Jon Rahm probably should have won. But he didn’t. Instead, Patrick Cantlay walked away with the victory as the U.S. Open looms with plenty of questions.
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Weather will be a factor as third-round leader Jon Rahm and the field look to bring home the crown at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
The first draft of the script for “Caddyshackâ€� was 200 pages long – which was nearly twice the norm for Hollywood screenplays at the time. And believe it or not, the character named Carl Spackler, the wacky and wacked out assistant greenskeeper so central to the movie in its final form, was nowhere to be found. Oh, and what about that gopher? Well, Spackler’s nemesis started out as a mere sock puppet, appearing in just one scene where the rodent pops up and steals Al Czervik’s golf ball. Those are just two of the many interesting nuggets that can be found in Chris Nashawaty’s new book, “Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story.â€� Nashawaty’s book came out in April of this year. It was born of a six-page oral history he wrote about the cult classic for Sports Illustrated in 2010, three decades after its release. The book is meticulously researched – witness the 27 pages of notes at the end of the book – and pays homage to a film that tops nearly every list of funniest sports movies. But Nashawaty, who has been the film critic for Entertainment Tonight for the last 20 years, does more than just take his reader behind the scenes of an 11-week shoot filled with drama and debauchery in south Florida. Nashawaty’s book also sets the stage, so to speak, for the movie by examining the friendship between Harold Ramis, who directed the film, and his co-writers and co-conspirators, Doug Kenney and Brian Doyle-Murray. Their bond had been cemented about a decade earlier when National Lampoon was at its zenith and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” was turning traditional comedy on its collective ear. Kenney and Ramis were fresh off the success of “Animal House,â€� which they had written with Chris Miller, when they pitched a series of irreverent comedies to Orion Pictures and Jon Peters, who was married at the time to Barbara Streisand. The one that got the greenlight became “Caddyshack,” which had its genesis in Doyle-Murray’s memories of his teenage years spent caddying at Indian Hill Club on the north shore of Chicago. Once Nashawaty turns the focus to the movie, which comes about 100 pages into the narrative, the book gains momentum. And with comic geniuses like Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield on board, there were plenty of stories for him to tell. When Murray was hired to complete the “foursome,â€� as Nashawaty puts it, his character still didn’t exist, despite numerous rewrites to the script. Not to mention, with SNL about to resume production, he only had six days to devote to “Caddyshack,” but his brother, Doyle-Murray, promised him everything would work out. Much of Murray’s oft-imitated performance was ad-libbed – most notably the iconic “Cinderella Storyâ€� monologue. All the script said was: Carl, the Greenskeeper, is absently looping the heads off bedded tulips as he practices his golf swing with a grass whip. After changing the flowers to mums at Murray’s suggestion, the cameras rolled. And he did the entire sequence in one take. “I was good back in those days,â€� Murray tells Nashawaty. “I could do something when they turned the camera on. I was wired into what I was talking about. Improvising about golf was easy for me.â€� Anyone who has seen his antics at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am would certainly agree. And while he only had that one scene with the gopher puppet, Murray was frequently filmed trying to flush the critter out with a firehose he dragged around the course. It wasn’t until after filming was complete that the gopher took on a life of its own – eventually being created by a special effects company and at Peter’s suggestion assuming a bigger “roleâ€� to help to tie together the movie’s many disjointed but funny scenes. Murray loved doing battle with the gopher. “It was a time when people were making movies like the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now,â€� Murray recalls in the book. “And that was my Vietnam movie. The ridiculously inappropriate firepower I used to kill a small rodent.â€� Speaking of firepower, there was plenty at Bushwood, aka Rolling Hills Golf Club, in Davie, Florida when the final scene was shot. Peters had taken the unknowing high-ups from the club to dinner and on an evening cruise as a diversion – but the proverbial jig was up when the explosions made the TV news and prompted a pilot to radio the nearby Ft. Lauderdale airport to report a crash. The damage to the Rolling Hills — which once hosted the likes of Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath — was minimal, though. Nashawaty’s book also delves into the complicated relationships between Chase and Murray, highlighting a fight between the two at 30 Rock during the SNL days, and between Knight and Dangerfield. Knight, a decorated war hero who won two Emmys for his work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” wasn’t exactly thrilled with being the straight man to Dangerfield’s ribald style of comedy. In the end, “Caddyshack,” wasn’t the comedic blockbuster Ramis, Doyle-Murray and Kenney had hoped, that distinction, instead, going to the movie “Airplane.” As the years have gone on, though, “Caddyshack” has more than found its niche and this book is a tribute to its popularity.
Winning on the PGA TOUR never is easy, but even though Dustin Johnson has 20 titles, including at least one in every season since debuting as a member in 2008, that he’s been shut out since his video game-like performance at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship last year is surprising. DJ has averaged one victory in every 13 starts of his career. His title defense at Club de Golf Chapultepec is his 17th start since his five-shot romp, so there’s a narrative that he’s due. Scroll past the extended ranking of projected contenders for how Johnson got the job done, how the host course challenges and more. POWER RANKINGS: WGC-MEXICO CHAMPIONSHIP Jordan Spieth, Marc Leishman, Gary Woodland, Sungjae Im, Kevin Kisner and Tyrrell Hatton will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. Johnson already is going for his third title in the event since its relocation to Mexico City in 2017. Last year, he led the field in both greens in regulation (58 of 72) and Strokes Gained: Putting. He gave back only three strokes (with one bogey and one double) en route to 21-under 263. To classify it as vintage DJ would be understating it. Lights-out performances occur far and few between, but he proved that it’s possible on deceptively cozy Club de Golf Chapultepec. The par 35-36–71 can stretch to 7,355 yards, but it plays about 10 percent shorter given its altitude north of 7,500 feet. (The course is 10 yards longer than it was in the last two years due to the extension of the par-5 11th hole to 632 yards.) Naturally, because of the thinner air, every ball in it flies further than at sea level, so you’d expect the course to ranked among the longest on average off the tee. In fact, at 303.6 yards last year, it easily was the longest of 35 measured. Adjusting every club by converting cover distance is more important than getting it as far from the tee as possible. Course management is critical. Primary rough is allowed to grow two-and-a-half inches and the Poa-bentgrass greens are small on average. They’re also among the most undulating the field of 72 will attempt to solve all season. Approach-putt performance isn’t a statistic discussed much, but it can reveal various levels of experience and challenge. Last year, Club de Golf Chapultepec was the stingiest track with an average of two feet, seven inches. Given that small measurement, a single inch can affect overall ranking considerably, but consider what it means in an of itself. Even in its third spin as host, the greens continued to serve as the primary defense. They also might be allowed to run as long as 12 feet on the Stimpmeter, so they will be faster than before. Mother Nature will do her part in seeing to it, too. Sunshine dominates the forecast. Winds will be moderate at worst, and not steadily influential. DJ’s impressive work aside, last year’s field still averaged 70.861 last year. Even-par 284 finished T39. There is no cut. The winner receives 550 FedExCup points and a three-year membership exemption. All bunkers were upgraded with new sand and drainage since last year, but they essentially present the same challenge from the same spots of bother. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Puerto Rico), Sleepers (WGC-Mexico), Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.
