GOLF / THOMAS BONK : Fore! Hollywood Is About to Step Up to the Tee

So Kevin Costner will star in a golf film by movie maker Ron Shelton and screenwriter John Norville. What’s it going to be called, “Water Hazard World?”

Uh, not very likely, but if there’s anything for sure out there right now it’s that golf is a downright hot entertainment property, a smoking two-iron shot off the tee.

Shelton, of “Bull Durham” and “White Men Can’t Jump” fame, has a tentative title of “Tin Cup” on the golf project but favors “Let The Big Dog Eat.”

Whatever it’s called, golf projects are jumping off the Big Bertha. Still in the works is a planned project by Clint Eastwood, who owns the rights to Michael Murphy’s book, “Golf In The Kingdom.”

Shelton said audiences probably will notice differences in the films.

“‘Kingdom’ I’m sure is pretty cerebral,” he said. “Mine will be more earthy and vulgar. I hope.”

Besides the regular run of instructional guides, there are more recently released golf books, many of them novels, than you can stuff in one of those Pete Dye canyon-sized bunkers.

There is “The Legend of Bagger Vance” by Steven Pressfield, “The Unplayable Lie” by Marcia Chambers, “A Good Walk Spoiled” by John Feinstein, “My Usual Game” by David Owen, “Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect” by Dr. Bob Rotella with Bob Cullen and “The Hole Truth” by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo with George White.

The way things are going, you shouldn’t be surprised to see some of this printed material on the big screen sometime. It’s all part of a trend, Shelton believes. He’s just not sure why.

“I don’t know why golf has had a resurgence,” he said. “Fifteen years ago, everybody played tennis. Now everybody plays golf.”

So that’s why Hollywood has rediscovered golf?

“Hollywood isn’t clever enough to plan the thing,” he said. “It’s just accidental, something cyclical.”

By most accounts, golf fell off the cycle a long time ago. Unless you count “Caddyshack,” there hasn’t been a movie with golf as a theme in theatrical release since Glenn Ford starred as Ben Hogan in “Follow The Sun” in 1951.

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Bottom 10 list: On the premise that anyone can pick the best U.S. Opens, Dan Jenkins in Golf Digest picked the 10 worst.

His choices and his comments:

1. Cherry Hills, 1978: Andy North, with nothing to recommend him, finishes with a bogey to nudge J.C. Snead and Dave Stockton.

2. Baltusrol, 1993: Lee Janzen adds to the thrill and glamour of traffic jams.

3. Hazeltine, 1970: Tony Jacklin strolls through the “cow pasture” while the big names make tracks to hide in the barn.

4. Oakland Hills, 1985: Andy North strikes again.

5. Southern Hills, 1977: Hubert Green wire to wire. Any questions?

6. Merion, 1981: OK, fine. David Graham. Anything to get it over with.

7. Baltimore Country Club, 1899: Willie Smith by 11 shots. No, I’m not kidding.

8. Columbia Country Club, 1921: Jim Barnes by nine shots. I’m still not kidding.

9. Bellerive, 1965: The USGA stretches the championship to four days of play . . . God’s punishment is a Gary Player-Kel Nagle playoff.

10. Oakmont, 1935: Sam Parks Jr.? If I wanted a curio, I’d go to a gift shop.’

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Inflation: For what it’s worth, first-place money at the U.S. Open is $350,000. Raymond Floyd earned $115,000 at Shinnecock when he won the U.S. Open there nine years ago.

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Eeeny, meeny: Keeping up with the Stocktons isn’t easy. Take last week, for example.

Ron Stockton was in Vancouver trying to qualify for the Canadian Open and his brother, Dave Stockton Jr., was playing in the Colonial in Ft. Worth. Dad Dave Stockton was in Midway, Pa., where he won the Quicksilver Senior Classic.

“My poor wife,” the elder Stockton told Golf World. “She doesn’t know who to follow.”

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Golf Notes

Entries close Wednesday for local qualifying for the 70th U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, which begins Thursday at Los Serranos North, June 12 at Palm Meadows (formerly Norton AFB), June 13 at BuenaVentura and June 14 at Griffith Park’s Wilson course. The 104 low scores from qualifying will advance to Brookside in Pasadena on June 27 for 36 holes. Sectional qualifiers advance to the Championship July 17-22 at Stow Acres Country Club in Stow, Mass. Details: 818 336-1082 . . . The Dave Taylor Golf Classic, which benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, will be played June 26 at North Ranch Country Club. Details: 310 479-8585 or 818 988-8002 . . . The Pathways Volunteer Hospice will be Wednesday at Rio Hondo in Downey. The event benefits the hospice, which serves terminally ill and their families. Details: 310 496-4519.