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USA Today
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Inside look at Happy Gilmore's unique golf swing 29 years after his first tee shot
"Happy Gilmore 2," the long-awaited sequel to Adam Sandler's 1996 hit film, swings into action on Netflix on July 25. In the original movie, Adam Sandler plays a wannabe ice hockey star whose grandmother's house is repossessed by the IRS. To save her house, he takes his powerful swing to the golf course, hoping to win a professional tournament and the big cash prize that comes with it. However, he faces opposition from Shooter McGavin, a preppy pro golfer and full-time jerk, played by Christopher McDonald, who is determined to thwart his plans. Now, 29 years after winning his first tour championship, retired golfer Happy Gilmore, despite being quite rusty, returns to the sport to pay for his daughter Vienna's ballet school. "It's all in the hips": The Happy Gilmore swing "Happy Gilmore" introduced a wacky and very popular, almost slap-shot style swing now commonly referred to as the "Happy Gilmore swing." The PGA (and USGA) rules do not prohibit a player from taking a running or walking approach to the ball before striking it, which is the core of the Happy Gilmore swing. The legality hinges on the player not altering the conditions of the stroke. This includes not pushing, scraping, or scooping the ball, with multiple swings or altering its lie before the swing At the CIMB Classic in 2015, John Peterson became one of the first, if not the first, golfer to attempt a "Happy Gilmore" swing in an actual PGA Tour tournament. Almost three decades later, the Happy Gilmore sequel is set to introduce a new generation to Happy's infamous swing. Here's a look at Sandler executing Happy's swing in the original movie: Who is coming back for "Happy Gilmore 2" Several familiar characters will be returning to reprise their roles in the sequel. ◾Adam Sandler – Happy Gilmore ◾Julie Bowen – Virginia Venit ◾Christopher McDonald – Shooter McGavin ◾Ben Stiller – Hal L. ◾Dennis Dugan – Doug Thompson ◾Kevin Nealon – Gary Potter ◾Lee Trevino – Himself ◾Verne Lundquist – Himself Several actors from "Happy Gilmore" have passed away since the movie's release in 1996. ◾Carl Weathers – Chubbs Peterson ◾Frances Bay – Grandma ◾Richard Kiel – Mr. Larson ◾Joe Flaherty – Donald ◾Bob Barker – Himself SOURCES USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Netflix;
NBC Sports
21-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Justin Thomas pours in first winning putt of length – and he has Xander Schauffele to thank
As he approached his 21-foot, 2-inch birdie putt on Harbour Town's 18th hole in a two-man playoff for Sunday's RBC Heritage title, Justin Thomas mentioned to his caddie, Joe Greiner, that he'd never made a putt of length to win a golf tournament. Thomas had won 15 PGA Tour events prior to this week. The longest final stroke he'd made was 14 feet, 4 inches at the 2019 BMW Championship, though he won that by three shots. The longest final putt he'd made in a one-shot win? That would be about 4 feet at the 2015 CIMB Classic, his first PGA Tour title. 'Been fortunate to have a bunch of tap-ins, but I've never made a putt, and that was pretty cool,' said Thomas, who drained the overtime birdie putt to defeat Andrew Novak and notch his first win in 1,064 days, since the 2022 PGA Championship. 'That was as fun as I thought it would be.' WHAT A WAY TO WIN IT! 🤯 Justin Thomas with the putt to claim victory at the @RBC_Heritage 🔥🏆 Here is the length of every final putt Thomas has made in a win on the PGA Tour: (Note: Some events did not have ShotLink data, so the lengths are estimates.) 2025 RBC Heritage – 21'2' 2022 PGA Championship – ~3' 2021 Players – 2'7' 2020 WGC-St. Jude Invitational – 18' 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions – 3'5' 2019 CJ Cup – ~5' 2019 BMW Championship – 14'4' 2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational – 2'1' 2018 Honda Classic – ~3' 2017 CJ Cup – ~2' 2017 Dell Technologies Championship – 8' 2017 PGA Championship – ~6' 2017 Sony Open – 11' 2017 SBS Tournament of Champions – 2'11' 2016 CIMB Classic – ~1' 2015 CIMB Classic – ~4' Thomas finished third in strokes gained putting for the week, bumping his season rank 16 spots to No. 24. That's notable considering that Thomas, who was a top-50 putter early in his pro career, dropped from No. 135 to No. 174 last season in strokes gained putting. Thomas' performance on the greens was so disheartening that toward the end of last year, he reached out to a fellow competitor, then world No. 2 Xander Schauffele. 'I think he's one of the best putters in fundamentals – and not just putting but everything – and I was just like, 'Can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting?'' Thomas said. 'So, he came out with me, and he just was asking me a bunch of different questions. You guys obviously know Xander, but he doesn't leave any box unchecked. Like he said that day, he's like, 'If it has anything to do with you potentially improving in golf, I've probably done it or tried it.' … The more I was talking, I'm like, I don't do any of the things that I used to do in my best putting years. 2017-18, I was very, very regimented of the things that I did, and how he said it is I had a home base, and I had no home base. I had things that I did, but it was a very vague bag of things and there was no consistency to it.' Thomas added: 'Honestly, while he helped, it was more of the questions he asked me made me realize that I'm trying basically too hard.'
