Linking Up on the Links: “Tin Cup”

When it comes to golf, I don’t know a birdie from a bogey. So a movie that’s all about golf should not speak to me. Still, I was a big fan of Ron Shelton’s baseball-related directorial debut, Bull Durham (1988). Four years later, Shelton made playground basketball sexy in White Men Can’t Jump. So I was curious to see what he could do on the golf links, especially since Tin Cup (1996) reunited him with the star of Bull Durham, Kevin Costner.

 I’m not always a Kevin Costner enthusiast, especially in films that require him to be solemn and heroic. (See, for instance, Dances with Wolves.) In Tin Cup he’s quite the opposite: something of a grifter who just happens to have remarkable golf skills, but is too much in love with crazy bets and show-offy gambles to make a real career out of a sport he loves. Shelton describes his Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy as a archetypal American hustler-conman-loser who has a gift for self-destruction. To my surprise, he reminded me a great deal of Jimmy McGill, Bob Odenkirk’s talented but sleazy lawyer in the TV series, Better Call Saul. (The two men even have a similar look: clean-cut but diabolical.) The film ends up with Roy in a position to win—to everyone’s astonishment—the U.S. Open, but the outcome is not what you might expect.

 Following some success on his college golf team, Roy has made a life for himself running a driving-range in an out-of-the-way desert spot called Salome, Texas, where the greens are hardly green, and armadillos are an occasional hazard on the course. (The movie opens with a series of colorful roadside signs including this one: “Last chance to hit golf balls fore 520 miles.”) Not much concerned about money, Roy hangs out with a scruffy group of golf buddies, drinking beers, making creative wagers, and giving the occasional golf lesson to a newbie. Such a one is Dr. Molly Griswold (Rene Russo), a feisty and attractive clinical psychologist who shows up with hundreds of dollars’ worth of questionable golf gear. She’s dating Roy’s college nemesis, David Simms (Don Johnson), now a star professional golfer who holds charity tournaments and never misses a chance to needle Roy about his less than stellar accomplishments on the links. Naturally, Roy and Molly can’t fight their growing attraction, especially when she discovers (natch!) that big-hearted, charitable David is really a jerk behind the scenes.

 Though I delighted in Roy’s devil-may-care personality, Dr. Molly didn’t work for me. Yes, she has colorful moments, but the character seems less a reflection of true human behavior than a construct by a screenwriter looking to find an original take on his leading lady. Her backstory is a  jumble of romance with an Amarillo cowboy, years selling real estate, and suddenly a newly-minted psychotherapy degree. Frankly, it just doesn’t wash, though the romantic capitulation, when it comes, is jolly good fun, even while it leaves Roy’s caddy/guru/best friend out in the rain for a very long time.

 That best friend is played by Cheech Marin, best known for his drug-friendly comedy routines with partner Tommy Chong. His role as Romeo Posar gives him the opportunity to be wise, to be funny, even to sing and to dance in sexy style with Roy’s ex-girlfriend, a bodacious stripper. I would be remiss in not mentioning Cheech’s off-screen passion for collecting Chicano art. He boasts the largest such collection in the world, and in 2022 joined with the city of Riverside, California to open The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry.