40 Fun Facts About Tin Cup

Which future U.S. president told Tin Cup's director, after a New York screening, to recut the ending so Roy wins?

Donald Trump, by the director's account, skipped the congratulations and said a happier ending would make more money. The director kept the finish he had already defended against the studio.

Tin Cup reached cinemas in August 1996, less than two weeks before which golf superstar turned professional?

Tiger Woods turned pro days after the film opened, so it missed the golf boom he set off. Its director reckons a release one year later would have doubled the takings.

Which actor plays washed-up range pro Roy McAvoy in Tin Cup, two years after starring as lawman Wyatt Earp?

Kevin Costner had played only about a dozen rounds of golf before taking the part. His crash course included a boot-camp week of lessons at a tour event in Akron, Ohio.

How does Roy McAvoy finish the U.S. Open's final hole in Tin Cup after repeatedly finding the water?

Holes out for a 12 is how it ends: with the last ball in his bag he clears the pond and it drops into the cup. The shot costs him the title, and the crowd goes wild anyway.

David Simms visits Roy McAvoy's trailer in Tin Cup to offer him which humbling job at a benefit tournament?

Caddie is the job on offer, though Roy assumes his old college teammate has come to invite him to play. He takes the bag anyway and spends the round needling Simms for playing safe.

Tin Cup's director defended Roy McAvoy's losing finish by citing the ending of which Humphrey Bogart classic?

Casablanca sticks in the memory, he argued, because the audience does not get the ending it wants. Hollywood executives had pressed him to let Roy win the tournament.

The star of Tin Cup almost passed on Roy McAvoy, worn out by 157 shooting days on which 1995 blockbuster?

Waterworld had left him drained and in the middle of a divorce, and it took his agent to talk him into the golf comedy. He later called saying yes one of the best things he ever did.

Tin Cup earned roughly twice as much as which Adam Sandler comedy released six months earlier in 1996?

Happy Gilmore arrived in February 1996 and took about half of Tin Cup's box office. Both golf films narrowly missed the surge in the sport's popularity that began the following year.

In a Tin Cup bar bet, Roy McAvoy hits a ball from inside the clubhouse to knock which bird off its perch?

Pelican is the target, and the stunt was lifted from a real bar bet in the career of the film's golf consultant. The scene was shot in the clubhouse of a Texas country club.

Which comedian, half of a famous 1970s comedy double act, plays Roy McAvoy's sidekick Romeo in Tin Cup?

Cheech Marin plays Romeo Posar, who argues with Roy over every club and walks out on him in the middle of a round. He comes back in time to fix Roy's swing before the big tournament.

Which actress plays Dr. Molly Griswold in Tin Cup, the same year she starred opposite Mel Gibson in Ransom?

Rene Russo's Molly turns up at Roy's range wanting lessons because her boyfriend is a tour star. The New York Times said she had finally landed a full-fledged comic role after a string of huge hits.

Which star of the 1980s cop show Miami Vice plays smug tour pro David Simms in Tin Cup?

Don Johnson was offered the part in a matter of minutes by a director scrambling after his first choice quit three weeks before the shoot.

What is Dr. Molly Griswold's profession when she arrives at Roy McAvoy's range for a lesson in Tin Cup?

Psychologist is her trade, and she strikes a deal with Roy: therapy for his head in return for help with her swing. She has only taken up the game because her boyfriend plays on tour.

Which cautious tactic does Roy McAvoy stubbornly refuse to use on long par 5s throughout Tin Cup?

Laying up means playing short of trouble instead of going for the green, and Roy treats it as cowardice. The writers built the whole character on that one flaw, starting with the ending.

Tin Cup reunited its director and its leading man, who first worked together on which 1988 minor-league comedy?

Bull Durham drew on the director's own years as a minor-league infielder and made his name. Eight years later he swapped the diamond for the fairway with the same star.

Playing Roy McAvoy in Tin Cup earned its star a Best Actor nomination, in the comedy category, at which awards?

Golden Globes voters nominated him for best actor in a musical or comedy, the film's single nomination there. He did not take the trophy home.

Who struck most of Roy McAvoy's on-screen shots in Tin Cup after coaching from two television golf analysts?

The lead actor himself hit them, having ruled out a double from the start. One of his coaches says he improved enough to shoot even par a couple of times during the shoot.

Tin Cup was pushed to an August 1996 opening to steer clear of which sporting event held that summer?

The Olympic Games in Atlanta pushed the film into a late-summer slot its makers thought undesirable. It still opened at number one at the box office.

Which former minor-league ballplayer directed and co-wrote Tin Cup four years after making White Men Can't Jump?

Ron Shelton says golf was by far the hardest sport he ever filmed. A tournament, he pointed out, is 150 players doing much the same thing over and over across 150 acres.

Which sportscaster, the longtime television host of the Masters, plays himself calling Roy McAvoy's rounds in Tin Cup?

