There are moments, there are people you get to work with and you know you’re never going to forget it. And all you do is look for that moment to have it come back again,” Costner said. “And you know when that the moment that the writing matches up with what you believe the most, I can’t wait to get back with Ron again when it all matches up.”

Regardless of whether it happens, the two made an indelible mark on an entire sport. How many movies can say that?

If you’re a golfer, it’s impossible not to know what it means to pull a “Tin Cup.” Heck, you don’t even have to have seen the movie to get some of its references. “Tin Cup” has been a Jeopardy clue multiple times, and has been referenced in TV shows from “Friends” to “Parks & Rec” to “Billions.”

And then there are the more obvious connections. In a video that went viral of Bryson DeChambeau trying to drive the green at the 2021 Ryder Cup, a fan at Whistling Straits shouts, “Let the big dog eat!” It’s just one line Costner uttered in “Tin Cup” 25 years ago—and just one of the movie’s many moments that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

“Revenue aside, and I’m sure Warner’s made some good money, it’s part of the lexicon,” Foster said. “When you talk about golf movies, whether it’s “Caddyshack” or “Tin Cup,” those are really the two and they’re two different kinds of movies. And as long as golf is being played, “Tin Cup” will always be talked about. You can’t ask for any more than that.”

The post The inside story of how ‘Tin Cup’ became a classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The first tee shot of the day can be a tough one. You’re cold. You’re still thinking about that guy who cut you off on the way to the course. There’s a queue waiting for their tee times taking side bets on if you’ll even skull it past the forward tees. But have heart. Next time you’re out there, back stiff, trying to shake off the day and put one in the fairway, just remember that no matter what you do, it can’t be worse than this. Sound up.

 

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First swing of the day and somehow this dude manages to shank it 90 degrees dead right, shattering a clubhouse window in the process. As far as round-openers go, this is one of the most brutal we’ve ever seen. Nobody would blame this guy for putting his driver quietly back in his bag, walking straight to his car, and driving until he hits the Mexico border. You’re essentially a fugitive at this point.

There is one sliver of good news, however: Once you hit rock bottom, the only direction to go is up. We don’t know if this guy stuck it out and finished his round or if he immediately entered witness protection and is now living in Malibu under the name “Sven”, but whatever the case, his worst days — or at the very least his worst tee shot — are behind him.

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We have no idea if this amateur is in that type of chipping funk, but it seems somewhat fair to assume he’s lacking confidence around the greens based off the shot selection you’re about to witness. When the video begins, the player in question can be seen on the other side of a bridge connecting the fairway to the green. The green is surrounded by water, but, as this player astutely noticed, it was possible to putt it across the bridge and on to the green, taking a wedge out of his hands.

Without knowing the result, it’s a smart-brain move. Stubborn/insane players might keep going back to a wedge and expecting a different result, but this guy decided to take his medicine because, as the camera-holder’s caption reads, he “didn’t want to skull a chip over the green into a water.” Heady play, high golf IQ, savvy stuff, etc, etc As for the execution … not great, Bob.

 

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Again, all the pieces were in place for this to be a shot these guys relived for weeks, months, maybe even years. Perhaps he rolls it on and bangs in the next one for par, or two-putts for an all-world bogey. Either way, “I putted over a bridge and on to the green” is a grill room story to last a lifetime.

Unfortunately, it all went wrong on the downswing, when he went full Bamm-Bamm Rubble and nuked it through the green and into the drink, accomplishing the exact same thing a skulled chip would have accomplished. Pure pain. Still love where his head is at, though, even if what’s inside that head has gotten so chaotic that it’s made him terrified of a club literally designed to go high and stop on a dime for shots just like this one.

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Off-course income includes estimates of money earned from sponsors, performance and licensing fees, appearance fees and profits from business ventures. Bonus money includes in-season and season-ending performance money (eg: FedEx Cup, Aon Risk Reward, Comcast Business Tour Top Ten), Player Impact Programme awards for 2022 and sign-on payments for players who joined LIV in 2022. LIV bonuses are estimates pro-rated for the estimated or reported length of a player’s contract and have been treated as if that money is not offset by prize money earned in tournaments. Money paid into a deferred compensation program is not included.

The Golf Digest 50

We elected not to include former players who did not earn on-course money in 2022, like Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman. Nicklaus made an estimated $35 million in licensing, architecture and appearance earnings, and Norman’s salary from LIV has been reported to be $50 million. Arnold Palmer died in 2016, but his licensing and real estate businesses still generate more than $20 million a year. We also didn’t include potentially lucrative investments in ventures like Tiger Woods’ and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports — which hasn’t produced revenue yet — and Justin Thomas’ and McIlroy’s investment in fitness tracker Whoop. Those moves reinforce the adage that you can get only so rich being an employee. The real money comes from being an owner.

