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Imago

Now that Rory McIlroy has completed the Career Grand Slam, it’s time to move on to the next important thing. No, not the PGA Championship or the US Open or the Open Championship, for that matter. It’s time to talk about his acting career. To be precise, Happy Gilmore 2.

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Now, the Ulsterman doesn’t brag about his acting skills. Far from it. The five-time major winner gives a disclaimer right at the beginning. “I am a much better golfer than I am an actor.” Then, he chuckles. But getting a role in the movie was also a dream-come-true moment for the Ulsterman.

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You see, like most of us, the 35-year-old grew up on Happy Gilmore. McIlroy explains, “Happy Gilmore was the golf movie for me growing up; I could recite pretty much every line. The fact that I got the opportunity to do this was awesome. Sandler is the absolute best.

McIlroy compared the experience with a pro-am. Except that the roles were reversed here. The Ulsterman said on Wednesdays of the tournament week, pros are the ones coaching and teaching the amateurs.

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At the Happy Gilmore set, Sandler, obviously, was the pro, and the golfers were amateurs and some rookies. And they did make some rookie mistakes. Take Jordan Spieth. The former Masters champ’s antics on the set actually left one of his peers fuming.

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Jordan Spieth’s actions prove Rory McIlroy’s point

McIlroy said he wasn’t a good actor, which might be true. But he is certainly not the worst. That honor goes to Jordan Spieth. At least Keegan Bradley thinks so. Team USA’s current Ryder Cup captain had to share the screen with Jordan Spieth. And guess what Spieth did? He starts laughing at Bradley, and the latter loses it.

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We do our first take, and Jordan looks at me, and we both start hysterically laughing. And I was so mad. I said, ‘Jordan, you have to stop. We’re ruining this whole production.’ We, ultimately, I think, got it. But definitely Jordan (was the worst actor out of the Tour players),” Bradley recounted in Golf’s Subpar podcast in a recent episode.

So, Rory McIlroy wasn’t wrong when he said Sandler’s role was similar to pros in Wednesday Pro-Ams. The Ulsterman joked on The Tonight Show, “I felt Happy Gilmore 2 was like a pro-am. He was producing, he was directing, he was acting, and he was trying to coach us through what to do. It was like a full-time job.

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The Adam Sandler-starrer will land on Netflix on July 25. Yes, still some distance away—in fact, a week after the Open Championship—but thanks to pro golfers’ presence, it’s already the buzz of the town.

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Written by

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Parnab Bhattacharya

1,587 Articles

Parnab Bhattacharya is a Newsletter Editor at EssentiallySports in the Golf Division. With four years of writing experience, he is now exploring his deep-rooted love for the gentleman's sport. Parnab's area of expertise is his predictive and perspective pieces, where he explores all things golf, diving deep into the whys and whats behind players' and Tours' moves in the sport, and unflinchingly voicing his take. His love for sports extends beyond the golf course. As a Madridista at heart, he swears by Saint Iker's reflexes and CR7's predatory instinct, when not lost in the pages of a Dostoevsky novel or exploring global cinemas.

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Riya Singhal

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