Happy-ness is a sequel

 Dialed up "Happy Gilmore 2" the other day in defiance of all the alarm bells clanging in my head, because the only thing in filmdom guaranteed to flop worse than a sports-movie sequel is a comedy sports-movie sequel. 

It's why you likely never saw "Major League 2" or "Major League 3," even though some lint brain in Hollywood green-lit those unfortunate projects. It's why you also likely never realized there were also three "Bad News Bears" movies in the original franchise, plus a 2005 remake of the original, plus a short-lived "Bad News Bears" TV series.

Many more sports-movie sequels never got made, on account of there was pretty much nowhere left to go at the conclusion of the original. "Rudy 2" would have been just Rudy Ruettiger making bank off what happened in the original "Rudy" for the rest of his natural life. And "Secretariat 2"? 

That might have been the first equine porn film, given it would just be endless shots of Secretariat at stud. "Seccy Does Claiborne Farm," roll tape.

However ...

However, "Happy Gilmore 2" works. And a lot of the reason it works is not because of Adam Sandler, but because Adam Sandler talked a number of golfing icons into poking fun at themselves in a frankly ridiculous (but hilarious) plot.

Is Jack Nicklaus in this thing, in other words?

You're damn right Jack Nicklaus is in this thing.

Are Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler in it?

You're damn right they are.

Does Rory get hit in the 'nads in a batting cage (don't ask)? Does even the famously colorless  Brooks play along with the silliness? Does Verne Lundquist play Verne Lundquist to the hilt, and do Scottie and John Daly pretty much steal the film?

You're damn right they do.

The Blob will not be That Guy and throw out a bunch of spoilers, except to say Daly is priceless as a sort of couch-potato philosopher king and Scottie perfectly deadpans his famous brush with the law. But if Sandler gets his laughs, and Christopher MacDonald gets his flowers as Shooter McGavin, and the blatant parody of the Liv Golf Tour is fun, it's the golfers, and those in their orbit, who make "Happy Gilmore 2" worth the watch.

Heck. Even Brooks Koepka looked like he was having a blast.