Golf is the sport I know the least about. I’ve been able to pass somewhat well in social circles, since the gist is just hit ball in hole, but I’m screwed if you ask me to name a golfer other than Tiger Woods. Happy Gilmore? Shooter McGavin? Michael Jordan when he’s sucked into the Looney Tunes world through the golf hole in Space Jam? This is what I’m working with.
Luckily, Netflix had a genius idea for guys just like me. A bunch of professional golfers are set to appear in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore sequel, which is probably the only way that you could get me to learn their names. Oh, and Travis Kelce is going to be there, too. Why? He’s just everywhere now. “We’re going to have fun,” Sandman told Kelce on the New Heights podcast. “The scene you’re doing is with so many great golfers. It’s going to be amazing. You’re going to be funny as hell.” I’d place your bets that Kelce takes a page out of Happy’s playbook by tackling The Price Is Right host Drew Carey right into a sand trap.
According to Sandler and Kelce, the original idea was that the Chiefs star would play Gilmore’s son. The two would likely get into some The Color of Money–esque antics, banking on the hope that the Kelce-to-Taylor Swift pipeline boosts their numbers into the stratosphere. “The whole thing was to get to hang out with Travis,” Sandler joked on the podcast. “That’s why we put it together.” Right. So…what are Happy Gilmore and his son/maybe-not-son Travis Kelce up to in this sequel?
Okay, I’ll Bite: What Is Happy Gilmore 2 About?
It’s difficult to piece together a plot, because Sandler isn’t a big sequel guy. Sure, there’s Grown Ups 2, Murder Mystery 2, and a handful of Hotel Transylvania films. Huh, turns out Sandler is a big sequel guy. But it’s surprising that Sandler’s treasure trove of cult comedies has remained completely untouched. There’s only so much that guys like Billy Madison and Mr. Deeds can do, after all. Happy Gilmore? The opportunities are endless.
Maybe Happy Gilmore 2 is like Rocky II. Though Happy technically wins the Tour Championship at the end of the 1996 film, the ball only goes in the hole because of a complicated Rube Goldberg machine involving a TV tower and Joe Flaherty’s car. To prove that he’s the undisputed best hockey-player-turned-golfer and silence the new generation of social-media haters, Happy could challenge Shooter McGavin again. Expect Kevin Smith, Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi, and David Spade to all show up at some point.
There’s also Rocky III. What can I say? The Rocky franchise is just the perfect sequel blueprint. Now a major golf celebrity thanks to his win over McGavin, Happy is challenged by a younger, hungrier showboat golfer played by Bad Bunny. The superstar musician is officially joining the film in an undisclosed role, according to Netflix, and I would love to offer him the role of the main villain. I’m imagining him much like Sacha Baron Cohen in Talladega Nights. Happy Gilmore already killed off Chubbs (the late Carl Weathers) in the original film and put him up in the sky with Abraham Lincoln. So any joke involving the villain murdering Gilmore’s mentor, like when Ivan Drago kills Apollo Creed (coincidentally, also Carl Weathers) in Rocky IV, is probably too far-fetched.
Hell, Happy Gilmore 2 might take a page from Creed’s playbook—with Kelce as Shooter McGavin’s son—and have Happy train him in the art of the highly unconventional golf swing. Killer Trav McGavin has a nice ring to it, no?
