“Happy Gilmore 2” set records during its opening weekend on Netflix. The Adam Sandler sequel is filled with nostalgia, the expected slapstick humor and a ton of cameos from the professional golf and entertainment world.
Everyone from Scottie Scheffler to Rory McIlroy, John Daly, Jack Nicklaus and Rickie Fowler graces the silver screen in the Sandler sequel. By now, you’ve heard that PGA Tour winner Hunter Mahan served as Sandler’s swing double after the actor injured his knee. But Mahan wasn’t the first choice to be Sandler’s fill-in.
Producer Chad Mumm recently revealed on Skratch’s Vanity Index podcast that he initially tabbed Michael Block to be Sandler’s body double.
“The line producers were like, ‘We got a problem. Adam hurt his knee,'” Mumm said. “And he was worried that he wasn’t going to be able to do the running swing as well as he thought he’d be able to. So they’re like, we need a swing double for Adam. My first thought was, ‘Who can be a Sandler body double? Ah, Michael Block!’ Fast forward a day later, you’ve got Michael Block in full Happy Gilmore outift. And so, he had to literally get his hair cut. They stick the beard on him and he gets all the thing and he’s doing the swing.”
That’s when Blockie’s time on the set was cut short.
“They take one look at him and they’re like that, ‘Yeah, that’s not going to work he’s too tall. So, he’s like you got to go tell Michael Block you’re out. He got his hair cut and dyed and flew to New York and now he’s flying back.”
Mumm said he contacted Jason Dufner’s agent next, but Dufner declined. Mumm then sent an email to all agencies looking for a Happy Gilmore swing double.
“I’m just looking for any golfer who’s in their 30s or 40s, can do the swing and has got time,” Mumm said.
Ten minutes later, he received a video of Mahan blasting balls while doing the Happy Gilmore running swing and the decision was made.
Mahan told GOLF’s Subpar podcast that he spent a lot of time studying and perfecting Gilmore’s swing. He didn’t want to mess up Sandler’s iconic rip even a little.
“I was looking up ‘Happy Gilmore,’ the first movie, and figuring out, how does he get into his [swing] — is it a walk, is it a shuffle, which foot goes first, you know? I wanted to be as professional and real as I could,” Mahan said. “And so, I kind of messed around with a few different things and tried to get, I mean, his finish is very high, right? It’s like, you can kind of tell, it’s like, boom! And he kind of falls over with his foot, and he’s not really standing there. It’s a big high finish and stuff, so I wanted to make sure I got that as good as I could.
“And I think it was the first day of Thursday, I was kind of introduced to him kind of quickly, and he’s like, I want it to be big, and kind of walking into it wasn’t as important, but kind of like a big, long, exaggerated swing, as big as you could, and tall, you know, kind of be really tall through is what he sort of instructed me to do, and how he wanted it to look. And so I kind of focused on that as best I could.”
Mahan executed his role perfectly, but the golf world was deprived of another Michael Block moment — at least until next year’s PGA Championship at Aronimink.
