Other Crap

Trailers for The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), a Disney golf drama about one of the greatest real-life underdog stories of all time, Francis Ouimet's famous triumph over the great Harry Vardon in the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline.

• Every dedicated sports fan knows the story. Ouimet, a 20-year-old amateur, came from a working class family which lived near the club, and was a caddy there. At the time, Vardon was a five-time British Open champion and a former U.S. Open champion. He was golf's senior ambassador and its most recognizable name. Imagine Jack Nicklaus at age 43, and you'll get the picture. Vardon even had a grip named after him, and that name is still used today. He was also Ouimet's idol.
• Ouimet, Vardon and another English pro named Ted Ray went into the final round tied, and they all shot the same score, so the tournament ended in a three-way tie which was settled by a Monday playoff. Talk about a sympathetic home-town crowd! Playing against two established foreign champions, both professionals, Ouimet was not only the only American in the playoff, and the only amateur, but was basically just a hopeful kid teeing off within sight of his own house, using a local 10-year-old as his caddy! If his story were fictional, nobody would believe it. It's surprising that it has taken so long to become a movie.
• Here's the scoring recap.
• The film's script is based on the book linked below, which is a rhapsodic celebration of golf, an incredibly detailed account of the tournament, and a must read if you are interested in golf lore and the way it intertwines with American history and sociology. (The author of the book also wrote the screenplay.)