Rory ‘taken aback’ by Koepka’s dig at D. Johnson

Complete coverage of Happy Gilmore’s 20th anniversary. Editor’s note: This story was originally published on February 16th, 2016. We can all agree that Adam Sandler's movie “Happy Gilmore” - which celebrates its 25th anniversary this week — took several liberties with the Rules of Golf, flouted conventional wisdom and mocked some of the sport's time-honored traditions and decorum. That was part of the fun, right? Well, you should have read the first draft of the script ... or the second ... or third ... or fourth. Mark Lye did, as the one-time PGA TOUR pro-turned-broadcaster was hired as the official script consultant. As Lye worked his way through those early readings, he kept crossing out parts, wondering if there would be anything left to film. At one point, he told Sandler and his co-writer Tim Herlihy, "You gotta be crazy. You cannot do a movie like that." His concerns? "They had the green jacket. They were desecrating the USGA. Making fun of Augusta National," Lye recalls. "I just said, ‘No, no, no. I don't think you better go there at all. We can get the same effect by doing our own fictitious event.' " They listened, which is why Happy Gilmore (25-year-old spoiler alert!) wins the coveted Gold Jacket at the Tour Championship, not the Green Jacket at the Masters. Meanwhile, Lye was also worried about the movie crossing too far over the line of believability. Early scripts had Happy hitting 400-yard drives on every hole and acing par 4s on a regular basis. It was like the writing team had never been to a golf tournament - and that's when the lightbulb came on. Lye arranged to have key members of the movie crew attend the PGA TOUR event at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. He provided clubhouse badges, allowing them to get a feel for the atmosphere, to see the marshals, officials and volunteers and observe the demeanor of the pros. He thinks that visit paid dividends in dialing down some - the key word here being "some" — of the over-the-top situations. "They saw what the limits were," he says. Even so, this was a Sandler comedy, not a glorification of pro golf, and thus boundaries of believability would be pushed. Hockey blades as putters? Punching out members of the gallery - as well as playing partners? Washing underwear in the ball washers? Runaway Volkswagens driven down the middle of a fairway? Lye just had to grit his teeth. Finally after the fifth script, he gave his seal of golf approval. "I'm not sure about marking the ball with a cookie and eating it," Lye recalls telling the producers, "but as far as value and not offending anybody, I think you're fine." Of course, Happy's achievements aren't the point of the movie. It's the humor - sophomoric to be sure, but funny nonetheless - that has given it a cult following both in and out of golf circles since its release on Feb. 16, 1996. "There's just so much goofy, fun, stupid stuff in that movie," says five-time TOUR winner Jimmy Walker. "It just made you laugh. I don't even think you have to be a golfer to enjoy it. It could appeal to everybody just because it was funny." Certainly funny enough to turn a tidy profit - Happy Gilmore made more than $41 million on a $12 million budget. We can all agree that Caddyshack is the quintessential golf comedy, right? Well ... Released in 1980, Caddyshack mocked the stuffy environment of country clubs and its members, allowing Saturday Night Live alums Chevy Chase and Bill Murray free rein at the height of their comedic powers. Golfers routinely recite lines from the movie, and Murray's assistant greenskeeper Carl Spackler has carved out a special place in golf lore. But for young golfers today, their first exposure to a wacky golf movie was not Caddyshack but “Happy Gilmore,” which came out 16 years later and was made by another SNL alum in Sandler. Instead of making fun of country clubs, it mocked professional golf - which certainly hit home to those who hoped to make their living on the PGA TOUR. And instead of Spackler's Cinderella story, it gave us Happy's much-imitated running-start tee shot. Asked which movie he prefers, 31-year-old Jonas Blixt responds, "Happy Gilmore, but I like Caddyshack too. The older guys probably will go more with Caddyshack." Adds 32-year-old Marc Leishman: "I didn't actually see Caddyshack until about five years ago, so I prefer Happy Gilmore. I love it." Patrick Rodgers, 23, says Happy Gilmore and Tin Cup are his two favorite golf movies. No mention of Caddyshack. Longtime golf announcer Verne Lundquist, who plays himself in the movie, told The Sherman Report that the movie has "helped keep me relevant to a generation, maybe even two. I get more questions about Happy Gilmore than I do about the game." Lundquist recalled the time he and Billy Packer were scheduled to call a basketball game at the University of North Carolina in 2009. Lundquist was asked to visit the locker room and address the home team; he replied that they surely wanted Packer. No, it was Lundquist they wanted - and Tyler Hansbrough, then a star for the Tar Heels, told him why: "We need you to say, ‘Who the hell is Happy Gilmore?" It was a line from the movie. Lundquist obliged - and the players went crazy. "I