America may love their grand stories of great heroics but us Brits love to weave our twee tales of local eccentrics and ordinary everyday people ding extraordinary things; think The Full Monty, Calendar Girls and Fisherman’s Friends to name but a few classics of British cinema. Now we have the story of the ‘World’s Worst Golfer’, Maurice Flitcroft, to add to the list thanks to Craig Roberts’ adaptation of Scott Murray and Simon Farnaby’s book, The Phantom of the Open. 

To borrow a phrase from the Potter-verse, the film opens at the close and we see British golfer Maurice Flitcroft settling in for an interview with American television to talk about his not-so-illustrious career as a professional golfer. As Flitcroft waits for that quintessential British staple, the cup of tea, he takes us back to where it all began, a little industrial town in the North-East of England where he worked as a shipyard crane operator and fell in love with Jean, a secretary with an illegitimate child. Vowing to raise Jean’s son Michael as his own, they got married and had twins Gene and James, with a family of five to feed Maurice put his dreams on hold in order to help his children achieve theirs. 

“Practice is the road to perfection”

Gene and James grow up to be Disco Dancing champions – yep that was a thing in those days – and after getting a degree in engineering, Michael becomes a manager at the shipyard. When the shipping company gets nationalised, redundancies are on the table and Jean encourages Maurice to do something for himself after making so many sacrifices over the years. The trouble is Maurice doesn’t know what that something could be until one night he stumbles upon a televised golf competition. 

Despite having never played a round of golf before – or even knowing what a ‘round’ is – Maurice is fascinated by the sport and decides to apply for the 1976 British Open and, ever the optimist, he marks his application as a professional guaranteeing his spot in the qualifiers. 

As is often the case with these types of tales, what comes next is a clash of the working class and the wealthy elite. For Maurice “practice is the road to perfection” but without the correct regulation attire and money for the green fees, he is unable to practice at his local golf club instead resorting to hitting balls on the beach and in the local parks until the big day arrives. 

As someone who has hit a few balls at the driving range but is not naturally good at golf, I could to totally relate to the “flippin’ ‘eck” that Maurice gives when observing his opponent’s first drive off the tee. Then Maurice Flitcroft steps up to the tee, closes his eyes and swings…. hitting the worst round of golf ever recorded at the Open much to the chagrin of the snooty tournament director, Keith Mackenzie (Rhys Ifans), who promptly bans Flitcroft from the Open and all golf clubs in the country. 

Not to be discouraged, Flitcroft proceeds to enter the competition another four times under various disguises and fake names, inspiring a generation of young golfers and earning his title as a sporting legend – the Phantom of the Open. 

Mark Rylance, often underappreciated in my humble opinion, delights in his turn as Maurice Flitcroft balancing a humble working class innocence with a wily impishness that you can’t help but root for. You would be forgiven for thinking that the accent is a little heavy and the mannerisms a little too caricaturist, until you see the archival footage of Flitcroft’s American interview and you realise that Rylance played it perfectly.

There’s a quiet modesty to Sally Hawkins’ performance as Flitcroft’s doting wife, Jean, and she is the perfect counterpart to Rylance’s eccentricity. My only criticism, perhaps of the whole film, is that Jean feels a little underdeveloped as a character, relegated to a bit part – an important bit part, but a bit part nonetheless – and if I’m honest, Hawkins feels a little overqualified for the role given some of her past performances.

Tournament director Keith Mackenzie is the Tom to Flitcroft’s Jerry and Rhys Ifans is an excellent choice to play him, giving a somewhat understated slow-burn performance that is delightful to watch. Rounding out the cast; we have Jake Davies, Christian Lees and Jonah Lees as the Flitcroft boys, Mark Lewis Jones as Maurice’s slightly shady friend Cliff and a cameo from Simon Farnaby, who wrote the book that the film was inspired by.

I have to say this was a solid yet easy watch, perfect for a cosy Sunday afternoon with a blanket and a cup of tea. The light-hearted comedy alongside the simplicity of the story and the acting chops of a great British cast see The Phantom of the Open hit a hole in one.