Golf Q&A: Actor Jeff Daniels
With Tom Lang
Like previous Q&A’s you’ve found in the MI Golf Journal over the years, we like to talk golf with people who love the game, yet the sport is not necessarily their main gig.
Actor Jeff Daniels fits that bill, when he’s not on the Playbill of the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, other theatres around the country, or making Hollywood and independent films.
We caught up with Daniels when he played in the Celebrity Shootout at the PGA Tour Champions Ally Challenge in late August.
Question: Do you see any correlations at all between movie prep or stage prep and the game of golf?
Daniels: “Seriously, it’s the repetition. Learning the swing, getting that fundamental golf swing. It’s the same thing as memorizing lines. I don’t have a photographic memory, so it’s reps. The athletes like (Joey) Kocur does as a Red Wing, what the Lions do in training camp. They are running that same pass play 100 times a week so they can do it right in games. It’s the same thing with lines and repping and repping until you’re so prepared that when they turn on the camera, you’re there.
“It’s similar with golf. You forget a line, your right elbow flies out. Things go wrong, but then it’s how you recover. But the preparation that athletes do, that golfers do, the great actors I’ve known all do that.”
Q: Do you have a Michigan golf course bucket list?
Daniels: “I think I have played all the ones I’ve wanted to play. But the Cardinal (at Saint John’s, Plymouth) is new; I haven’t played there yet. (I have played) Oakland Hills, Arcadia Bluffs, Bay Harbor and Greywalls in Marquette. That’s worth the drive for those who haven’t played it. It’s just gorgeous and it’s cut out of granite mountain that you’re standing on top of I think it’s the 9th tee and you can see Lake Superior. It’s really beautiful, it’s cool. And there’s (Jack Nicklaus’) the Bear, that torture chamber.”
Q: Did you have a parent or grandparent or someone who got you into the game?
Daniels: “My dad did that. He was a golfer and member of the local 9-hole country club in Chelsea. I had a baseball swing that I tried to hit a golf ball with for years. And then I was a member at Jackson Country Club, and the pro over there, Ron Beurmann, taught me a great swing that I can’t do anymore.
“And then I quit for like 10 years. I kept playing a lot, and I came home one day after I shot an 81, and my five-year-old said, ‘how’d you do?’ I said good, good, but I have to play tomorrow, I have to fix that. And he asked, ‘how long are you going to be gone this time’ and I just hung up the clubs for like 10 years.
“Now, my sons are in their 30s. They used to play hockey and now they absolutely love the game of golf. So, I have to pick it up again.”
Q: What are your memories of the tournament fundraiser for the Purple Rose Theatre at Polo Fields Country Club, the Jeff Daniels Comedy Golf Jam:
Daniels: “All the greats came out, the media, local athletes. Bob Segar came out. I had Al Kaline teeing off on the 17th hole wearing a wig and a dress. We had the Gettysburg hole, a par four, when as you were setting up for your approach shot, the Civil War would break out. You’d have the Union Army coming out of the crick and the Confederates coming down – and some of these guys brought their cannon one year, and you could hear that every time, ooff. We had marching bands playing while you’re trying to tee off.
“I remember the grand prize went to the 6th place finisher. That way you couldn’t put a bunch of ringers in there. But it was also my tribute to Al Kaline. He was a hero.”
Daniels went on to explain his upcoming acting job, working on an independent film this month. It’s called Reykjavik. Daniels said it’s for the city (in Iceland) where Reagen and Gorbachev met in 1986 to discuss lowering the nuclear weapons build up as much as they could, an arms reduction. Jared Harris is going to play Gorbachev and J.K. Simons will play George Schultz…and Daniels will play Reagan.
“I have to come up with a Reagan (impersonation),” he quipped. “I’m getting there, I’m working on it. And so that’s going to be a challenge. We’re going to film in the house where they met, in the same room, and the whole movie is the weekend of that negotiation. I’m looking forward to it.”
