Pitch | licensetogolf

Title: Puddy McFadden – License to Golf

Writer - Director: David M O'Neill / David.Oneill@crosswindfilms.com (818) 799-3692

Format: Film

Genre: Redemptive Golf Comedy – Current Day

Tone: Happy Gilmore meets Caddyshack with a little bit of Braveheart around the edges…

Logline: Cursed by the ancient Scottish ancestors of golf, disgraced one-time PGA superstar Puddy McFadden is given a chance to redeem in the Viagra Classic.

Sites: Puddy McFadden - License to Golf Trailer: Trailer

Summary / Info: Script complete.

The Background of Puddy McFadden actually evolved when good friend and actor Christopher McDonald (Shooter McGavin) and I were at a Los Angeles Dodger baseball game. He had made an off-beat comment regarding an elderly, between innings, first-base, field linesman. Chris sized up the spry 90-year-old, and casually said, “I can take that guy”. From there, the character of Puddy McFadden was born.

The Story: In the vein of break-out films such as; The Hangover, Happy Gilmore, Old School, and Tommy Boy, Puddy McFadden - License to Golf is a redemptive, comedic tale of one-time, PGA superstar, McKenzie "Puddy" McFadden who was fatally disgraced from the elite-tiers of the professional golf world, when he inappropriately tried to establish a “Men’s Only” club in the heart of PGA’s, power-broker, Milton Stonehouse’s, East Haven Greens. Poised to make a comeback, Puddy ultimately learns he's been vext by the wives of his-own, ancient, Scottish forefathers with the little-known, dreaded and repulsive, “McTiernan Curse”. (The source of most his troubles). Unfortunately for Puddy, it's a curse he learns that has placed a lethal stake right through his professional standing with the PGA and is the source of his exiled status managing a very lonely, weed-infested, miniature golf course somewhere in the very dry outreaches of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Having his eye on a comeback by way of the Viagra Classic, along with its Five Million Dollar winner’s purse, the only question now is whether Puddy still has his dominating long-game?

As we catch up with a middle-aged, McKenzie “Puddy” McFadden who over-lords his weed infested miniature putt-putt golf course, hope does arrive – even if it may appear suspect at best. One-time manager and low-end, con-man, Melvin Dealer finds Puddy in a deep dream of better days inside the weed-choked landscapes and offers our fallen-hero a second opportunity of a lifetime i.e., a direct invitation to the high-profile, Pro-Am Viagra Classic that can redeem the fallen star’s reputation, and, possibly put him once more on track to the top. But, there are a few caveats. The tournament is being held at Milton Stonehouse’s East Haven Greens and Melvin Dealer has his own agenda - he owes a lot of money to the wrong crowd and needs Puddy to right his game to collect his 10% manager’s fee to pay off his debts. Ultimately convinced of its merits, (and with little other choice) the two make an uneasy pact of convenience and make the narrow escape from the confines of Puddy’s North Las Vegas, scorpion-corral to the big city.

Immediately arriving to a public course, sadly, what was not used, now appears more than lost. Swinging his drivers at a local range, Puddy’s once-prized, go-to, long-game is all but history – nonexistent. Horrified, Puddy discovers the unimaginable, his premiere, championship touch is nowhere to be seen. All prospects for a comeback – dashed – completely dead out of the gate!!

Despondent, Puddy’s fortunes only appear to get worse. From eating a bad shrimp at the King Kamehameha Hut, he knocks over a flaming, decorative, Tiki-Torch which ignites the nightclub singer’s grass-skirt. Fire and mayhem! Arrested for “menacing a hula dancer” Puddy’s given a misdemeanor arson charge and sentenced to community service by mentoring a pack of errant juvenile youths on the golf course. It’s there, Puddy officially meets Mialani (the Tiki Lounge Singer who he accidentally lit on fire) who is a single-mother to a rudderless, off-spring named Brock for which Puddy is now a mentor.

While ultimately arriving at East Haven Greens, Puddy and Melvin’s troubles only mount when given a ripe, reprimand by club owner Milton Stonehouse. It was Stonehouse’s golf course which was disastrously disgraced when Puddy operated his un-politically-correct, ad-hoc, Men’s Club inside its premises having pushed the bounds of social propriety. Stonehouse notes that, “It’s only because Viagra wants a limp-dick poster boy like you as to why you’re back here, McFadden”.

Female memberships plummeted. Puddy became the lone holdout of misogyny and male chauvinism and his career came to a very abrupt end.

As the two-day tournament looms, our hero is also confronted by his arch enemy and longtime professional rival, Micky “The Finn” O’Toole. He learns his ex-wife, who holds the keys to their estranged son, has actually married his rival out of spite. Whhaaaatttt? The McTiernan Curse lives!!

With both professional and personal trials, Puddy takes on the challenge both with his game and with his tendencies of raw sexism. He and Melvin rent an abandoned summer fraternity house to begin training. Off the grid from Melvin’s debtors, plush digs are not in the equation. Little do they know, it’s haunted – or, it appears to feel haunted. They find the abandoned summer property is a ripe party palace for a culture of the area’s little people – one in particular who Puddy had met in the holding cell when arrested for the Tiki-Torch arson. With the property up for sale, we learn every effort is made to frighten off potential buyers – but, ultimately, an alliance is made, Mialani is wooed, and Spec, the little-person, prison-inmate, caddies for McFadden on the second day navigating Puddy through the last nine-holes against his formidable rival, Micky “The Finn” O’Toole.

With bruising debtors hot on Melvin’s tale, a disintegrating golf game, Puddy’s own son lying in the balance, a court sentence which has placed the care of nine errant-juveniles into his hands, a budding romance with lounge-singer Mialani, a high-profile comeback tournament which can make-or-break, a rival who out of nastiness married his ex-wife, and a long game which no longer exists, it’s only then Puddy is greeted by the very source of his curses - the ghosts of the thousand-year-old Scottish past – The Highlanders. He is given the sequential steps that can release the grip of the spell and that of his forefathers. In doing so, Puddy learns he’s actually related to his nemesis Micky O’Toole, finds love once again, and is ultimately reunited once more with his estranged son – all the while sinking an astonishing 60-foot putt to win the 5 Million Dollar Viagra Classic.

Summary: Some of the funniest and most memorable films I’ve seen are those like Caddyshack, Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup, The Greatest Game Ever Played. With today’s sensibilities of political correctness, the battle between the sexes, the hot field of politics, and the endless news outlets pulling up in every direction, I wanted to create something light, something that has a sense of “ridiculousness”. Here are some short-produced links.

Puddy's Comeback Puddy Snaps Rocco Mediate Puddy's End is Near

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