Golf on the telly is not everyone's cup of tee.
Right, that's the bad pun out of the way - but let's face it, if you don't know a five iron from a steam iron then the favoured sport of Tarby, Brucie and Wogan can leave many viewers cold.
Even the thrilling events at Carnoustie during the recent British Open have failed to convert the anti-golf masses.
"It's like watching hours of televised sky," remarked Jasper Carrot once and you can see his point.
So little wonder Hollywood has been reluctant to make a movie with golf as the central theme. Caddyshack and the Adam Sandler vehicle Happy Gilmore may have played it for laughs, but few directors have ever been brave enough to portray romance and drama on the fairway. However, Ron Shelton is no ordinary film-maker.
To those in the know, he's the king of sports movies as he proved with Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump and Tin Cup.
The plot centres on a washed up golf pro (Kevin Costner) working at a driving range. He tries to qualify for the US Open in order to win the heart of his successful rival's girlfriend (Rene Russo). Costner and Russo don't exactly set the screen on fire but compared to Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman in The Avengers, there's a frisson between them that positively crackles like sexual fireworks.
Along for the ride are Don Johnson and Cheech Marin before they went on to star in the unintentionally hilarious cop show Nash Bridges, and US golf fans will have fun spotting cameos by players including Corey Pavin, Fred Couples, and Lee Janzen.
So what is it about Tin Cup, aside from the attractive leads, that makes this worth a look for the rabid golf hater?
Well, as he proved with baseball and basketball, Shelton manages to infuse a passion in his screenplays that few other sports writer/directors have managed in recent years. In Costner's 1988 hit Bull Durham, Ron came up with a killer speech about "long slow wet kisses," on the day of shooting. It became one of Costner�s most quotable lines of dialogue. The opening patter between Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump is pure genius and Tin Cup is also rich with delightful lines: "Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you're not good at them," remarks Roy McAvoy (Costner).
After the big budget excesses of Waterworld in 1995, Kevin needed a hit - critical and commercial - if he was to retain his A-list status in the Hollywood hierarchy. With Wyatt Earp, The War and A Perfect World under-performing at the box office, it seemed a long time since the actor and director had shone as Tinseltown's golden boy. Luckily, he had worked well with Shelton during the shooting of Bull Durham and the chemistry between actor and director scores another hole in one here.
The movie may have cost $45million to make, but it grossed over $75million putting Costner back on the map long enough to get financial backing for his hugely expensive flop, The Postman. Tin Cup also proved a nice little earner for Rene Russo, one of California's most competent model-turned-actresses. This summer she can be seen in a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan and can always be guaranteed to add both sex appeal and dramatic weight to any role - something which wasn't too essential while playing a comic strip character in another upcoming release, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. As for Costner, he's returning to the baseball field for Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi's new movie, For the Love of the Game.
There's also Thirteen Days, a drama about the Cuban missile crisis - the fact that he's producing it too means it'll probably go on for at least three hours so if you fancy seeing it, then best take a cushion when it opens next year.
© 1999 Roger Crow