Golf star Tiger Woods took an epic selfie recently with actor Christopher McDonald — a man known for being an award-winning golf pro — on the big screen.
Christopher McDonald played Shooter McGavin in the 1996 sports comedy film, Happy Gilmore.
A Twitter account named after Christopher’s character in the box-office hit starring Adam Sandler posted a selfie of McDonald standing alongside Tiger Woods on Tuesday at the U.S. Open.
“Two golf legends catching up with each other at the U.S. Open the other day.”
Two golf legends catching up with each other at the U.S. Open the other day @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/kU8AFfnLPb
— Shooter McGavin (@ShooterMcGavin_) September 8, 2015
In the Dennis Dugan-directed film, which also starred Modern Family actress Julie Bowen, McDonald played an egotistical arch-rival of underdog Happy Gilmore during a golf tournament.
Happy Gilmore pic.twitter.com/ySvPQXCECF — Best Movie Line (@BestMovieLine) September 5, 2015
Nearly twenty years after the film was first released in theaters, Shooter McGavin apparently still has quite a solid group of fans and followers.
The unverified Twitter account has generated 277,000 followers in the four years since it was first created in April, 2011.
Another sign is the impact that this epic selfie of Tiger Woods and “Shooter” made on social media — including with Happy Gilmore fans and critics.
Maybe the greatest selfie in the history of selfies #Tiger #ShooterMcGavin pic.twitter.com/rraVi80JV6
— Total Golf Move™ (@totalgolfmove) September 8, 2015
Another example of the Internet winning. http://t.co/oNa7kpVu8q — Michael Nelson (@mike_e_nelson) September 9, 2015
This is what the perfect golf selfie looks like http://t.co/Ue2XAk4QPX pic.twitter.com/TPsOql9YmS
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) September 9, 2015
In a November, 2011, interview with A.V. Club , Christopher McDonald explained why he initially turned down the Happy Gilmore role — twice.
“I’d just done two movies back-to-back in Vancouver… It did look pretty funny. So that weekend, I played a golf tournament in Seattle, and I won. And I thought, ‘You know, it would be fun to do that golf movie, maybe.’… I had a lot of fun doing that part as a villain who was in on the joke. I liked that part about it, that I could play it that way, and they let me do it. Also, my golf game got sick. I was playing golf five hours a day for six days a week. It was nutty. I was pretty good at that time. And now I basically get to play golf for free for the rest of my life, which is pretty good, too.”
McDonald further explained that, within 15 minutes of meeting Adam Sandler, he was on-board with playing the now-iconic role.
Even though Christoper McDonald has played numerous roles on the big and small screens in the years since Happy Gilmore was released, he will always be remembered as Shooter McGavin. Perhaps that type of recognition is a good thing — especially since it eventually led to a now-viral selfie with Tiger Woods.
[Image Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images]
