Reviews of “Happy Gilmore 2” are flooding in, and while some have been more complementary than others, it’s hard to argue with the overall splash the sequel to the cult classic made since it dropped less than a week ago.
On Tuesday, Netflix announced that “Happy Gilmore 2” was streamed 46.7 million times in the first three days of its release — the most successful U.S. opening weekend in Netflix history.
Another thing that’s hard to dispute? The surprise star who stole the show. That’s right, Scottie Scheffler.
You probably know Scheffler from his major dominance on the golf course, the guy who recently won the Open Championship and who made about as many headlines for his comments about what really fulfills his life. He’s the World No. 1 and has upped his major-title tally to four, but apparently he’s got some acting chops, too. And if you watched “Happy Gilmore 2,” you might have noticed as well. He looked comfortable, and his dry humor, ability to make fun of himself and delivery was a highlight of the movie. A quick scan of the internet and social media would tell you the same.
But don’t take our word for it. Ask someone who was there filming on-site.
“Scheffler was great,” said Hunter Mahan, who was Adam Sandler’s golf-swing double and who appeared on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast to discuss what it was like making the movie. “People never see that side of Scottie. He is just head down, grind, talks about his faith and his family. But then you see that movie and you are like, dude’s got a lot of personality. He is funny. He’s just a dude at the end of the day.”
Scheffler had a handful of memorable moments, mostly focused on the film poking fun of his bizarre arrest at the 2024 PGA Championship.
He quipped, “Oh no, not again,” after he got arrested for punching another player. And at the end of the movie, still in a jail cell, he was approached by a guard.
“Hey Scheffler, it’s been three days, you sure you don’t want to make that call?”
“Depends,” Scheffler said. “What’s for dinner?”
“Chicken fingers.”
[Pauses]
“I’ll stick around another night.”
“He just killed it,” Mahan said. “And they really leaned on him. And luckily he was not shying away from, you know, getting arrested and all that stuff. That’s a big ask. A lot of guys would say no to that, and be like, no, I don’t want to bring that up again. He could have had some agency say no, I’d rather not do that. Totally leaned into it and absolutely killed it, and I think that really made Adam and everyone happy because that was something that not everyone would have leaned into and I’m so happy he did because it just made the movie so much better.”