If you stop to think about it for (fore?) a second, it’s surprising that there aren’t more movies about golf.
The PGA and Hollywood share a lot of similarities, after all: They both rely upon a star system, ask their audiences to be as quiet as possible during events, and are equally obsessed with all things green (grass and jackets for the Masters, cold hard cash for the studios). And yet, there are dozens more baseball, football, hockey, even soccer movies than there are putt-putt pictures. Even within the few golf movies that do exist, the quality varies as wildly as the tariff decisions from the world’s current most prominent 18-hole aficionado.
In honour of the 2025 Masters, which kicked off this week at Augusta National in Georgia, The Globe presents the three best, and the three worst, golf movies to make it out of the rough and into the multiplex.
The Best
1. Tin Cup
Rene Russo, left, and Kevin Costner star the 1996 romcom Tin Cup.The Canadian Press
Ron Shelton might be a big believer in the “church of baseball,” thanks to not only his time playing as a minor-league infielder for the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system but also the stellar work he put into 1988’s Bull Durham, his feature directorial debut. And yet Shelton refused to limit his sports-cinema career to the baseball diamond, going on to tackle basketball (White Men Can’t Jump, Blue Chips) and boxing (Play It to the Bone, the severely underrated The Great White Hype), too. But Shelton’s biggest on-screen achievement, Bull Durham aside, is this 1996 romcom charmer, in which Kevin Costner plays a washed-up golf prodigy who finds love with Rene Russo’s psychologist while plotting his comeback. The cast, which includes Cheech Marin and Don Johnson in supporting roles, is firing on all cylinders, while Shelton both honours the game and makes it accessible for audiences who don’t know a back nine from a bounce back. (Available on-demand via Apple TV, Amazon)
2. Caddyshack
Bill Murray appears in a scene in the classic comedy Caddyshack.
The original snobs-versus-slobs comedy that sparked dozens of imitators -- and countless bad Bill Murray impersonations across college campuses -- is both the perfect artifact of its time and a testament to the lazy allure of spending an entire boozy day on the green. Chevy Chase has never been more pompous (which is saying something), Murray has never been so absurd (ditto), and I’m not sure how many gophers have been villainized by this film’s central critter, but it probably hasn’t been enough. Oh, and of course how could I forget that Rodney Dangerfield is here, too? No respect, I tells ya. No respect. (Streaming on Crave and Hollywood Suite)
3. Happy Gilmore
Adam Sandler cemented his movie-star bona fides in the 1996 golf comedy Happy Gilmore.
As game-show icon Bob Barker cruelly discovers in Happy Gilmore, the price might be wrong for him but the results are perfect for Adam Sandler, whose turn here cemented his movie-star bona fides. While the comedy might not be Sandler’s best early-career film -- that would be 1995’s Billy Madison, which came out just the year before -- it has easily become the Saturday Night Live alum’s most beloved. And it is easy to see why, given how much loud, angry, and gleefully immature life Sandler gives to the film’s eponymous hero, a disgraced hockey star who finds out that the intensity of his slap shot can be just as well replicated with a golf club. The movie’s legacy is so lasting and improbable that it has spawned a three-decades-later sequel, Happy Gilmore 2, coming to Netflix this summer. (Streaming on Crave, Hollywood Suite)
The Worst
1. Who’s Your Caddy?
I’ll swing straight with you here: The less you know about this dire 2007 comedy-in-name-only, the better your game will be, to say nothing of your life. A movie so unbelievably noxious that it feels almost like the hole-in-one equivalent of inept filmmaking, director Don Michael Paul’s film about a hip-hop star’s plan to upend a racist country club is a lazy and inept “street versus the elite” trifle that makes the much-maligned Caddyshack sequel look like The Godfather Part II. But a possibly fun fact: Who’s Your Caddy? is one of Bill Clinton’s favourite movies. Can we retroactively impeach? (Mercifully not available digitally)
2. Golf Punks
You probably don’t need to know about Golf Punks. And what you might be interested in learning -- it stars Tom Arnold, it premiered not in theatres but on the Fox Family Channel, it boasts the imprimatur of “National Lampoon” long after that brand meant anything to anyone -- should immediately be flushed from your memory with the power of a thousand Hole 17 Heinekens. You’re welcome. (Also not available digitally, for some reason)
3. The Legend of Bagger Vance
If Robert Redford could have one mulligan in his directorial career, it might be taking back this well-meaning but embarrassing 2000 drama that casts a super-serious Will Smith as an almost supernaturally talented 1930s caddy who embodies what is essentially the “magical negro” stereotype. Smith doesn’t do himself many favours by embracing every one of the film’s hackneyed lines of dialogue with gusto, while Matt Damon (as a talented but traumatized golfer), Charlize Theron (as Damon’s love interest), and even Jack Lemmon (as the narrator) just try to keep their heads down and get on with it. Some legends are meant to be forgotten. (Available on-demand via Apple TV, Amazon)
Will Smith, left, hands a golf club to Matt Damon in a scene in The Legend of Bagger Vance.