Here you go!

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But not every blunder merits an apology. Golf is hard. We get it. If we offered a “sorry” for every time a golf ball landed somewhere other than its intended target, there’d be no time to talk about anything else.

So when should you apologise in golf? Like the course itself, this is tricky terrain, hence some guidelines:

DON’T apologise after hitting your tee shot out of bounds. You’re the one paying for it in the form of a golf ball, a penalty stroke, and a sliver of dignity.
DO apologise if the sliced drive comes after ignoring a partner’s emotional plea to hit a 6-iron instead.
AND throw in an apology hamper if said tee shot happens to collide with your partner’s windshield.
DON’T fret when hitting out of turn off the tee. You made 6, they made 5. In the interest of pace, now is not the time to stand on ceremony.
DO apologise for callously teeing off first moments after a playing partner just holed out for the greatest eagle of their life.
DON’T apologise for a partner losing a golf ball. Unfortunate, sure, but it’s not on you.
DO apologise if you spent the time searching for the ball with your feet up on the cart scrolling Twitter. Or you found a ball, really liked the logo and didn’t realise until later it was the same ball everyone was trying to find.
ALSO consider a hand-written apology when a partner’s lost “ball” is actually a lost “60-degree wedge” left on the fringe that you pocketed as well.
ALSO apologise if the lost ball is a byproduct of you blurting out “Hey cart girl!” at the top of their backswing.
DON’T apologise to your caddie just because they’re carrying your bag. Provided you’re paying them a fair rate, it’s what they signed up for.
DO apologise if you call your caddie “Caddie.”
ALSO apologise if the bag they’re carrying has a medium bucket of balls in the pockets.
DON’T apologise for an innocent scorecard error. Someone has to do the clerical work, and maths isn’t your strength.
DO apologise when you give yourself an extra three a side to win $50, and now you’re being threatened with a 7-iron.
DON’T apologise for the occasional disaster hole. They happen to the best.
DO apologise if it interrupts play on an adjacent hole as you spend the next seven minutes deliberating the best club to punch back into play.
ALSO apologise if it ends with you studying a three-footer from both sides of the hole before rolling it in for an 11.
DON’T stress about occasionally needing your phone when real life intervenes.
DO apologise if you “need your phone” to binge watch multiple episodes of Narcos in between shots.
OR if you turn a playing partner’s own disaster hole into a viral TikTok without their consent.
DON’T apologise for being yourself at a private club. Being a worthy guest shouldn’t mean being a different person.
DO apologise when it’s noted later you spent the entire round insulting the golf course, the locker room staff, the overcooked burger and the woman the next fairway over who, it turns out, was your host’s wife.

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PGA National Golf Club: Bear Trap

Named for Jack Nicklaus, who redesigned the course, PGA National’s 15th, 16th and 17th holes are more than a marketing ploy: At the 2022 Honda Classic, the Bear Trap registered 305 bogeys or worse, up from 292 the previous year and 257 in 2019.

Augusta National: Amen Corner

Coined by Herbert Warren Wind, Augusta’s 11th, 12th and 13th constitute the most famous three-hole stretch in golf. While the 11th (the hardest hole during the 2022 Masters at 4.47 strokes) and 12th (3.23 strokes) live up to their tenacious reputation, the 13th has ranked as the easiest holes the past decade, which explains why Augusta has lengthened it by 35 yards ahead of the 2023 Masters. The accuracy required by Azalea’s tee ball will continue to make the drive one of the most important — and for viewers, exciting — shots during tournament time.

TPC Sawgrass: Closing three holes

The par-3, island-green 17th is one of the most famous holes in the world. But it’s merely a part of TPC Sawgrass’ closing puzzle. The 18th hole is actually tougher, boasting a +.530 scoring average during the 2022 Players, the highest number on the course. The par-5 16th was once a true risk-reward endeavour, although advances in club technology has rendered the 16th defenseless (it played to a scoring average of -.477).

Innisbrook Copperhead: The Snake Pit

Like my man Indiana Jones, I battle ophidiophobia, so let’s get through this quick. Copperhead’s final three holes — two 440-plus-yard par 4s, with a 215-yard par 3 sandwiched in between — is not necessarily a stretch to conquer, rather, a player just wants to get through unscathed. The 16th is the most gruelling, coming in at 475 yards with water running up the right side. It had a scoring average of +.111 at the 2022 Valspar Championship.

