Adam Sandler’s 1996 film Happy Gilmore is an iconic comedy about competitive golf, though the functionality of the running swing technique pioneered by Sandler’s protagonist is questionable at best. In a new video celebrating the movie’s 25th anniversary, golf pros including Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, and Rory McIlroy try out Happy’s iconic swing.
We’ve already seen a number of Happy Gilmore homages for its 25th anniversary, with Sandler himself posting a recreation of the chaotic swing earlier in the year. Now, the pros are giving it a shot in a new video posted by Team TaylorMade, featuring Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, and Tommy Fleetwood showing off their best Happy swings.
The video has it all, with each player sporting a custom Happy Gilmore jersey with their surname on the back. Commenters on the video agreed that Tiger Woods had the most successful swing, but that Rory McIlroy committed the most to the chaotic run up–with disastrous results.
Happy Gilmore found itself referenced in the pro golf world earlier this year, when memes compared Masters runner-up Will Zalatoris to one of Gilmore’s caddies from the film. Zalatoris embraced the joke, even going so far as to have one of the character’s lines engraved on one of his wedges.
Game developer Mike Mika also revealed that he had pitched a Happy Gilmore video game, which would have combined golf and fighting. Though it never ended up being greenlit, Mika hinted that it could be a good project for Netflix’s push into gaming.
