The Loop
The famous hole from Tin Cup should be on every golfer's bucket list
As one of golf's most beloved movies turns 27 years old ("Tin Cup" was released on Aug. 16, 1996), we'd like to wax some nostalgia on the cinderella story of Roy McAvoy, played gloriously by Kevin Costner, but also remind golfers that they must make a pilgrimage at some point in their lives.
Yes, the famous par 5 that is used as the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open during "Tin Cup" still exists, and it's almost unchanged from what it looked like when McAvoy played it back then. Deerwood Country Club is a ClubCorp-operated private club in the quiet woods of Northeast Houston (Kingwood, Texas), and its 13th hole is in fact the site of the famous "Tin Cup" scene.
Pretty cool—the producers didn't change the hole at all. There's even a plaque, marking the site where Costner attempted the shot. It sits about 230 yards to the center of the green:
It turns out that some of the golf scenes were filmed at Tubac Golf Club in Arizona, but the most memorable scene, the one in which McAvoy keeps dropping balls and hitting them into the water, before holing out, was filmed at the hole seen above. And as one of our course-ranking panelists told us this week, playing the hole was one of his favorite experiences of his well-traveled golf career.
"Sure, the Dustin Johnson bunker at Whistling Straits is a famous site in golf, just like the 18th hole at Valhalla or Torrey Pines, where you have to hit the putts that Tiger holed in major championships. But give me Deerwood Country Club and its 13th hole any day of the week. That's some true golf history."
There you have it. Happy anniversary to "Tin Cup," and be sure to put Deerwood on your bucket list.