Has it really been 20 years since “Tin Cup” hit the big screen with a mighty splash, like any one of Roy McAvoy’s ill-advised approach shots on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open?
Here are a few little-known factoids about the 1996 romantic comedy starring Kevin Costner (McAvoy), Rene Russo (Dr. Molly Griswold), Don Johnson (tour pro David Simms) and Cheech Marin (caddie Romeo Posar):
Longtime CBS golf broadcaster Gary McCord, who was hired as a technical advisor on the movie and to help Costner develop a believable golf swing, also had a cameo in which Costner re-creates a silly real-life wager McCord once made while on tour.
Remember the hilarious scene in the clubhouse bar during the Open in which McAvoy wins a bet from Simms by hooding a 4-iron and hitting a shot through the open doors of the bar over a water-filled canal to scare a pelican off a post – the one in which McCord does commentary by talking into a soda dispenser? McCord told me during a 1999 interview in Newport Beach that the scene was inspired by a bet he had made with two tour pros at a condo they were sharing during a tournament in Pensacola, Fla., where he punched a shot “through the hallway, up over the couch, through the sliding-glass doors, over the rail” on the veranda and over the water and that “sailed about three feet over the pelican’s head. The whoosh of air must have scared it off. First shot!”
Director-producer Ron Shelton liked the anecdote so much, he dressed it up and included it in “Tin Cup.”
“It took three days to shoot that scene, which lasted about 2½ minutes,” McCord said. “So, about a day a minute.”
McCord also told me that the movie used a trained pelican, which stayed in a hotel with other actors while the scene was filmed. He also said the post on which the pelican sat was hollow, so air could be shot up through it to make it fly away at the right moment. Love those Hollywood secrets.
The climactic final-round scene at the Open, where McAvoy refuses to lay up on the par-5 18th hole and hits five balls in the water fronting the green as the gallery gasps and groans, was filmed on the 453-yard, par-4 fourth hole of the Deerwood course at Kingwood Country Club in Kingwood, Texas. (Other scenes were shot on Kingwood’s Forest course, La Paloma Country Club in Tucson and Tubac Golf Resort in southern Arizona.)
To golf fans, the scene in which McAvoy makes his “immortal” 12 wasn’t believable, because the footage showed balls spinning back off the green into the water, which isn’t possible with a 3-wood struck from 224 yards. In reality, tour pros hit some shots from a shorter distance to create the back-spinning footage, and the Houston Chronicle reported that leaf blowers near the green were used to blow other balls into the drink.
Another Hollywood secret: Though Deerwood has a marble plaque at the spot where McAvoy supposedly hit his “miraculous” final shot with the last ball in his bag, Costner never holed out. That’s not surprising, but McCord told me that several tour pros that had cameos in the movie also hit many shorter shots, without success, trying to hole out for the heroic shot.
Ultimately, McCord said a cannon-like machine was used to shoot balls high into the air, and eventually one of those found the bottom of the cup. That’s the shot that triggers the raucous celebration by McAvoy and the gallery of 5,000 extras.
When McCord and Peter Kostis started working with Costner on his swing, this is how McCord described the actor’s grip: “His hands looked like two crabs trying to mate. … But the evolution of his swing was unbelievable. Within a month, he was striping his irons and hitting his driver 260 yards with a little draw.”
And the year after “Tin Cup” was released, Costner – Cal State Fullerton’s most famous alumnus – played well enough to team with Tiger Woods at the 1997 National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach.
Pierce Brosnan and Alec Baldwin were approached for the role of Simms before Johnson was cast. Janine Turner and Michelle Pfeiffer were approached for the role of Dr. Griswold before Russo was cast. Costner’s parents, Sharon and Bill Costner, and Kevin’s son, Joe, portray the grandparents and grandchild in a scene Simms berates them for asking for the pro’s autograph.
You have to watch the movie closely and do the math, but McAvoy shot 83-62-64-78 to finish the U.S. Open at 1-under par. Twenty years later, I can’t stop laughing every time it’s on cable TV.
