Daily Dialogue — October 8, 2019

Roy ‘Tin Cup’ McAvoy: Well, I tend to think of the golf swing as a poem.
Clint: Ooh, he’s doing that poetry thing again.
Roy ‘Tin Cup’ McAvoy: The critical opening phrase of this poem will always be the grip. Which the hands unite to form a single unit by the simple overlap of the little finger. Lowly and slowly the clubhead is led back. Pulled into position not by the hands, but by the body which turns away from the target shifting weight to the right side without shifting balance. Tempo is everything; perfection unobtainable as the body coils down at the top of the swing. Theres a slight hesitation. A little nod to the gods.
Dr. Molly Griswold: A, a nod to the gods?
Roy ‘Tin Cup’ McAvoy: Yeah, to the gods. That he is fallible. That perfection is unobtainable. And now the weight begins shifting back to the left pulled by the powers inside the earth. It’s alive, this swing! A living sculpture and down through contact, always down, striking the ball crisply, with character. A tuning fork goes off in your heart and your balls. Such a pure feeling is the well-struck golf shot. Now the follow through to finish. Always on line. The reverse C of the Golden Bear! The steel workers’ power and brawn of Carl Sandburg’s. Arnold Palmer!
Romeo Posar: Unnhh, he’s doing the Arnold Palmer thing.
Roy ‘Tin Cup’ McAvoy: End the unfinished symphony of Roy McAvoy.

— Tin Cup (1996), written by John Norville, Ron Shelton

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Golf. Today’s suggestion by @pauldecesare41.

Trivia: The scene at the end of the movie where Roy hits the shot into the water hazard again and again was based on an actual event. Gary McCord, the commentator with the handlebar mustache in the movie, is an actual commentator and pro golfer. In a 1987 tournament he had a shot similar to Kevin Costner’s. He needed a birdie to win and went for it. He hit the water over and over again and finally made the shot, but it cost him 15 strokes. In the movie Costner gets it in 12. The scene where Roy wins a bar bet by hitting a golf ball at a pelican also was based on a real life incident from McCord’s career.

Dialogue On Dialogue: I’ve always looked at this scene as the equivalent as the “I believe” speech in another Ron Shelton movie: Bull Durham.