How did Happy Gilmore qualify for the tour?

[tw_focus]

I watched Happy Gilmore again the other day and it occurred to me that it was completely unrealistic for him to make the tour with JUST his superhuman distance. In the tourney where he qualified his putting and shortgame was really, really bad, like "I just started golfing last week" bad. We saw him five putt from ~30 feet in that tourney, and on the final hole we see him four putt from like 20 feet. He has superhuman distance, but even if he had superhuman precision ALSO, it wouldn't be enough to qualify with that short game. Let's say he drives every par 4 and par 5 and 3-4 putts, that's about par. Then we get to the Par 3s and it all falls apart. Yes, he did hole ONE par 5, but that wouldn't be good enough to cancel out the extra strokes he's going to need on the par 3s.

 

Basically there's no way Happy would have qualified unless he got holes in one on several holes per round, and that didn't happen.

[golfandfishing]

It must have been played in November...... 

[dan360]

Sponsor exemptions, my good man.  

[dlygrisse]

Yeah but would he have beaten Bryson at Winged Foot?

Edited November 26, 2020 by dlygrisse

[MtlJeff]

They didn't show enough holes if I recall.  Its possible he drove some other greens and made birdies.  I mean he basically Monday qualified and then probably lived off sponsors exemptions , John daly style. 

 

Its true his short game did seem so terrible that its hard to imagine him shooting a 67 under any circumstances.  

 

But I mean, this came out in 1996 right before Tiger destroyed Augusta.  The courses were probably like 6700yds. This was when weak beta males roamed the tour

[bigred90gt]

I blame this on winter in a pandemic.

[thesamwise]

You think that's impossible, sir?

 

I beg to differ. Happy Gilmore accomplished that feat no more than 24 years ago.

[hoselpalooza]

On 11/22/2020 at 4:16 PM, tw_focus said:

I watched Happy Gilmore again the other day and it occurred to me that it was completely unrealistic for him to make the tour with JUST his superhuman distance. In the tourney where he qualified his putting and shortgame was really, really bad, like "I just started golfing last week" bad. We saw him five putt from ~30 feet in that tourney, and on the final hole we see him four putt from like 20 feet. He has superhuman distance, but even if he had superhuman precision ALSO, it wouldn't be enough to qualify with that short game. Let's say he drives every par 4 and par 5 and 3-4 putts, that's about par. Then we get to the Par 3s and it all falls apart. Yes, he did hole ONE par 5, but that wouldn't be good enough to cancel out the extra strokes he's going to need on the par 3s.

 

Basically there's no way Happy would have qualified unless he got holes in one on several holes per round, and that didn't happen.

 

"...he's a publicist's dream. i mean, a guy who can drive the ball that far... oh, he could really draw a crowd!"

Edited November 29, 2020 by hoselpalooza
words

[thesamwise]

You know you’d be something at one of those long drive competitions.

[Sean2]

Hollywood creative license. 🙂

[hoselpalooza]

here's a screenshot of the leaderboard on 18 for you to fill in the blanks.

 

anyone wanna hazard a guess to what happy's strokes gained off the tee would have been at the waterbury open? 😜

 

[MtlJeff]

There's a lot more bones you could pick with this movie too....

 

Like why is Shooter so revered? He hasn't won a gold jacket yet which is acknowledged early on. Clearly there are other guys on tour who have won them. But he is like the big man on tour, even gets to sit in on Happy's discipline session (why, exactly?)

 

Shooter was clearly a talented player but one who had never won on the biggest stage. Until 2006, even Peyton Manning didn't get that kind of reverence. You couldnt mention him without the fact that he didn't have a super bowl

 

yet you get the impression in this movie that Shooter is like the god of golf. 

[teejaywhy]

On 11/22/2020 at 4:16 PM, tw_focus said:

I watched Happy Gilmore again the other day and it occurred to me that it was completely unrealistic for him to make the tour with JUST his superhuman distance. In the tourney where he qualified his putting and shortgame was really, really bad, like "I just started golfing last week" bad. We saw him five putt from ~30 feet in that tourney, and on the final hole we see him four putt from like 20 feet. He has superhuman distance, but even if he had superhuman precision ALSO, it wouldn't be enough to qualify with that short game. Let's say he drives every par 4 and par 5 and 3-4 putts, that's about par. Then we get to the Par 3s and it all falls apart. Yes, he did hole ONE par 5, but that wouldn't be good enough to cancel out the extra strokes he's going to need on the par 3s.

 

Basically there's no way Happy would have qualified unless he got holes in one on several holes per round, and that didn't happen.

 

Well thanks, you've just ruined the movie for me.

 

Serious note:  You accept that he can hit the ball 400 yards with a running hockey swing, but the qualifying for the tour part is unrealistic?