Quail Hollow Club: Green Mile

How about this for a finish: A 508-yard par 4 whose green is guarded by a lake on the left and bunker on the right, a 220-yard par 3 with a peninsula green and sand in the front; a 493-yard, uphill par 4 with a creek running up the left and bunkers scattered throughout. The numbers back the description up, as the 16th, 17th and 18th ranked 10th, second and first in scoring difficulty at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2021.

Colonial Country Club: The Horrible Horseshoe

How brutal is the three-hole stretch on Colonial’s front nine? So graphic that we can’t even show you a picture. … At last year’s Charles Schwab Challenge, Nos. 3, 4 and 5 holes ranked 11th, second and first in difficulty. The Horrible Horseshoe is highlighted by the fifth, a 481-yard, dogleg par 4 hugged by a creek and tree line. Dan Jenkins included the fifth hole for his book ‘The Best 18 Golf Holes in America’.

Bethpage Black: Nos. 10-12

Bethpage, host of the 2019 PGA Championship, has the infamous first-tee warning sign, the picturesque par-5 fourth hole, and the 15th ranked as one of the hardest holes in US Open history in 2002 and 2009. Yet, the start of Bethpage Black’s back nine — a trio of par 4s with a cumulative distance of more than 1,400 yards — ranks as the course’s toughest stretch, with players averaging +.284, +.175 and +.322 through the Black’s 10th-12th.

Carnoustie Golf Links: Nos. 16-18

In Jean van de Velde’s defence — that’s something you’ve never heard — it wasn’t like the Frenchman collapsed on an innocuous hole back at the 1999 Open Championship. At the 2018 Open, the 18th ranked as the fourth-hardest hole in the tournament, as players averaged a 4.237 score on the 499-yard, burn-and-bunker infused finisher. The 16th (a 250-yard par 3 with four bunkers and undulated green) and the 17th (creek-crossed 460-yard par 4) are no cake walks, either, ranking second and third in difficulty on the week.

Oakmont Country Club: Nos. 7-9

Most know Oakmont for its church pew bunkers, or No. 1’s reputation as the hardest opening hole in the game. Yet, it’s a three-hole stretch from the seventh to nine where Oakmont’s competitors get run through the wringer. At the 2016 U.S. Open, these holes were +.325, +.305 and +.431 over par.

Muirfield: Nos. 14-16

Theoretically, we could just nominate the entire course. When it last hosted the Open in 2013, seven of the toughest 20 holes on the PGA Tour that season came from Muirfield, with 10 ranking in the top 50. The Nos. 14-16 stretch is particularly sadistic: Length, unforgiving fairways and diabolical greens translated to a +1.116 over-par scoring bump at the 2013 tournament, making eventual champion Phil Mickelson’s performance here (birdie-par-par) all the more impressive.

Muirfield Village: Nos. 16-18

The last 10 winners of the Memorial Tournament own a collective 137-under score, leading one to believe Muirfield Village can’t be that tough. The course’s last three holes speak otherwise: A 200-yard par 3 over water, a suffocatingly tight 485-yard par 4 and a dogleg, uphill, every-obstacle-you-can-imagine 480-yard finisher are the type of closing stretch that keeps players up at night. All three ranked in the top-six hardest holes at the 2022 Memorial.

Pebble Beach: Nos. 8-10

These holes are nicknamed the “Cliffs of Doom”. Enough said.

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club: Nos. 12-14

The entire links was a beast at the 2018 US Open. But the 12th (+.336), 13th (+.271) and 14th (+.567) were especially brutal. That Phil Mickelson’s infamous hockey-putt came on the 13th should be no surprise.

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The wild scene happened at Del Tura Golf & Country Club in North Fort Myers, where a small plane was forced to make an emergency landing on the ninth green. Fortunately, no one was hurt, including the pilot who was the lone person on the aircraft.

Here’s an announcement — and photos — from the Lee County Sheriff’s official Twitter feed:

Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the Del Tura golf course in North Fort Myers this morning for an emergency plane landing

The pilot was the only occupant on board & was uninjured

The plane was moved off the course & no golfers were forced to take a mulligan pic.twitter.com/NxqILKXrPu

— Carmine Marceno – Florida’s Law and Order Sheriff (@SheriffLeeFL) February 2, 2023

And he’s not kidding about the no mulligan thing.

Ryan French obtained a message — and another photo — from a witness on the scene, who confirmed the golfers were able to push the plane off the putting surface so play could continue. Amazing.

A plane made an emergency landing on the 9th hole Del Tura Country Club in Florida.

Like any good golfers would they pushed the plane off of the green so they finish the hole. pic.twitter.com/GLHkm7Sngq

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) February 2, 2023

That’s dedication to the game right there. And who says golf isn’t a team sport?

Anyway, we’re glad no one was hurt. And that no one’s round was spoilt.

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