At the Movies

‘Tommy’s Honour’ captures the game’s roots in St Andrews

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Most golfers know something about Old Tom Morris – at least enough to be drawn in by a brogue-speaking stereo type pitching an online tee-time booking service. But how many really know Morris’ story? He and his son, Young Tom, were there at the dawn of modern golf. And now a new movie, “Tommy’s Honour,” brings their relationship to life on the big screen.

The film is a highly authentic presentation of how golf looked in the late 1800s. To recreate playing conditions of that era, the crew eschewed shooting on a course and instead built two holes on a seaside cow pasture in Scotland. Short, square metal flag sticks and balls painted red for snow are fun surprises (or to buffs, reminders). The filmmakers constructed a replica of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse to match its original façade, with stones of virgin tan instead of today’s weathered gray. They hired the St Andrews Golf Company to create all the equipment.

“On set we had three tractor trailers full of costumes,” says American producer Keith Bank, founder of a Chicago investment firm. “Because so much time passes in the story, we wanted every detail to be exactly right along the way.”