said, ‘If you guys win the national championship, I expect to get credit for giving you a motivational speech,'" Lundquist told The Sherman Report. "They won, but I never got any credit." While Happy Gilmore may speak more to millennials, older golfers still seem to prefer the classic. Zach Johnson, 16 years older than Rodgers, puts Happy Gilmore in his top five among golf movies but not at the top. "We all know what No. 1 is," he said. "Caddyshack." Eight-time TOUR winner Geoff Ogilvy, 38, used to be able to quote Caddyshack from start to finish. He's never been able to do that with Happy Gilmore. "I was truly a Caddyshack junkie," Ogilvy says, "but not really a Happy Gilmore junkie." It's safe to suggest that Murray and Chase (along with Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight) have a broader, more approachable appeal than Sandler, who can be an acquired taste for some. Lye was one of those who didn't always get Sandler's kind of humor; in fact, he gravitated more to the subtle humor of Sandler's nemesis, Shooter McGavin (played by Christopher McDonald). But as he worked on the movie - he was close friends with the father of producer Robert Simonds - Lye began to appreciate what Sandler brought to the table. Lye remembers the first day he showed up on set in Vancouver, British Columbia (due to the conversion rate, it was cheaper to film movies in Canada than in the United States). It was early in the morning, about 5:30 a.m., and Lye was escorted to his trailer. The trailer next door had loud acid rock music blaring. He asked what was going on. "That's Adam Sandler's trailer," he was told. "That's how he gets fired up in the morning." Today, when asked about Sandler, Lye says "He was a meek guy, but as soon as the cameras came on, he became a beast. It was like Gremlins — just feed him after midnight. A cute little guy off the set but hilarious on it." We can all agree that the Happy Gilmore sidestep-and-swing tee shot is the most imitated in golf, right? C'mon, you know you've tried it. Instead of standing perpendicular to the ball at address, you stand behind it, take a couple of side steps and let it rip, Happy-style. Essentially, it's Happy's way of converting his hockey shot into a golf swing - and the results are extremely accurate 400-yard drives that became his calling card. Goodness knows how many TOUR pros have tried their hand at it - Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy among them. All in good fun, of course. "I'm not very good at it," says five-time winner Nick Watney. "I don't have the timing down. I've got some work to do on my Happy Gilmore shot, that's for sure." FedExCup winner Bill Haas isn't very good at it, either. "It's tough to do," he says. "I can hit it every now and then, but it doesn't help me hit it any further. I probably can make contact, but it's not going to be good contact." Others, however, became quite adept at it. "I was pretty good at it when I was younger," Blixt adds. So was Carl Pettersson when he tried it on the range. "Never done it in a tournament," he says, adding, "Maybe I should." Technically, it's not illegal to attempt the shot during competition, so there is no penalty stroke. But a rules spokesman for the R&A told CNN in 2012 that the "major concern we do have is regarding whether it fits with the etiquette of the game as defined in the rules. Players must have respect for the course itself and perhaps this shot lends itself to increased likelihood of damage to the course." Of course, if players thought it would give them a significant advantage, they might be prone to at least experiment with it. But not even the most recognizable Happy Gilmore imitator on TOUR is willing to go that far. Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington has become pro golf's poster boy for the swing. His peers are amazed as his consistency in using the run-up tee shot. "He hits it like 15 yards by his normal swing," says Ben Crane. "And he hits it pure." "He does it as a training aid to separate his body," adds Pettersson. "Arms going one way and body going forward. It's actually the correct way to hit a driver." Harrington was featured on a Sport Science video that asked the question of whether a successful Happy Gilmore swing could provide more distance off the tee than the standard golf swing. Using motion capture cameras, Harrington's Happy Gilmore swing was found to generate an addition 4 mph in clubhead speed, as well as increase his shoulder turn for more torque. Meanwhile, the swing plane was nearly identical. His drives averaged 30 more yards than his traditional set-up. But with more distance comes potentially less accuracy if the ball isn't properly struck - and that's why Harrington never plans to use his Happy Gilmore swing in competition. "I don't believe I'd be as accurate," he says during the Sport Science shoot. "Would the gain of 20-30 yards be worth it? I'd like to do it on the golf course but I'm too cautious for that." But he does have advice for anybody who wants to try it? "Don't think too much about it," he says. "Just give it a good hit." We can all agree that Bob Barker punching out Happy Gilmore is the most absurd scene in a movie that has many such moments, right? It starts at