By Tom Cunneff
On July 26, Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, N.J., is going to have a big Happy Gilmore 2 screening on the driving range with three to five large screens and upwards of 1,200 people attending.
Talk about a drive-in!
No, the members aren’t some sort of Adam Sandler fanatics. The club also stars in the film, which debuts on Netflix July 25. The filmmakers shot a big chunk of the movie at the club last October. For the screening, the club’s communications team has put together a video of members and staff who were involved as background actors. A few members of the crew will also be in attendance, and club owner Matt Donovan will host a Q&A with Matt Willigan, the director of grounds who was instrumental during the filming.
“It should be a great night, and we’ve been encouraged by the excitement from everyone,” says Donovan, whose grandfather, Raymond, cofounded the club 60 years ago.
With its three courses, Fiddler’s was one of the few clubs in the Met Area able to simultaneously handle the logistics of the shoot and membership play. (Much shorter shoots took place at seven other New Jersey clubs, including Montclair in West Orange, Beacon Hill in Atlantic Highlands, and Alpine in Demarest.)
“It was frustrating and chaotic at times, but it’s Happy Gilmore, and that’s a pretty cool thing to be involved with,” Donovan says. “I’m very appreciative to the members. They really had some patience. Now we all get to kind of enjoy the benefits of that, watch the movie together, and throw some cool events. So hopefully people now can look back and remember the times fondly and think it was a good experience.”
Not only did members get to see a big movie being filmed at their club, but they got to get up close with the biggest stars in the game who appear in it: Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Fred Couples, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Jordan Spieth, among others.
During the 23 days of filming at the club, the Director of Golf George Deitz would start each day at 6 a.m. meeting with Netflix to figure out which course the production was going to use that day, and then he would adjust the tee sheets as needed. Typically, one of the three courses would be closed for play, but sometimes, members would have to play the front of one course and the back nine of another.
Donovan was hoping demand for play would be down somewhat in October, but that wasn’t the case.
Most of the filming was done on the Forest Course, which worked out well since it’s the farthest from the clubhouse, but the 18th hole of the River Course, which is right next to the clubhouse, had a huge grandstand setup around it to stand-in for the final hole of a major championship, causing a little a bit of an issue with the wedding venue. The club had to install trees to block the view of the grandstand.
The highlight for Donovan was getting to take part in a champions dinner scene like the one at the Masters, along with his dad and brother. About a dozen players and many extras, about 40 in all, donned gold jackets for the big scene inside the clubhouse.
“We were sitting at the table with Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele and kind of overwhelmed at where we were,” he says. “I won’t give away too much, but some big legends of the game are sitting in that room with us, which was pretty incredible for us to be a part of. We were a little overwhelmed at times. It’s cool to say, ‘Hey, I’m I get to be in a movie,’ but as a golfer, to be in the same room with all these legends was even cooler.”
The production was a far cry from the original Happy Gilmore in 1996, which was shot on a shoestring in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the producers had to beg to get on a so-so course to shoot the golf scenes.
The only PGA Tour pro in the first film was Lee Trevino – and all the scenes of him shaking his head or laughing were shot in his backyard in Florida. For the sequel, all the biggest tour pros who grew up watching the original were clamoring to be in it, with Schauffele turning out to be the best actor of the bunch.
“Xander is really funny,” says Herlihy, who lives in Ridgefield, Conn. “We kept giving him more to do because he was just so funny – great timing, great sense of humor. Would try anything and is just a very engaging performer. He was really fantastic to work with.”
With his impressive YouTube and social media presence, DeChambeau took a keen interest in the filmmaking process.
“He asked us a lot of questions,” Herlihy recalls. “When he wasn’t in front of the camera, I would turn around and he’d be there with us watching the scenes on the monitors just wanting to soak it in.”
Two other big differences this time around were the much larger galleries thanks to the bigger budget and the use of CGI. Nobody had to hit a single shot on HG2 since the ball was added in post-production.
“It’s a lot easier but a little less fun,” Herlihy says, “although I guess it’s not that much fun when the sun’s going down and you’re waiting for Adam to make a 30-footer on take 47.”
The quicker pace certainly made for a smother production, happily for the members of Fiddler’s.