The author poses with a golf club in a Bruins jersey, Happy Gilmore style. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; illustrations; Jiaqi Wang for Yahoo News; photos: Kelsey Weekman/Yahoo News)BEDMINSTER, New Jersey - After spending a day zooming around a country club in a golf cart, feeling the balmy breeze filter through my collared sweater vest, I saw the best thing I'd seen all day: Dozens of middle-aged golf tournament participants, clad in baseball hats and polo shirts, hollering "Shooter McGavin!" with unbridled joy.
From my perch on the back of the bougie vehicle, I could see actor Christopher McDonald in the cart ahead of me, beaming with joy as real-life golfers recognized him as the uppity villain he played in a movie that premiered 29 years ago, Happy Gilmore. On the greens of Fiddler's Elbow Country Club on July 13, the 1996 comedy about a belligerent failed hockey player who transforms into a golfer to save his grandmother's home might as well be in theaters today.I don't think the real-life golfers knew this, but McDonald and I were there - along with Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Benny Safdie and a gaggle of other journalists - for a press event on behalf of Happy Gilmore 2, its long-awaited follow-up, which starts streaming on Netflix July 25.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAny questions I had about why Happy Gilmore is one of the few Sandler characters to get his own sequel dissipated when I saw that crowd erupt. People aren't just going to stream this movie because they love seeing familiar material rebooted and rehashed. They love this guy - the outsider who invaded their sport, messed it up and defeated the established Goliath of golf.
Earlier that day, I sat with McDonald and Safdie on a hill overlooking the course. They gushed to me about the timelessness of Happy Gilmore, excitedly quoting the original movie to each other as they talked about why it needed a follow-up film.
Safdie, who directed Sandler in a rare dramatic role in 2019's Uncut Gems, estimates that he's seen Happy Gilmore hundreds of times. He told me he could close his eyes and watch the film in his mind from beginning to end, adding that it's "one of the best, funniest movies there is." Lines from the movie, like "five iron, huh? You're fired." - something McGavin mumbles to his caddy before letting him go - have become part of his daily lexicon.
McDonald was more straightforward. "Our fans demanded it," he told me. Earlier that day, Sandler joked to me that "30 years of pressure from Shooter McGavin" is the main reason they got the gang back together at all.
Find your 'happy place'I felt out of place when I rolled into the country club parking lot that morning, my battered Subaru Impreza sticking out among BMWs and Cadillacs. I told the security guard what I was there for. He put his hands on his hips, mocking me as if I were the fancy one, then broke into a smile to share that he'd met Sandler during their New York University days. I might have been at a ritzy country club, but a few scenes from the sequel were filmed here, and this was Sandler's domain.
Netflix gave the author some Happy Gilmore 2 merch. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; illustrations; Jiaqi Wang for Yahoo News; photos: Kelsey Weekman/Yahoo News)I took the portable neck fan Netflix had given me the night before at a screening, now smudged with the orange streaks of the makeup I sweated off, and hopped in a golf cart that took me to a driving range. There, a kind staffer handed me a Boston Bruins jersey and a hockey stick and invited me to try to put a golf ball into a hole. I could not do it in less than four swings, no matter how hard I tried or how close I stood, even after the country club's staff professional gently encouraged me to "just tap it in."AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI wanted to blast the ball into the stratosphere or drop to my hands and knees on the green and shriek, "That's your home! Are you too good for your home?!" at the menacing little sphere, but I had to go meet Sandler. And my sweater vest was a rental item I couldn't afford to cover in grass stains.
When I met the megastar, he was wearing an oversize polo shirt and shorts - in keeping with the country club's dress code, but true to his signature style. Sandler's laid-back demeanor instantly put me at ease as he fired off jokes and sipped from a venti Starbucks drink with his old pal, Bowen, aka Virginia Venit, the gorgeous PR director who quickly fell for Gilmore's rough-around-the-edges style and became his "happy place." Their love anchors the original movie, so I was surprised when I heard Bowen say she didn't expect to be in the sequel. She thought she might be replaced by a younger actress."My kids were like, 'It's never gonna happen for you, old lady!'" she told me, adding that Sandler didn't owe her anything. Sandler rejected that, saying, "She was wonderful in it. Our characters love each other!"AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdverti