There is little question that one of the biggest wins in Happy Gilmore 2 came from the performances of some of the golfers who featured in the Adam Sandler film.
It seems fair to say that Happy Gilmore 2 has divided opinion since being released in late July. Of course, the first film has to be considered one of the greatest sports films of all time. It was always going to prove to be a tough act to follow.
The story itself in the sequel is bizarre to say the least. But those who are golf fans will have surely got a real kick out of some of the cameos.
John Daly is outstanding throughout the film, while Scottie Scheffler is a revelation. And it did seem that the film managed to land every legendary figure in the game they could get their hands on.
How Tiger Woods felt about being asked to feature in Happy Gilmore 2
But of course, golf’s two biggest stars since the first film came out were not involved. Neither Phil Mickelson nor Tiger Woods featured.
You would have arguably thought that Mickelson would be keen to feature given how he has embraced social media and YouTube, particularly in recent years.
Photo by Carmen Mandato/TGL/TGL via Getty Images
Woods, on the other hand, is not particularly prominent on social media and does not give many interviews away from the golf course. It seems to stop the golfing world in its tracks when the 15-time major champion reveals almost anything about his life away from the sport.
But as it turns out, perhaps it was more likely that Woods would feature in Happy Gilmore 2 than his great rival, with the film’s co-producer Chad Mumm telling Skratch how close the two legendary figures came to signing up.
“There were like 29 people on the list. I got all of them except for Tiger and Phil. Phil, we asked and they didn’t really ever engage. And Tiger, I kind of heard afterwards that he really considered it. It just kind of didn’t work from a scheduling perspective,” he said.
The golfer who proved to be the most difficult name to get to star in Happy Gilmore 2
Whatever you think of the film, it cannot be denied that the producers deserve enormous credit for getting so many stars of golf past and present to feature.
Perhaps one of the most surprising cameos came from Jack Nicklaus. Unlike Lee Trevino, Nicklaus did not feature in the first film in 1996. And Mumm suggested that it was a tall order to get the Golden Bear involved.
“The hardest one I think was probably Jack Nicklaus. He’s older and he’s still really busy,” he added.
“That was actually the surprising part. We got so lucky and I don’t think this was planned because it was built around Adam’s schedule. If Adam’s schedule had put this in the spring or the summer, we would not have gotten anybody.”
Thankfully, the film was able to rely on plenty of sporting star power.
