© © Lisa Rose / ZUMA Wire
Born in Edinburgh in 1930, Sean Connery grew up in Scotland just down the road from Bruntsfield Links club, which is one of the oldest golf courses in the world.
However, he explains in his autobiographical book “Being au Scot”, published in 2009, it was not until the age of 34 that he really discovered this game, taking lessons near the studios of Pinewood Cinema: “And I was hooked straight away!
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"If you cheat at golf, you will be the loser, because you are cheating on your only person ..."
Sean connery
© © United Artists / Entertainment Pictures via ZUMA
A discovery that Sean Connery, who died on October 31, 2020 at the age of 90, then experienced as a devouring passion: “Soon, he confesses to his biographer Grigor Murray, it would almost take over my life.
I started to see golf as a metaphor for existence, because in golf you are basically alone, competing against yourself and always trying to do better.
If you cheat, you will be the loser, because you are cheating on your only person… ”
Matchplay
In the film "Goldfinger", directed by Guy Hamilton in 1964, Sean Connery wins an epic matchplay against the villainous hero of the third episode of the adventures of James Bond adapted for the cinema.
On the Stoke Park course, created by Harry Colt in 1908 in north-west London on the road to Oxford, James Bond 007 offers a game with a Nazi gold bar at stake.
Ironically for the golf enthusiast that is Sean Connery, he wins the game by… substituting his opponent's ball, who is then suspected of cheating.
In 1979, Sean Connery and a few associates bought a property located in the Var hinterland, near Fayence, with a castle and 266 hectares of land.
The actor imagines a dream course on what has today become the golf course of Terre Blanche.
The geographic location, 25 minutes by car from Cannes and 45 minutes from Saint-Tropez, seems ideal for attracting the Riviera jet-set and Anglo-Saxon tourists.
But for lack of investment, the project fell through.
A bank freezes golfing activity for almost two decades.
Only the hotel operation remains and the first nine holes reserved for the owners of the premises.
Caddy
© Panoramic
Later, also passionate about the little white ball - his first job was to be a caddy in a club near Oakland (California) - Clint Eastwood worked on a film project with his friend Sean Connery.
The idea of embarking on a golf-themed shoot together was born ... on the fairways that the two cinema icons regularly shared together, accompanied by their respective wives (Sean Connery met his second wife, a Frenchwoman, during a friendly game).
In the early 1980s, Eastwood then acquired the rights to Michael Murphy's book, "Golf in the Kingdom", which describes the frustrations of the average golfer before turning them into a mystical Zen experience.
A story that fascinated the two actors and fueled their hope of being reunited on the screen, clubs in hand, for new adventures ...
Disappeared at the age of 90, Sean Connery will no longer realize his dream of acting with Clint Eastwood, in this lower world.
Maybe one day it will happen up there in golfers' paradise ...