Jim Nantz recorded his speech about Roy's record-breaking round months after filming, sitting in the back seat of his rental car because no soundproof booth was available.

In Tin Cup, Roy McAvoy hustles bets by playing a full round with what in place of his regular clubs?

Garden tools such as a shovel and a hoe do the job, along with a baseball bat. Roger Ebert picked these bets against amateurs who fancy themselves professionals as some of the film's funniest scenes.

Tin Cup's fictional U.S. Open was filmed on Texas courses, but in which state does the story set it?

North Carolina is where the script places the tournament, at a made-up course. Its real stand-in was a private Texas club, which later set a marble plaque on the spot of Roy's final shot.

Which golf broadcaster, hired as Tin Cup's consultant, once took 16 on one hole, inspiring Roy McAvoy's finale?

Gary McCord put five balls in the water in a row at a 1986 tour event in Memphis, refusing to change clubs until he was down to his last ball. He then sank a 25-foot putt.

Which network's golf crew covers the fictional U.S. Open in Tin Cup, although NBC held the real broadcast rights?

CBS lent its real announcers and its veteran golf producer, who all play themselves. The director reworked the tournament scenes after watching that producer run a broadcast from the truck.

Which dreaded swing fault strikes Roy McAvoy on the practice range just before the U.S. Open in Tin Cup?

The shanks send his practice balls squirting sideways until Romeo sorts out his swing. The practice-range scenes were filmed at a real golf school in Texas.

What good news does Molly give Roy back in Texas as Tin Cup ends?

A place in next year's Open comes automatically with his finish, she tells him, and the two kiss. The man who threw away the title has still earned his way back.

Which club does Roy McAvoy stubbornly hit again and again over the water on Tin Cup's final hole?

The 3-wood stays in his hands for shot after shot, when a shorter and safer play was open to him. Golf Digest counts the way his last one spins among the film's least realistic moments.

Roy McAvoy's West Texas driving range in Tin Cup was actually built from scratch in which other state?

Arizona supplied the desert: the range was built in a remote spot about an hour south of Tucson. A golf club in the same state hosted some of the film's early scenes.

What is wrong with Roy McAvoy when he plays his dreadful opening round at the U.S. Open in Tin Cup?

Hungover from the night before, he posts a score in the eighties and looks sure to miss the cut. He answers the next day with a record-low round.

Which future three-time Masters champion is among the real tour pros who play themselves in Tin Cup?

Phil Mickelson was one of several real pros recruited by the film's golf consultant. When the budget could not meet their fees, a dinner with the two male leads persuaded them to work for scale.

Roy McAvoy and his rival David Simms were once golf teammates at which Texas university in Tin Cup?

Houston is where the two rivals shared a college team before Simms made the tour and Roy did not. One of the real broadcasters appearing in the film played golf for the same university.

Which equipment brand supplied David Simms's bag and clubs in Tin Cup under a product placement deal?

TaylorMade gear sits in both rivals' bags, but the prop department sanded and repainted Roy's clubs so they looked rough enough for a broke range pro.

Which actor accepted the role of David Simms in Tin Cup, then withdrew just three weeks before filming began?

Alec Baldwin pulled out for family reasons with the shoot looming. The director's hurried search for a replacement came down to two stars best known for television.

Outside which dusty West Texas town does Roy McAvoy run his ramshackle driving range in Tin Cup?

Salome is so sleepy that the range draws more armadillos than customers. A 1995 trade report on the project had placed Roy in the border city of Laredo instead.

Which real PGA Tour pro, playing himself, wins the fictional U.S. Open that Roy McAvoy throws away in Tin Cup?

Peter Jacobsen takes the trophy while Roy takes the applause. Golf Digest counts his win among the film's less believable touches, since he never won a major in real life.

In Tin Cup's backstory, Roy McAvoy wrecked his shot at a tour career with one risky play at which event?

Q-School, the qualifying tournament for a playing card, is where he gambled in the final round and lost. A sequel that would have sent him back there was written but never filmed.

Which pianist, famous for the 1986 hit The Way It Is, contributed two songs to the Tin Cup soundtrack?

Bruce Hornsby supplied Big Stick and Nobody There But Me for an album heavy on country, blues and Tex-Mex. George Jones, Chris Isaak and Patty Loveless appear on the same record.

The star of Tin Cup wrote the foreword to which book by the film's technical consultant?

Golf For Dummies was written by the television analyst who taught him to swing for the film. In the foreword, the actor describes how extensively the two trained together.

Which golfer's decision to play safe on a par 5 at the 1993 Masters sparked the idea for Tin Cup?

Chip Beck trailed by three shots in the final round and still chose caution, finishing second to Bernhard Langer. The writers imagined his opposite: a man who cannot help going for it.

Which big-hitting pro heard the gallery chant Tin Cup while making an 18 on one hole in 1998?

John Daly kept trying to carry a lake at the Bay Hill Invitational and kept finding it, six balls in all. The player keeping his score lost track of the count after the fifth or sixth splash.