the Pepsi Pro-Am, with Barker - playing himself, the legendary host of the game show, The Price Is Right - meeting Happy for the first time as playing partners. " You know, Faldo and I won this thing last year," Barker says to Happy. "I'd like to win this year." As a professional golfer who has played hundreds of pro-am rounds, Lye says that line most sticks with him. "How many times have I heard that on the freakin' first tee," he notes. "Heard it about 100 times." But it's the fight scene that's best remembered, especially since Barker was 72 years old and Sandler just 29 when the movie was released. At one point, Barker threw 11 consecutive punches — mostly left jabs — at Gilmore, who eventually got the upper hand and landed (what he thought) was the ending blow, resulting in the signature line from the movie (which we'll post here with a little family-oriented editing): The price is wrong, b—-! Of course, Barker rises up, grabs Happy by the throat, and gets the last laugh as he punches out Happy and leaves him writhing on the course. "The Bob Barker scene is pretty fantastic," says Brandt Snedeker. "Hell, yes, I've wanted to do that, and I'm sure some guys have wanted to do that to me. "It sets up the pro-am scene pretty well on some weeks." When Lye left the movie set after filming his lone scene - a cocktail party in which he plays himself as a Gold Jacket winner - he asked one of the executives how the movie was going. "It's going to be a classic," was the reply. "How would you know?" asked Lye. "Wait until you see the Bob Barker scene." So when Lye attended the premier in Hollywood 25 years ago, the first person he saw was Bob Barker. He couldn't help but laugh. "It looked like he had died 10 years earlier," Lye said. "He was just a wisp of a man. Wore a spatula full of makeup." Then he saw the fight scene and thought, "Damn, that was pretty good." Barker has said on many occasions that following the release of Happy Gilmore, he never taped an episode of The Price Is Right without being asked about the movie by someone in the audience. He said young men, in particular, ask him: "Did you really whip Adam Sandler?" Barker's stock reply: "Adam Sandler, he couldn't whip Regis Philbin." Perhaps that's what makes Sandler's Happy Gilmore so endearing. He beats up gallery members and fellow competitors, but he wasn't above taking one or two - or 11 - punches on the chin himself from the person you least expect. Of course, what Happy Gilmore does best is whack you over the head with absurd humor. "I was just blown away at the golf inaccuracies that were in there, but also how funny it was and how it brought the attention of Hollywood to the golf world," says three-time TOUR winner Johnson Wagner. "It was cool, but I just remember thinking how horribly inaccurate it was for professional golf." Good thing he didn't see the first few drafts of the script.

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The TOUR will travel southeast to Hilton Head, South Carolina, for the RBC Heritage this week. Harbour Town Golf Links will play as a par 71, measuring 7,121 yards and be putt on Bermuda greens. The tournament is back in its regular post-Masters spot in the schedule and has 135 golfers in the field at press time. Kiawah Island Golf Resort, the home of the 2021 PGA Championship (May 20-23), is 120 miles up the road. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $800K Flop Shot [$200K to 1st] STRATEGY This Pete Dye design is not as innocuous as it appears on paper. The course has increased in distance since it was built back in 1969, but it’s still short compared to most other TOUR courses. The fairways are tree-lined, which will cause players to use more irons and driving metals Off-the-Tee to get the ball in the fairways. There’s a higher scrambling percentage than TOUR average and a lower Greens in Regulation hit rate here with the smallest greens on TOUR (approx. 3,700 square feet). The proximity to the coast can also present challenging conditions if inclement weather is in the forecast. The highest distribution of approach shots (approximately 25%) are coming in from 175 to 200 yards out, with players hitting fewer drivers. That said, this isn’t a difficult golf course when the winds are down. Last season, it ranked as the fifth easiest course in scoring relative to par with little to no wind. Golfers striking the ball well won’t find Harbour Town GL tough to navigate, even though it presents some challenges with its design. Eagles are few and far between, but the three par 5s should be reasonably easy to walk away from with a birdie, recording a 40% birdie rate on average across all three. There are also two par 4s under 400 yards, which players will need to score on when given the opportunity. Placement off-the-tee is essential as well as approach, per all Dye courses. Will smaller greens, golfers should also have a decent short game to get it up and down when needed. GOLFERS TO WATCH Daniel Berger (+2000 to Win, $10,000 on DraftKings) His early departure from Augusta National shouldn’t steer you away from him this week, especially with how well he plays on Dye courses. Over the previous 12 rounds, Berger ranks sixth in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green on Dye designs and finished third here last season (in June). His Masters performance wasn’t pretty, but it had much to do with his putting and not his ball-striking, losing 3.03 strokes on the greens. Berger’s irons were solid at Augusta National, gaining a total of 1.74 strokes over Thursday and Friday. He’s also done well at some other coastal courses like Waialae CC and Pebble Beach and already has a win this season. Paul Casey (+2800 to Win, $9,200 on DraftKings) Casey should also be a consideration this week with how well he played at Augusta National, ranking 10th overall in approach. His success on Dye courses should also be evidence to roster him, as he ranks in the top 4 in Strokes Gained: Total over his past 50 rounds. Fatigue may be an issue for the Englishman, but it shouldn’t be enough to take you away from him this week with how well he’s playing this season. Abraham Ancer (+2500 to Win, $8,900 on DraftKings) Few have been better than Ancer on Dye courses recently, with Ancer ranking fourth in total strokes gained over the previous 24 rounds. Unlike Berger, Ancer made the weekend at The Masters, finishing T26 and carding a 2-under on Sunday. His final round last week was impressive, gaining 3.08 stokes with his approach, which is what you want to see heading into this week. Looking further back, Ancer has now gained strokes through approach in his past seven events. Harris English (+5000, $8,400) also looks the part and is someone to really consider after a top 25 at Augusta National last week. His success on coastal courses is undeniable, with wins or top finishes at Kapalua, Waialae CC, Sea Island Resort, Torrey Pines and down in Mexico at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship. K.H. Lee (+20000 to Win, $6,600 on DraftKings) Lee is coming off a top 25 at the Valero Texas Open a couple of weeks ago, where he ranked inside the top 10 in approach. He also recorded a 32nd-place finish at The American Express, another Pete Dye design. A top 20 at the Sony Open to start the calendar year is also a good sign that Lee could do well here. Although he’s struggling with the putter, Bermuda greens are by far his preferred surface. Luke List (+15000, $6,900) should also be making the shortlist of golfers to back in this range. List is an unbelievable ball-striker and can get hot on these shorter courses. His success on Dye courses can be found in his top-3 finish here in 2018 and his 21st at The American Express earlier this year. List also ranks 27th in approach over his past 12 rounds on Dye courses. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $800K Flop Shot [$200K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. For Masters odds, head over to DraftKings Sportsbook or download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL). Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ/WV/PA/MI), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (NH/CO), 1-800-BETS OFF(IA), 1-888-532-3500 (VA) or call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN). 21+ (18+ NH). CO/IL/IN/IA/NH/NJ/PA/TN/VA/WV/MI only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.

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Webb Simpson was in contention at The RSM Classic but withdrew before Saturday’s round to be with his ailing father. “Thanks to @Love3d for being such a great tourney host. I WD due to my Dad being sick and living his last days. Thanks for all the support,â€� Simpson tweeted after the third round was complete. Simpson started The RSM Classic with rounds of 67-68 to sit in 12th place, seven shots off the lead. He was scheduled to tee off at 10:45 a.m. with Jim Herman and Bubba Watson. “My dad is probably the kindest man I know. He’s always been the guy who knew everyone, everyone knew him, everyone wanted to be around him,â€� Simpson said in a 2015 interview with David Feherty. “But he was highly competitive. He loved sports. He coached my sisters in basketball and coached me in basketball growing up. He taught me the game. He’s always been one of those dads who loved to be active with their kids. “He wanted me to be as competitive as I could be. He did such a great job of pushing me to work hard but reminding me constantly that I didn’t have to play golf. It wasn’t golf that made him proud of me. It was the person I was and my character development, those type of things, which I love about my dad. That’s what made me learn how to win and be competitive in the right way. It wasn’t everything to me, but, hey, if I’m doing it, I’m doing it to win.â€� Sam Simpson would caddie for his son during amateur events while Webb starred at Wake Forest. Webb, the fifth of six children, started playing golf after following his father to the course on family vacations to the North Carolina coast. “He did not inherit any talent,” Sam Simpson said in a 2012 interview. “His hard work is what did it. His hard work did it for him, and his love of the game.â€� Webb Simpson, whose four PGA TOUR wins include the 2012 U.S. Open, is seeking his first PGA TOUR win since October 2013. He’s coming off a resurgent season that saw him qualify for the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2014.

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