Amid the craziness of the world today, all is not lost.
There are at least two facets of life that give us hope and strength. The first is golf and its simplicity of pushing a little white ball into a little white hole outside. The second is the movies—heading to the theater is as much a family and date-night pastime as baseball and apple pie.
”Phantom of the Open” staring Oscar winner Mark Rylance and Golden Globes winner Sally Hawkins, is a golf-themed movie that’s scoring extremely high among men and women alike, registering a “Fresh” 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It opened in theaters nationwide in early June and movie critics were correct in predicting its “sleeper star” acclaim whether (or not) you know the difference between Fred Couples and married couples.
“Phantom” also earned rave, sneak-preview reviews among country club owners, boards, GMs and COOs. They say the movie grounds them into reality that the world isn’t only comprised of club caviar, champagne and the best surf and turf money can buy. In turn, they’re talking up the golf-for-everyone movie as the serious yet hilarious anthesis to the silliness of Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield and Adam Sandler golf movie lore.
The Plot
The movie begins with Maurice, played by Mark Rylance, being dismissed from his crane operator job at the shipyard in tiny Barrow-in-Furness, England. Down on his luck, he glimpses the finish of the 1975 Open Championship crowning Tom Watson. With little thought put into his words, he announces to his blue-collar buds that he’s going to play in the British Open.
But at 46 years old, Maurice never owned a golf club let alone picked one up. And he’s eccentric to the core, the antithesis to the archetypical player.
Guided by a “practice is the road to perfection” mantra, Maurice can get the ball airborne. The problem: many times, he doesn’t.
Maurice applies to qualify for the Open Championship. Since he neither owns a handicap nor a club membership, he ticks the “professional” box. The Royal and Ancient don’t run a Dunn and Bradstreet report on Maurice, so he’s in the 1976 Open Championship qualifying tournament at Fornby.
On the course Maurice whacks the ball here, there and everywhere, save a ground ball or two (or three) off the tee and consistently record scores in the high single and low double digits per hole.
He records a 121, relegating him the “World’s Worst Golfer” moniker and international fame that came along with it. Headlines in the U.K., continental Europe and even across ponds in the U.S. were plentiful. The audacity of scrawny and lovingly innocent Maurice even remotely in the same company of the likes of fellow qualifying contestant Seve Ballesteros, then a runway model-like 19-year-old!
What elevates “Phantom” above even Maurice’s score is Hawkins, who, like Rylance, is one of today’s most gifted actors. Her quiet cheers for her honey, no matter the outcome, are what classically solid relationships are made of: Stand by your man.
Maurice’s caddy, Gene, is one of his disco-championship-winning twin sons, who goes with the flow while sporting bell-bottom pants fitting for a shipyard worker’s offspring. And he disco dances on the course while also, importantly, eyeing a teenage beauty outside ropes. Do scores really matter?
It doesn’t end there. To avert attention of the Royal and Ancient, Maurice uses pseudonyms and disguises in trying to qualify for the Open Championship again in 1978 and 1979, only to be chased off the course (literally) by event officials.
Behind the Scenes
“Phantom” is based on the book of the same name, co-authored by Simon Farnaby and Scott Murray. What went into the movie, directed by Craig Roberts, may surprise you. Just take the lead actor, for example.
Before the shoot, Oscar winner Rylance rigorously prepared in Barrow-in-Furness, including nights out with Maurice’s surviving son, James Flitcroft. He also worked with his longtime voice and dialect coach Martin McKellen.
“I was able to spend time with Maurice’s family and sons and grandchildren,” Rylance recalls. “It’s very helpful to spend some time with these people who have the wider understanding of who you’re talking about.”
With the golf side of things, Rylance needed to wield a club like an amateur, but not with a swing like Tiger Woods. Longtime PGA professional Don Brennan of Muswell Hill Golf Club in London gave Rylance lessons and was blown away by the actor’s first attempt at golf.
Rylance’s father played golf, but Mark had never gotten into the sport.
“I thought I would just give him some basics so he can get into this role, and the reality was he was so adept, it was ridiculous. It just connected to him because Mark is very sporty. He plays tennis and so we drew from that,” Brennan says. “Mark had the basics down in five minutes and we had him in ‘Maurice model’ in 10 minutes. He was transformed in no time at all.”
Rylance realized how addictive golf could be.
“I found I could hit the ball. And occasionally it went generally in the direction I had imagined (laughs). I could see the appeal of it. Though, actually, sometimes my worst shots were also really useful for the film.”
Brennan hopes “Phantom” can show people that golf doesn’t need to be stuffy and snobby. “I love how Maurice championed the game and would decry any formality. He was a champion of the game and a defamer of the ‘golf culture.’ I hope this can be a clarion call to raise awareness of golf and break that sense of exclusivity in the golf world.”
Rich Katz is founder and CEO of Katz Strategy. He can be reached at [email protected].