Golf is a highly rated, popular and old sport with growing fans around the world. As such, there is a large growing market of golf lovers and enthusiasts, from kids and teens to adults and retirees – golf is a favorite for many age demographics.
Hollywood is no stranger to golf’s growing fan base and, although relatively less compared to other sports movies, they churn out a golf movie every now and then to cater to this growing market. Some are okay, some are good and very rarely you find a golf movie that is actually great to watch.
Best Golf Movies
We have done the research and come up with our selection of the best golf movies to watch. Here is our list of movies in chronological order of their release dates.
Pat and Mike (1952)
The 50s rom-com, Pat and Mike, starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy is classic golf comedy that will take you back to the early days of golf, when it became very popular among Americans. It is still one of the best golf movies to watch today, even though it is from a bygone era.
Pat is an excellent golfer but loses her confidence around her fiancé, who wants her to give up her dreams of golf and marry him instead.
Pat is undeterred and aims to win the championship. She gets the help of a slightly shady golf promoter, Mike Conovan, and together, they face many odds as they start to fall for each other. A good movie and a must watch for classic rom-com lovers.
Caddyshack (1980)
With comedy legends such as Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield, Caddyshack is by far the best golf comedy movie ever made. It is a must watch classic about a young caddie, who wants to chase a scholarship at an elite country club so he can join college.
To secure the scholarship, he must get on the good side of Judge Smails (Dangerfield) by winning a tournament. The groundskeeper Carl attempts to hinder the caddie’s chances, and this makes for an interesting story.
The characters of the movie, the excellent comedy styles of their actors and the great script make it a humor-rich, 80s cult classic that will leave you laughing even today.
Happy Gilmore (1996)
Arguably the most popular golf movie to date, Happy Gilmore starring Adam Sandler is a comedy about Happy and his golf journey.
Happy’s mother is having her house repossessed by the IRS, when the movers challenge Happy to a driving contest. To their surprise, Happy wins the contest and it gives him the idea to hustle the golfers at the driving range.
Professional golfer, Chubbs Peterson, sees Happy in action and advises him to enter a tournament. Happy wins the tournament, which secures him a spot in the PGA Tour. We see him struggle to compete because his golf skills are not polished enough for high-level golfing.
He inadvertently ends up in a rivalry with Shooter McGavin because Shooter does not like the attention Happy is getting. The movie continues to show Happy’s rivalry and struggle as he faces Shooter in the Tour Championship.
Happy Gilmore is a very funny Sandler classic and we highly recommend you watch it immediately.
Tin Cup (1996)
1996 seems to be the year for golf films. Tin Cup is one of the best golf movies, not just because it is funny, but also because it has a meaningful story with some actual golfing. Unlike the other movies on this list, Tin Cup is centered more around golf than comedy.
Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy is the owner of a driving range and a former golf prodigy, with not much else left, other than teaching golf at his range. A clinical psychologist, Dr. Molly Griswold, asks Roy to teach her and Roy quickly falls for her.
Molly’s boyfriend, David Simms, gets Tin Cup to caddy for him and things escalate over a 230-yard shot, after Roy criticizes Simms for laying up. They make a bet and Roy flushes the shot, only to get fired later on.
Roy asks for Molly’s assistance when he decides to go for the US Open. They strike a deal, golf lessons in exchange for Molly’s help in rebuilding his confidence. Roy qualifies but is struggling with some issues. The last round of the US Open is intense as Roy’s decision to lay up or not will decide his victory.
This is a great movie to watch, and we highly recommend it if you want more golf and story than comedy from your golf movie experience.
Who’s Your Caddy? (2007)
A critically reviewed comedy, Who’s Your Caddy? tells the story of Christopher “C-Note” Hawkins, who is a rap mogul who tries to apply to the Carolina Pines Country Club. However, the club and its uptight members are not keen on letting him join.
“C-Note” played by Antwan “Big Boy” Patton, is determined to join and buys a piece of land that inadvertently holds the course’s 17th green. You will have to watch this 2007 golf comedy to find out if “C-Note” manages to get a membership or not.
We found the movie to be a Caddyshack copy with a hip-hop twist in it. Although not nearly as good or funny as the classic, it still gets a few laughs in and is a fairly funny and modern take on the original classic.
If you are wondering how it made in our selection of the best golf movies, it is because it brings a modern twist to an old classic we love too much and because we would never think of including Caddyshack II on our list, as it was a complete disaster.
Our Final Thoughts
Golf movies are few and far apart, which is why we carefully selected our best golf movies to cater to everyone. While mostly comical, we included films like Pat and Mike and Tin Cup which make for good romance and meaningful stories as well.
Although, we highly recommend Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore to any comedy lovers who want some great laughs from their golf movies. We hope golfers, and non-golfers, everywhere will add our selection of the best golf movies to their watch lists and enjoy them as much as we did.
