The latest in our series from Kyle Phillpots, retired global director of the PGA and now active member of Axe Cliff Golf Club.
There are some common themes that run through many golf films and these appear in the top two comedy golf movies, Caddyshack (1980) and Happy Gilmour (1996).
The first theme is that golf tends to be full of rules and there are snobby, nasty people in golf clubs.
The people who rebel against the stupid rules, ensure that the snobby, nasty people get their comeuppance.
Caddyshack is a slapstick film and the bad guys are led by Judge Smails (Ted Knight) as the dictatorial, rule-governed, stuffed-shirt co-founder of the club. The rebellious good guys are represented by the free-spirited son of the other club co-founder, Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) and Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe) a poor but honest caddy, who needs money to go to college and happens to be a good golfer as well.
There is also a loud, working class, but rich, new member breaks almost every rule in the club because he does not know how to behave in such an environment, Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield). Running through the film, there is also a sub-plot featuring Bill Murray as a very stupid but determined Greenkeeper, Carl Spackler, who uses increasingly dangerous methods trying to kill a gopher who keeps digging holes in the precious golf greens.
After a number of battles between the two sides, with outraged members showing appropriate disapproval, the focus comes to a challenge match between Ty Webb and Danny Noonan on the one side and Judge Smails and his playing partner on the other side.
As Bill Murray and Chevy Chase had a bad history, because of a feud during their time together on the TV show Saturday Night Live, they were scripted not to appear together in the film. However, at the last minute, they got together with director Harold Ramis and wrote a short scene that begins when Ty Webb's golf ball crashes into Carl Spackler's shack. It remains the only time that these two comedy stars have appeared together in a film.