Corrected entry: On the last hole, when Roy hit all those balls in the water, Romeo hands him a 6th ball and tells him it is the last ball in the bag and if he loses it, they will be disqualified. Then they cut to Ken Venturi, who announces that if he loses this ball he will be disqualified. While it is true in the standard rules of golf that if you run out of balls during a round you are disqualified, there is no way Ken Venturi would have known that it was his last ball.
Correction: A better explanation is that the on-course mic picked up the conversation between Romeo and Roy, and either Venturi heard him or the information was quickly relayed to both announcers.
Corrected entry: During Dave Simms' tournament, Romeo is seen caddying for Craig Stadler. Craig is a world-famous fantastic tour professional and would have his own, regular caddy. Besides, only Tin Cup was offered a caddying job - not Romeo.
Correction: It is an exhibition and pros change caddies for lots of reasons, schedule conflict, injury, course knowledge. It is not wrong or a plot hole. It makes sense that Dave stacks his team with local knowledge.
Corrected entry: During Dave Simms' tournament, Dave does not take Roy's advice and thus decides to lay up, even though he hired and paid Roy to caddy for him (club him, etc.), as Roy "once shot a 59" there and knew "every bump on every fairway and every subtle break on every green". Also, there is no sign of Molly at this event.
Correction: Caddies are not responsible for their player's decisions, Dave doesn't have to take his advice. He is Roy's boss and the distance a ball carries has to do with the player, not the knowledge of the course.
Corrected entry: When Roy is giving Molly her first golf lesson, she is using a driver, the hardest club to hit. Any golf professional would have a student start with a short iron.
Correction: This is the author's opinion. The driver is also the one club you normally hit with the ball teed up, which makes it a perfect candidate for a new student. My pro actually started me with the driver, way back when the driver was persimmon and even harder to hit than today's forgiving monsters.
Corrected entry: During one of the qualifying competitions, Earl is too exhausted to carry on caddying for Roy. Roy leaves Earl behind and plays the rest of the round without him. But a couple of shots later when Roy gets to the green, Earl is holding the flagstick while Roy putts.
Correction: I used to caddy in pro events and sometimes even though the caddy can't carry the bag, they can still fore-caddie and hold the pin and everything a caddy does, without carrying the bag.
Corrected entry: It seems unlikely that Roy, a golf professional with an immense passion for the game, had never considered entering the US Open until Romeo put the idea into his head.
Correction: Roy has no confidence in himself because he thinks he blew his shot and now just subsists by running his driving range.
Corrected entry: Early in the movie when Kevin Costner is caddying for Don Johnson, DJ has on a visor that has NISSAN on it. When DJ goes to hit his shot NISSAN is gone from the visor, then NISSAN reappears.
Correction: The NISSAN does not disipear when he goes to take the shot. If you look closely you can still see the last N on his visor. As the shot changes camera agnles so quickly it is hard to see, but it is still there.
Corrected entry: On the final hole of the Open, when Roy finally gets the ball in the hole from the fairway, he retrieves the ball from the hole and throws it into the water in front of the green. A few spectators then run across the green to get the ball from the water. All this happens and Simms hasn't finished the hole yet. Officials would never have permitted this to take place, since Simms hadn't finished the hole yet. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even reached the green.
Correction: The officials have nothing to do with it. In the excitement of the moment, quite a few specators went diving for the ball, to get a piece of a glorious sports moment. How would the officals stop a mob of people going nuts?
Corrected entry: It is strange that Roy can hit his 7 iron 220 yards, yet can't seem to hit his 3 wood 235 yards. Why would he bother carrying his 2 - 6 iron?
Correction: Roy's 227 yard seven iron was played on a driving range in Texas, bouncing on dry, burnt out grass or even hard pan. It was stated earlier that Roy's swing is designed to produce a ball flight that cuts below the Texas wind (a la Lee Trevino). Theoretically, his low shot could have carried 170 or so yards and rolled the rest. That does not even take into consideration a possible tail wind. Though it is not stated, a strong Texas wind at his back could have helped his situation as well. The 235 yard three wood on the last hole was a shot that Roy had to carry over a water hazard. In rounds three and four he hit this shot into a headwind. Though a great ballstriker, he could have missed the shots, resulting in his inability to carry the hazard.
Corrected entry: After Roy destroys all his clubs when he's trying to qualify for the Open, he apparently pars the backside with a 7-iron. However, in the shot where he putts with the back of the 7-iron, it would be a 2-stroke penalty since no club can be hit backwards except the putter.
Correction: There is no rule against hitting the ball with the back of the club.
Corrected entry: When Romeo get Johnny Miller's autograph, at the practice range of the Open. He congratulates him for "Great opening 73" which would indicate that the tournament has started, but it has not.
Correction: Romeo comment to Johnny Miller was "great open in 73" referring to Miller's 1973 victory at Oakmont, considered by some the greatest round played in open history.
Corrected entry: Kevin Costner is able to hit a 7 iron which travels over 240 yards with a pathetic looking swing. I know there are freaks out there who can do that but these are powerfully built guys with awesome swings. Costner is able to do it with what looks like a 1/2 or 3/4 swing let alone a full swing.
Correction: It sounds impossible, but last week I heard that a professional golfer (don't remember his name, but he was from the PGA-tour) also hit 240 yards, just with a 6-iron..
Corrected entry: Toward the end, Kevin Costner is referring to all the small "backward" sponsors he has, and refers to Woody's Smokehouse, but his T-shirt reads Willy's Smokehouse.
Correction: That shows just how small time those sponsors are, when even HE doesn't know the right name.
Corrected entry: In the final round Roy hits an errant second shot and his ball lands near a portaloo. He then hits the ball and purposely ricochets the ball off it. The rules states that if an object is not a permanent fixture on the course you can get relief, such as grandstands and camera towers. It's highly implausible that a professional golfer would not take advantage of that rule.
Correction: Roy is a professional golfer. It is his profession. He is not a 'Tour Professional'. He runs a driving range, giving out lessons and thus gets paid. There are many references to him being a 'pro' during the film. Professional golfers don't always play on golf tours. There are club professionals, coaching professionals etc etc. All have professional status and registered with the applicable governing body such as the uspga or the PGA. And, if they qualify for (in this case) the U.S. Open, they would play as professionals against the 'Tour Professionals' and anyone else who has qualified such as Amateurs, other qualifiers, wild cards and invitees etc.
Correction: Roy is NOT a professional golfer. That is his problem, he is reckless and takes absurd risks which often get him into trouble.
It's possible the port a potty is a permanent structure, being on the course at all times for golfers to use.
Correction: Either way, the port-a-potty isn't in his way. Roy's ball is stuck right behind a tree and he is using the port-a-potty to ricochet the ball. If he had it moved and went that way, he'd just be deeper into the woods.
Correction: No rule exists for not having enough golf balls or running out of golf balls.